Colleen Mangold
Postdoctoral Researcher
Huck Affiliations
News Articles Featuring Colleen Mangold
Mar 29, 2021
Exploring variations in herpes virus symptoms
Why do some people with cold sores around their lips experience painful lesions, while others have no symptoms at all, yet still spread the virus? A new study conducted at Penn State finds that these differences could be due to variations in the way certain strains of herpes simplex (HSV-1) — the virus that causes cold sores, as well as genital herpes — activate gene expression in neurons.
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Jul 23, 2019
'Zombie' ants are dying in a disturbing way, and scientists are puzzled
The zombies on 'The Walking Dead' may be fictional, but "zombie ants" are very real. A fungus is turning carpenter ants into unwitting hosts until they die and decompose, according to a new study from Pennsylvania State University researchers.
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Jul 23, 2019
Zombie Ants Are Controlled by a 'Master Puppeteer' Parasite, But We Still Don't Know How
A mind-controlling parasite turns ants into zombies, forcing them to climb to the tops of shrubs, bite down and die. Now, a new study finds that the fungus acts like a puppeteer, somehow "pulling" the ants' mouth muscles.
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Jul 23, 2019
"Zombie Ant Fungus" Takes Control of Insects' Bodies Before Devouring Them From Inside
Scientists have uncovered intriguing new details about a bizarre "zombie fungus" that manipulates the behavior of the carpenter ants it infects—with gruesome results.
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Jul 22, 2019
Deadly fungus creates 'zombie ants' and hijacks their jaws to cause suicide
If you thought fictional zombies walking around on film were scary, the condition that turns creatures into mindless eating machines actually exists in nature. In ants.
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Jul 17, 2019
Now We Know How The Zombie Ant Gets Its Bite
How do we begin to comprehend the astonishing complexity of a fungus that invades an ant’s body, grows throughout its tissues, and orders the host to climb up a tree and bite onto a twig, killing it and exploding out the back of its head to rain down spores on more ants below?
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Jul 17, 2019
Zombifying fungus bypasses the brain to make ants its puppets, study finds
SEM images showed strange bead-like particles that could also play a role.
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Jul 17, 2019
A deadly fungus gives ‘zombie’ ants a case of lockjaw
Closeups of infected ants’ jaw muscles may reveal clues to how the fungi take over
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Jul 17, 2019
How a Deadly Invading Fungus Forces "Zombie" Ants Into a Final Death Grip
Zombification may be the stuff of science fiction for humans, but for insects, getting zombified is a very real threat. Scientists and Planet Earth afficionados may recall the cases of ants found clinging to high leaves and twigs with a strange, nefarious fungus sprouting from their corpses.
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