News
Apr 23, 2020
Gene-editing protocol for whitefly pest opens door to control
Whiteflies are among the most important agricultural pests in the world, yet they have been difficult to genetically manipulate and control, in part, because of their small size. An international team of researchers has overcome this roadblock by developing a CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing protocol that could lead to novel control methods for this devastating pest.
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Apr 23, 2020
Penn State cancer research center joins pandemic fight
The Penn State Center for Structural Oncology (CSO) is shifting some of its focus from fighting cancer to fighting COVID-19, with three projects. The CSO’s director, Deborah Kelly, believes that the same interdisciplinary research approach and collaborative spirit that drives the CSO’s cancer research can be applied to fighting pandemics.
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Apr 22, 2020
Iron deficiency in corals?
When iron is limited, the tiny algae that live within coral cells — which can provide the majority of a coral’s nutritional needs — change how they take in other trace metals, which could have cascading effects on vital biological functions.
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Apr 22, 2020
New decontamination protocol permits reuse of N95 respirators
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a shortage of personal protective equipment, including “N95” respirators, needed by frontline healthcare providers. A new protocol using aerosolized hydrogen peroxide to decontaminate N95 respirators could allow them to be safely reused in some hospital settings, where the disinfectant is already being used for other decontamination purposes.
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Apr 22, 2020
Researchers to study impact of COVID-19 and social distancing on families
Since social distancing has been implemented to slow the spread of COVID-19, many families are experiencing high levels of stress and conflict — arguments and conflict between parents, between parents and children, and between siblings.
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Apr 20, 2020
Penn State engineer aims to tackle COVID-19 from two angles
To combat COVID-19 in both the treatment and testing arenas, Yong Wang, Penn State professor of biomedical engineering, has received two grants from the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences COVID-19 multi-institute seed grant fund.
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Apr 14, 2020
Seed grants jump-start 47 interdisciplinary teams to conduct COVID-19 research
The multi-institute initiative is providing a total of $2.25 million to help researchers leverage external support toward the creation of solutions to the myriad health, social and economic problems caused by COVID-19.
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Apr 10, 2020
Bioinformatics Community Mourns Huck Alum James Taylor
Highly esteemed data scientist and advocate worked with a number of Huck Institutes researchers at the Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics.
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Apr 09, 2020
Bryant honored with Kettering Award for excellence in photosynthesis research
Donald A. Bryant, Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State, has been awarded the Charles F. Kettering Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists. The award was established by an endowment from the Kettering Foundation in 1962 and recognizes meritorious work in photosynthesis.
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Apr 06, 2020
Efforts to control livestock disease should focus on management style, not age
The risk of transmitting the virus PPRV, which produces a highly infectious and often fatal disease in sheep and goats, does not appear to vary significantly by an animal’s age, unlike its sibling virus measles, which is most prominent in children.
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