News
Jun 27, 2024
ICDS associate director's work driven by unanswered fundamental questions in AI
The work of Vasant Honavar, the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in biomedical data sciences and artificial intelligence (AI) and a professor of data science in the College of Information Sciences and Technology professor of data science, is driven by answering fundamental questions using machine learning.
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Jun 26, 2024
Researchers compile Cacao Gene Atlas to help plant breeders boost chocolate tree
A team led by researchers at Penn State has created a genetic information resource to help plant breeders develop resistant strains of cacao that can be grown sustainably in its native Amazon and elsewhere, such as the tropical latitudes of Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
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Jun 26, 2024
Self-assembling, highly conductive sensors could improve wearable devices
To advance soft robotics, skin-integrated electronics and biomedical devices, researchers at Penn State have developed a 3D-printed material that is soft and stretchable — traits needed for matching the properties of tissues and organs — and that self-assembles.
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Jun 25, 2024
Got prunes? Prunes may preserve bone density and strength in older women
Dairy isn’t the only food that’s good for bone health. Prunes may also protect bone structure and strength in postmenopausal women, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. The findings, published in Osteoporosis International, suggest that daily prune consumption slows the progression of age-related bone loss and reduces the risk of fracture.
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Jun 21, 2024
Physiological Adaptations to Stress graduate training program awarded $2.75M
Penn State’s Physiological Adaptations to Stress graduate training program received renewed funding of $2.75 million from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
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Jun 20, 2024
New tomato, potato family tree shows that fruit color and size evolved together
Fruits of Solanum plants, a group in the nightshade family, are incredibly diverse, ranging from sizable red tomatoes and purple eggplants to the poisonous green berries on potato plants. A new and improved family tree of this group, produced by an international team led by researchers at Penn State, helps explain the striking diversity of fruit colors and sizes and how they might have evolved.
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Jun 17, 2024
Unexpected diversity of light-sensing proteins goes beyond vision in frogs
Frogs have maintained a surprising diversity of light-sensing proteins over evolutionary time, according to a new study led by a Penn State researcher. Light-sensing proteins, called opsins, enable vision in sighted animals, and are responsible for many more biological functions like regulating circadian rhythms. The researchers explored the evolution of nonvisual opsins in frogs, finding that most modern species examined in this study retained a shocking number of these proteins.
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Jun 13, 2024
Bisanz named Huck Early Career Chair in Host-Microbiome Interactions
Jordan Bisanz, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Eberly College of Science at Penn State, has been awarded a Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Early Career Chair in Host-Microbiome Interactions.
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Jun 11, 2024
Penn State Altoona to host ‘Biomachine’ by Huck SciArt Team
For the next year, the Hite Lobby in the Misciagna Family Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State Altoona will be home to the sculpture “Biomachine” by Daryl Bradford and Talley Fisher of Huck SciArts Initiative.
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Jun 06, 2024
Guiltinan named director of the Penn State Plant Institute
Mark Guiltinan, professor of plant molecular biology and J. Franklin Styer Professor of Horticultural Botany, has been named director of the Penn State Plant Institute.
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