Featured Stories
Q&A: Tips to protect against ticks
May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month, and Pennsylvania consistently ranks as one of the top states in the nation for reported cases of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. However, there are ways to protect people, pets and livestock against ticks and the pathogens they carry, according to Erika Machtinger, associate professor of entomology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
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Dipanjan Pan named Huck director for innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems
Penn State’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences has named Dipanjan Pan, Dorothy Foehr Huck & J. Lloyd Huck Chair Professor in Nanomedicine and professor of materials science and engineering and of nuclear engineering, to serve as the Huck’s first director for innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems.
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Plant genes influence bacterial evolution in legume-bacteria partnership
In a recently published study, Penn State researchers described the complex relationship between plant host genes and rhizobial genes, and how plant genes strongly influence which rhizobial strains plants chose from a diverse mixture.
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News
May 22, 2026
Q&A: Ebola outbreak and public health emergency
This week, the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency due to an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The outbreak, which has already killed more than 100 people, took longer to identify as the virus species is different than the species typically responsible for Ebola outbreaks. There is no vaccine for this species of Ebolavirus, but researchers are testing the effectiveness of a vaccine for a different species of the virus, according to Ebola expert Nita Bharti, associate professor of biology and Lloyd Huck Early Career Professor at Penn State.
May 19, 2026
New Beescape updates include county-level plant recommendations for pollinators
Penn State’s Beescape tool is gaining a new feature that allows users to download county-specific lists of pollinator-attractive plants, offering a more localized approach to improving pollinator habitats across Pennsylvania. The feature, developed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers at Penn State’s Center for Pollinator Research in the College of Agricultural Sciences, allows users to generate lists of plants tailored to ecological conditions at the county level.
May 18, 2026
$3M NIH grant to support research on memory and exaggerated fear responses
Experiencing a traumatic event sometimes produces long-lasting biological changes that can lead to an exaggerated fear response to future stressful events, such as what occurs in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder. To better understand the regulatory mechanisms in the brain that produce this biological memory and exaggerated fear response, a team of researchers from Penn State and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has been awarded a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health.
News
May 22, 2026
Q&A: Ebola outbreak and public health emergency
This week, the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency due to an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The outbreak, which has already killed more than 100 people, took longer to identify as the virus species is different than the species typically responsible for Ebola outbreaks. There is no vaccine for this species of Ebolavirus, but researchers are testing the effectiveness of a vaccine for a different species of the virus, according to Ebola expert Nita Bharti, associate professor of biology and Lloyd Huck Early Career Professor at Penn State.
May 19, 2026
New Beescape updates include county-level plant recommendations for pollinators
Penn State’s Beescape tool is gaining a new feature that allows users to download county-specific lists of pollinator-attractive plants, offering a more localized approach to improving pollinator habitats across Pennsylvania. The feature, developed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers at Penn State’s Center for Pollinator Research in the College of Agricultural Sciences, allows users to generate lists of plants tailored to ecological conditions at the county level.
May 18, 2026
$3M NIH grant to support research on memory and exaggerated fear responses
Experiencing a traumatic event sometimes produces long-lasting biological changes that can lead to an exaggerated fear response to future stressful events, such as what occurs in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder. To better understand the regulatory mechanisms in the brain that produce this biological memory and exaggerated fear response, a team of researchers from Penn State and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has been awarded a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health.
May 18, 2026
Worker bumble bees help determine which baby bee will become queen
Every bumble bee colony has a queen, but a new study led by researchers at Penn State suggests the process of determining which baby bee reigns supreme may be less monarchal than the royal title suggests. The study explored why some bumble bee larvae become workers and others become queens, despite coming from the same eggs.
Events
Wednesday May
27
Quantum Machine Learning and Life Sciences Workshop
Center for Mathematical Biology
Wednesday May
27
Genome-Wide Comparative Analyses of Herpesvirus Populations
Genomics Core Facility
Thursday May
28
Center for Root and Rhizosphere Biology Mini-Symposium
Center for Root and Rhizosphere Biology , Plant Institute
Events
Wednesday May
27
Quantum Machine Learning and Life Sciences Workshop
Center for Mathematical Biology
Wednesday May
27
Genome-Wide Comparative Analyses of Herpesvirus Populations
Genomics Core Facility
Thursday May
28
Center for Root and Rhizosphere Biology Mini-Symposium
Center for Root and Rhizosphere Biology , Plant Institute
Thursday May
28