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Christina Grozinger to lead the Huck
Huck Institutes News | January 2025
January 2025. Since July of 2023, when Andrew Read was tapped to take on interim senior vice president of research duties at Penn State, the Huck Institutes has lacked a permanent new director. After one year under interim direction by Troy Ott, and then an additional six months under Patrick Drew, the Huck is delighted to announce the official appointment of Christina Grozinger as director. Please join us in welcoming Christina into her new role, which starts March 15. Learn more about Christina and her longtime deep engagement with the Huck Institutes in the story below.
★ Feature Story
New Leadership
Christina Grozinger, Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology and director of the Center for Pollinator Research, has been named the new director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State. Grozinger, who is globally recognized for her research on pollinator health and social insect behavior, will take over the leadership role on March 15. Grozinger is succeeding Patrick Drew, who has served as interim director since June 2024.
“Penn State uniquely fosters and promotes collaborative, transdisciplinary research, and this is due in large part to the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. I am thrilled to forward the Huck’s mission and help our innovative research community develop new collaborative initiatives to address fundamental scientific questions and broad societal challenges.”
Grozinger’s research portfolio has helped boost Penn State’s reputation for excellence over time as she has been awarded more than $20 million in external funding from international, national, state and foundation competitive funding programs, from cooperative agreements, industry partners and gifts. Additionally, she has published over 160 research articles with over 19,500 citations in the scientific literature, as well as one book and six book chapters.
As director, Grozinger will manage the strategic direction of the Huck Institutes, fostering an environment of scientific discovery and collaboration across diverse disciplines. Her appointment underscores her significant contributions to the field and her commitment to enhancing life sciences research.
Slice of Life
A new storage technique can keep protein-based drugs and vaccines stable without keeping them cold. The discovery, led by researchers at Penn State, could eliminate the need for refrigeration for hundreds of life-saving medicines like insulin, monoclonal antibodies and viral vaccines.
“Over 80% of biologic drugs and 90% of vaccines require temperature-controlled conditions. This approach could revolutionize their storage and distribution, making them more accessible and affordable for everyone,” said Scott Medina, study lead and William and Wendy Korb Early Career Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Penn State. “This would save billions of dollars currently spent on keeping these products cold throughout the supply chain and potentially enable the use of protein therapies in environments where constant refrigeration is not possible.”
The research was recently published in the journal Nature Communications. Through a series of experiments, the research team replaced the water-based solution commonly used in protein-based medications with a perfluorocarbon oil and tested five different proteins with a range of health-related functions such as antibodies and enzymes.
Several hundred bees in rural Pennsylvania and rural New York are sporting tiny QR codes on their backs. More than the latest in apiarian fashion, the little tags serve a scientific purpose: tracking when bees go in and out of their hives to better understand how long honey bees spend foraging for food outside of their hives. The work, a collaboration among entomologists and electrical engineers at Penn State, is the first step in solving a long-standing mystery of how far bees travel from their hives to collect pollen and nectar.
“This technology is opening up opportunities for biologists to study systems in ways that weren’t previously possible, especially in relation to organic beekeeping,” said Margarita López-Uribe, the Lorenzo L. Langstroth Early Career Professor, associate professor of entomology and author on the paper published in HardwareX, an open-access journal that details the exact equipment and methods researchers use in their work so that it might be replicated or built upon by others. “In field biology, we usually just look at things with our eyes, but the number of observations we can make as humans will never scale up to what a machine can do.”
Accolades & Awards
Illuminating key biological pathways that underlie neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is the goal of a new five-year, $17.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health to a national team of researchers. The research may inform future diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, according to team leader Yongsoo Kim, associate professor of neural and behavioral sciences at the Penn State College of Medicine.
“This is a huge opportunity to leverage our complementary expertise across Penn State’s campuses, continuing our ongoing collaboration,” said Santhosh Girirajan, T. Ming Chu Professor of Genomics and head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State. “This funded project will bring us closer together, which is especially good for neuroscience and the broader scientific community.”
Tao Zhou, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics and of biomedical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, earned a five-year, $660,000 U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for a project titled, "Soft Solutions for Spinal Cord Injury: Advancing with Injectable and Stretchable Hydrogel Electrodes.”
Zhou — who is a co-hire with the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and the Materials Research Institute as part of the Center for Neural Engineering — discussed his goals for the project in a Q&A with Penn State research communications.
Next-Gen Science
At the end of 2024, the Huck Institutes, in partnership with the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School at Penn State, hosted the Inaugural Huck Institutes T32 Summit. With more than 100 predoctoral fellows and mentors in attendance, the event showcased the power of collaboration, mentorship, and innovation in graduate training. Focusing on the theme of student resiliency, the day was filled with thought-provoking discussions, interactive workshops, and inspiring testimonials from students and faculty alike.
Student athletes at Penn State face intense pressure. In addition to the rigorous academic demands faced by all undergrads, these students are expected to perform at the highest level in their chosen sport. And time spent on the road travelling doesn’t make that any easier. Legendary coach Char Morett-Curtiss and the University’s Neuroscience Institute have teamed up to make a difference in the lives of young women in Penn State Athletics.
Huck Catalysis
Are you ready to take your research Institute or Center to the next level? Or are you looking at leading a Center proposal (internal or external)? In today’s competitive funding landscape, a clear and effective governance framework is key to success. Reserve your spot today and join a dynamic conversation about shaping the future of research institutes and centers.
This virtual workshop will take place February 11 from 12-1PM
The Huck Catalysis (Huck C) program coordinates university-wide interdisciplinary Life Sciences research development and collaboration activities with an emphasis on scholarship that crosses multiple academic units. Working with other units, Huck C provides support and programming to facilitate research partnerships, support strategic planning, identify funding opportunities, form interdisciplinary collaborations, and submit these proposals through SIRO.
The following are exceptionally innovative, recurring complex interdisciplinary research and education projects that require large-scale, long-term planning.
Research grants in Sloan's Matter-to-Life program seek to advance theoretical and experimental efforts aimed at unraveling the physical principles and mechanisms that distinguish living systems from inanimate matter, and that explore whether and how physical principles guide the complexification of matter towards life.
Letter of Intent Due: March 3, 2025
Award Range: $50,000 - $2,500,000
The goal of the New Initiative Research Grants program is to stimulate existing investigators with strong records of research accomplishments to establish collaborations that facilitate innovative interdisciplinary approaches towards a common research question and that require expertise beyond that of any single researcher. Investigators may be at different institutions in Pennsylvania or at the same institution in Pennsylvania, provided that different approaches are combined to address a new research initiative.
Letter of Intent Due: March 20, 2025
Total Funding: $300,000
This Award was created to support research projects with strong potential to develop pioneering discoveries for understanding the underlying biological mechanisms that govern normal human aging and its related physiological decline. Relevant proposals from any branch of biology are eligible. This funding program specifically seeks to include principal investigators who may not have previously worked in the area of aging, but whose research and expertise are applicable to understanding the biological mechanisms of normal aging and its relevance to age-associated health decline.
Letter of Intent Due: February 12, 2025
Total Funding: $500,000
Huck research attracts media attention from around the world. Here’s a few highlights from this month:
African plant could revolutionize tuberculosis treatment. [Brighter Side of News]
As little as 1-2 alcoholic drinks per day can lead to increases in the likelihood of several cancers. [The Conversation]
Pet dogs often overlooked as spreaders of Salmonella. [Gettysburg Times]
Regular bedtimes help kids regulate their emotions. [Psychology Today]
Better habitats for forest farming wild leeks could help future foraging demands. [The Bradford Era]
How drinking affects your brain’s ability to rest. [Town & Gown]
Molecular ‘switch’ may treat hair loss. [Tech and Science Post]