News
Mar 26, 2026
Francesca Chiaromonte named a Fellow of the AAAS
Francesca Chiaromonte, Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Statistics for the Life Sciences at Penn State, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Mar 24, 2026
Low-cost sensor system could warn farmers of salt stress in plants
Soil salinity is a critical concern in agriculture when excessive soluble salts restrict a plant’s water uptake, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, hindering crop growth and reducing yields on roughly 30% of U.S. irrigated land. Caused by irrigation, poor drainage or saltwater intrusion, soil salinity impacts soil structure, reduces fertility and causes economic losses. To help growers identify and mitigate salt stress, in a proof-of-concept study, a team led by Penn State researchers built a low-cost sensor system that detects signals released by plants in trouble.
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Mar 20, 2026
Penn State Global announces 2025-26 awards recipients
Peter Hudson, Willaman Professor of Biology in the Eberly College of Science and former director of the Huck Institues of the Life Sciences selected for the Lifetime Achievement Award. Hudson and annual recipients will be honored at an awards ceremony in Robb Hall in the Hintz Alumni Center on March 26.
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Mar 18, 2026
Penn State engineers on multiple major projects funded by federal health agency
Penn State has been named as a sub-awardee on four teams selected for funding by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). Three of the projects are funded through the ARPA-H Building Resilient Environments for Air and Total Health (BREATHE) program and aim to enhance indoor air quality, and one of the projects is funded through the ARPA-H Personalized Regenerative Immunocompetent Nanotechnology Tissue (PRINT) program and aims to bioprint organs on demand.
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Mar 16, 2026
Four Penn State researchers receive iDEA-TECH awards from Sanofi
Four Penn State researchers and their colleagues have been awarded Innovations in Data Exploration, Analytics & Technology (iDEA-TECH) Awards from Sanofi, a global R&D-driven, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered biopharma company. The awards provide $150,000 in research funding to advance cutting-edge discoveries through novel AI and digital tools and new technologies.
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Mar 13, 2026
Targeting two flu proteins sharply reduces airborne spread
A long-running debate in vaccine design revolves around whether a vaccine should be optimized to prevent the virus from replicating inside an infected host or prevent the virus from transmitting to others. New research led by Penn State scientists suggests there may not have to be a tradeoff.
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Mar 13, 2026
'Brain awareness week' informs public and spotlights neuroscience expertise
From March 16 to 22, the neuroscience research community at Penn State is joining "Brain Awareness Week," a global public health movement started by the Dana Foundation in 1996 to bring attention to science and public health issues concerning the human brain.
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Mar 10, 2026
Q&A: What factors influence likelihood and severity of Ebola outbreaks?
Since its first documentation in 1976 there have been over three dozen outbreaks of Ebola virus disease in Central and West Africa, the largest of which resulted in the death of over 11,000 people between 2013 and 2016. A severe and often fatal disease, Ebola causes fever, weakness and bleeding, and spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is infected. Researchers at Penn State recently published two papers that looked at factors that contribute to how these outbreaks begin and how severe they become.
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Mar 10, 2026
Q&A: Gassing up bioengineered materials for wound healing
Biomaterials are specifically engineered to support tissue, nerve and muscle regeneration across the body, yet physicians and researchers have limited control over the size and connectivity of the internal pores that transfer oxygen and vital nutrients to where they are most needed. To solve this problem and better support tissue regeneration, a team at Penn State has designed a new class of tunable biomaterials.
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Mar 05, 2026
Sending a 'We Are!' to these Penn Staters — March 5
As part of our regular “We Are!” feature, we recognize 18 Penn Staters who have gone above and beyond what’s asked of them in their work at the University. This week, on behalf of the entire Penn State community, we’d like to say thank you to...
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