Catalyzing Success

Huck Institutes News | September 2024

September 30, 2024

September 2024. The Pulse turns five years old this month, and we’re marking the milestone with a major design refresh. We’re still including a roundup of exciting news about Huck research, facilities, faculty, and students, but now you can read more without clicking out of your email client. Or use the new “Listen Online” link above for an audio version. Plus, we added two new sections, one for current funding opportunities and another with external news links featuring Huck researchers. We’d love to hear what you think of these changes. To send us your feedback, simply reply to this email. Enjoy!

Slice of Life

Laura Cabrera, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics, is working to develop a patient-centered decision aid to help patients, caregivers and providers make decisions about neurotechnology treatments, including deep brain stimulation (DBS), which involve surgical procedures and potential risks.

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A relevant approach to decision making is a process called shared decision making, in which physicians and patients arrive at a treatment plan together after considering patients’ individual values, preferences and goals.

“This process is enhanced by patient decision aids, which are used to support patient participation in the decision-making process and increase the likelihood of reaching a treatment decision that is not only clinically sound, but also in line with a patient’s values and preferences,” said Cabrera.

Cabrera, who also is the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Neuroethics, a senior research associate in the Rock Ethics Institute, and an associate professor of philosophy, discussed her plans for the NIH-supported research in a Q&A with Penn State News.

Appointments & Accolades

Francisco Dini-Andreote, assistant professor of plant science in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State, studies soil and plant-associated microbiomes. His lab explores ways that microbial mediated mechanisms can be used to engineer sustainable solutions in agroecosystem management.

“During my term as an Early Career Chair in Microbial Community Ecology, I hope to foster interdisciplinary collaborations that enhance our research capacity and drive innovative solutions to major ecological challenges,” Dini-Andreote said. “These include broad aspects of sustainability, climate and ecosystem health, and agroecosystem resilience to environmental perturbations.”

Jasna Kovac, associate professor and Lester Earl and Veronica Casida Career Development Professor of Food Safety, has been selected to receive the 2025 Award for Early Career Environmental Research by the American Society for Microbiology. The award recognizes an early career investigator with distinguished research achievements who “has improved our understanding of microbes in the environment.”

According to Robert Roberts, professor and head of the Food Science Department, Kovac is most deserving of this recognition, adding that, to date, her lab’s research has been supported by nearly $7 million in grants and contracts from 11 funding agencies.

“Her accomplishments in microbiology are very impressive for a researcher early in her career,” he said. “She has already made significant contributions and is held in high esteem by her colleagues.”

Next-Gen Science

This past summer, Penn State PhD candidates Ashley Ohstrom and Jamie Spychalla were the first to experience a new six-week internship program launched by global biotech company QIAGEN in partnership with Huck’s One Health Microbiome Center. The two budding scientists reflect on their career-enhancing European adventure in this brief (2:48) video.

Diversified Research

Our first Leadership Symposium for the Inter-Institutional Program for Diversifying Research highlighted an impressive variety of exciting collaborations with minority-serving institutions from around the U.S.A.

On September 20, an interdisciplinary group of researchers from minority-serving institutions (MSI's) across the United States convened at Penn State's Hintz Family Alumni Center for the first Leadership Symposium of the Inter-Institutional Program for Diversifying Research (IPDR).

In partnership with colleagues from a broad range of departments at Penn State, the visiting scholars presented a series of five-minute "lightning talks" to share research progress and insights gleaned from seed-funded IPDR projects launched in Fall 2023.

Catalyzing Success

Edward O’Brien, Professor of Chemistry & Camelia Kantor, Huck’s Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives

Securing a prestigious $20 million National Synthesis Center grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) was a significant achievement for Penn State professor Edward O'Brien, Huck associate director Camelia Kantor, and a core interdisciplinary team.

Their success in establishing the National Synthesis Center for Emergence in the Molecular and Cellular Sciences (NCEMS) offers valuable lessons for future large-scale, multi-institutional proposals.

These large, complex research proposals require more than a strong research idea. In fact, less than one-third of the final proposal focused on science. The rest was about execution — how to bring the idea to life.

Camelia Kantor, Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences

The team’s journey to securing the NCEMS grant underscored the importance of collaboration, strategic planning, and resource management. Combining scientific excellence, logistical foresight, and diverse expertise was key to their success. For others wishing to pursue similar opportunities, the biggest takeaway is that it truly takes a village to bring a large, multi-institutional grant to fruition.

As a scientist focused primarily on research and teaching, I needed someone like Camelia who had expertise and connections with communities I did not normally work with. She helped bring those missing elements together.

Edward O’Brien, Professor of Chemistry at Penn State

Read the full story of Ed and Camelia’s proposal-building process, including lessons learned, here. To learn more about how Huck can help you with your own large grant proposals, explore our new Huck Catalysis Program.

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.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) seeks to build upon activities funded by CDC to support Global Health Security (GHS) through implementation of programs and activities that focus on protecting and improving health globally through partnerships with Ministries of Health and other governmental institutions. This NOFO will build on lessons learned from the global COVID outbreak and other significant public health events.

  • Due: January 3, 2025 (Estimated)

  • Will Post: November 1, 2024 (Estimated)

  • Funding: $75M over 10 awards

Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes are large-scale interdisciplinary research projects motivated by major challenges at the frontiers of quantum information science and technology (QIST). Institutes are expected to catalyze breakthroughs on important problems underpinning QIST, for example in the focus areas of quantum computation, quantum communication, quantum simulation, and/or quantum sensing.

  • Due: Required LOI due February 7, 2025 (preliminary March 7, 2025)

  • Posted: August 26, 2024

  • Funding: $2M-$7.5M/yr, up to 6yrs

With this program solicitation, the Foundation is taking the next step in implementing the National Quantum Virtual Laboratory (NQVL) concept as an overarching shared infrastructure designed to facilitate the translation from basic science and engineering to the resultant technology, while at the same time emphasizing and advancing its scientific and technical value.

Huck research attracts media attention from around the world. Here’s a few highlights from this month: