News
Oct 24, 2022
Podcast examines possible evolutionary drivers of human hair variation
In recent years, biological anthropologists have initiated a deeper scientific inquiry into the evolutionary processes that have shaped the wide variety of skin pigmentation displayed by people from diverse places across the globe. However, very little attention has been given to the similarly broad varieties of human scalp hair.
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Oct 21, 2022
Prescribed fire could reduce tick populations and pathogen transmission
Prescribed fire — a tool increasingly used by forest managers and landowners to combat invasive species, improve wildlife habitat and restore ecosystem health — also could play a role in reducing the abundance of ticks and the transmission of disease pathogens they carry, according to a team of scientists.
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Oct 20, 2022
Penn State alum presents her NASA space garden research to current students
Scientist Gioia Massa conducts space plant biology research at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, growing edible vegetables on the International Space Station. Massa, who earned her Ph.D. at Penn State, presented a talk about her extraordinary career.
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Oct 19, 2022
Cancer Institute receives breast cancer grant from Mary Kay Ash Foundation
Penn State College of Medicine is among the Mary Kay Ash Foundation’s 2022 cancer research grant recipients. The foundation announced $1 million in grants awarded to 10 individuals who are conducting groundbreaking research in cancers that primarily affect women.
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Oct 19, 2022
Eating fire ants could prepare lizards for future fire ant attack
Eating fire ants might prepare a lizard’s immune system to be stung by the ants, according to a new study by researchers at Penn State. The study comprehensively assessed how the immune system responds to lizards eating and being stung by these ants and might help researchers understand how other native species respond and adapt to the invasive insects.
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Oct 18, 2022
Newly engineered protein could be used to develop adaptation-proof COVID vaccine
A vaccine design approach that could protect against new variants of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — but also potentially protects against other coronaviruses is one step closer to reality as a result of research at Penn State College of Medicine.
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Oct 18, 2022
Researchers 3D bioprint breast cancer tumors, treat them in groundbreaking study
Researchers at Penn State have successfully 3D bioprinted breast cancer tumors and treated them in a breakthrough study to better understand the disease that is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide.
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Oct 17, 2022
Penn State, State College data on SARS-CoV2 in wastewater now available online
Data from Penn State researchers’ SARS-CoV2 wastewater monitoring program in Centre County is now available online on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) website.
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Oct 06, 2022
28 new faculty members join the College of Engineering
Twenty-eight new faculty members have joined the Penn State College of Engineering since the end of the spring semester. The 17 tenured or tenure-line members and 11 non-tenure-line members represent 11 units and departments and include one dean and two new department heads.
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Oct 06, 2022
Research team gets CDC grant to strengthen infectious disease surveillance
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has funded a $750,000 grant for research by a team of Penn State scientists to strengthen infectious disease surveillance, detection and preparedness by developing an accessible bioinformatics platform and tools for utilization by the CDC’s Laboratory Response Network.
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