News
Jun 25, 2026
Huck staffers recognized at annual awards
The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences recognized several staff members for outstanding work over the past year at the annual “Pulse of the Huck” meeting.
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Jun 24, 2026
Q&A with Penn State neurobiology student Evelyn Mastaglio
Evelyn Mastaglio is a second-year student pursuing a degree in neurobiology, one of the newest majors in the Penn State Eberly College of Science. Drawn to the field for its unique blend of biology, psychology and anatomy, Mastaglio made the switch from the college’s biology major as soon as the neurobiology major became available. With research experience spanning evolutionary biology and the genetics of Alzheimer's disease, she is already carving out a path toward a career in medicine and neuroscience.
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Jun 22, 2026
Penn State Master Gardeners support pollinator research across Pennsylvania
A Penn State Extension Master Gardener might spend one day helping a home gardener select pollinator-friendly plants and another collecting data that could help researchers better predict which flowers attract bees and butterflies. During National Pollinator Week, June 22-28, Master Gardeners across Pennsylvania continue to support several pollinator-focused research, education and conservation efforts.
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Jun 17, 2026
Huck administrator earns international recognition
Research Professor Camelia Kantor, director of strategic initiatives at Penn State’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, has been selected as a 2026 Future of the Field honoree by the Society of Research Administrators International.
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Jun 16, 2026
Q&A: What does science say about plants as medicine?
Plants have always played an integral role in traditional medicine and healing practices, according to Kent Vrana, Elliot S. Vesell Professor of Pharmacology at Penn State College of Medicine, and they continue to shape health and medicine today. In this Q&A, Vrana discussed the relationship between plant science and human health and the growing role of plant-derived solutions in medicine.
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Jun 16, 2026
Q&A: Can plants help reverse climate change?
Heatwaves are arriving sooner and becoming hotter, with the United Kingdom recording May 25 as its hottest day in May since tracking began more than a century ago, only for the record to break again the next day. While humans can turn to artificial means of cooling, such as air conditioning or swimming pools, plants are left to cope with heat and frequently co-occurring droughts on their own. Sarah M. Assmann, Waller Professor of Biology at Penn State, is working to better understand how plants respond to environmental signals — and is applying that understanding to develop crops more resilient to environmental stress.
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Jun 16, 2026
Microbiome pioneer Jacques Ravel named 2026 Microbiome Medal Laureate
The One Health Microbiome Center has selected Jacques Ravel, professor of microbiology and immunology and director of the Center for Advanced Microbiome Research and Innovation, Institute for Genome Sciences, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, as the second laureate of the Microbiome Medal. This annual, competitive award honors a scholar or group of scholars who nobly extend excellence, acumen and ingenuity in research, mentorship and service to the global field of microbiome science.
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Jun 10, 2026
Huck names Leadership Fellows for 2026-27
The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences has selected three faculty members to serve as Huck Leadership Fellows for the 2026-27 academic year. The competitive program prepares faculty for future leadership roles while engaging them in strategic initiatives that advance interdisciplinary research at Penn State.
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Jun 09, 2026
$2M NIH grant to support study of how the brain and body acclimate to stress
Experiencing stress leads to a suite of rapid physiological changes, and over time, the body can acclimate to the stress, eventually changing an individual’s baseline brain state. To improve understanding of the changes in the brain and body during acclimation to stress using a mouse model, the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences has awarded a five-year, $2 million grant to Grayson Sipe, assistant professor of biology in the Penn State Eberly College of Science.
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Jun 09, 2026
Artificial eyes could bring human-like sight to self-driving cars, robots
Although self-driving cars and sophisticated robots use advanced cameras, computer algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) to picture their surroundings, these artificial eyes struggle to remain reliable in mixed lighting conditions. A team of researchers, co-led by an engineer from Penn State, has proposed a solution that mimics the mechanics of the human eye to adapt from bright to dark light in seconds.
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