News | The Huck Institutes (en-US)

Jan 07, 2026

Medical, doctoral student earns NIH fellowship

Victoria Nudell, a doctoral and medical student in the Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Biosciences Graduate Program and the Medical Scientist Training Program at the College of Medicine, has received a highly competitive fellowship from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

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Jan 05, 2026

Moving neural implant research closer to commercialization

A startup based on research conducted at Penn State is developing a soft, minimally invasive neural implant intended to reduce inflammation and improve communication with the brain for individuals with drug-resistant epilepsy or living with paralysis.

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Jan 05, 2026

Back pain linked to worse sleep years later in men over 65, according to study

About half of older men suffer from sleep problems, back pain or both, according to Soomi Lee, associate professor of human development and family studies at Penn State. Lee recently led a study to investigate whether one precedes the other and found that back problems can increase sleep problems years later in men over 65 years old.

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Dec 22, 2025

Dipanjan Pan named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors

Professor Dipanjan Pan, the Dorothy Foehr Huck & J. Lloyd Chair Professor in Nanomedicine at Penn State has been named a 2025 fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Being named an NAI Fellow is the highest professional distinction currently awarded to inventors in the nation.

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Study first author Michelle Zavala-Paez, doctoral candidate in Penn State’s Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, selects the main shoot of a hybrid Populus tree to collect the first fully expanded leaf for physiological measurements. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Dec 18, 2025

Genetic teamwork may be the secret to climate-resilient plants, researchers find

A plant’s success may depend on how well the three sets of genetic instructions it carries in its cells cooperate, according to a new study led by plant scientists at Penn State.

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Dec 17, 2025

$1.74M grant to fund Eastern Fire Network

Large wildfires are becoming more frequent in the eastern U.S., signaling accelerated risks to the built environment, human health and national security. To help address these threats, a researcher at Penn State is leading a new network — the Eastern Fire Network (EFNet) — that was awarded a $1.74 million, three-year grant.

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A new high-throughput study that used publicly available data shows that E. coli proteins containing a structure called a non-covalent lasso entanglement (NCLE) are more likely to misfold and, if they are essential to the bacteria’s survival, more likely to be repaired by chaperones — the cell’s quality control machinery. Image shows that misfolded (outlined in red) essential proteins (bottom) containing NCLEs are more likely to be repaired (outlined in green) by cellular chaperones (dark grey) than non-essential proteins (top). Credit: Ian Sitarik/O’Brien Lab / Penn State. Creative Commons

Dec 16, 2025

For certain life-essential proteins in E. coli, repair is more likely

Proteins need to fold into specific shapes to perform their functions in cells, but they occasionally misfold, which can prevent them from properly functioning and even lead to disease. A new study by researchers at Penn State found that, in E. coli, proteins containing a widespread structural 3D pattern, known as a motif, are more likely to misfold than proteins that lack it.

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Researchers at Penn State found that two proteins thought to operate in harmony to regulate the genetic information-carrying messenger molecules called mRNA actually work in opposition: one protein destabilizes mRNA while the other steadies it. Credit: wildpixel/Getty Images. All Rights Reserved.

Dec 16, 2025

Opposing forces in cells could hold clues to treating disease

A newly revealed molecular tug-of-war may have implications for better understanding how a multitude of diseases and disorders — including cancers, neurodegenerative diseases and immune disorders — originate, as well as how to potentially treat them, according to researchers at Penn State.

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Dec 15, 2025

The stories that defined 2025 for the One Health Microbiome Center at Penn State

The One Health Microbiome Center (OHMC) at Penn State in the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences is one of the largest and most active organizations in the field and provides centralized resources to Penn State, the nation and the world.

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Researchers used advanced imaging techniques, conducted at Penn State’s publicly funded Core Facilities, to study the architecture of the Turnip Crinkle Virus (TCV). This plant pathogen has an icosahedral — or 20-sided — shell that is the same structure as many human pathogens, such as enteroviruses, noroviruses, poliovirus, hepatitis B virus and the virus that causes chickenpox. Pictured are Varun Venkatakrishnan, left, a Penn State doctoral student, and Ganesh Anand, associate professor of chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State. Credit: Michelle Bixby / Penn State. Creative Commons

Dec 12, 2025

Unique bond identified as key to viral infection speed

Viruses are typically described as tiny, perfectly geometric shells that pack genetic material with mathematical precision, but new research led by scientists at Penn State revealed a deliberate imbalance in their shape that helps them infect their hosts.

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