June 8, 2021
The motivation to make a philanthropic gift to an organization is different for every donor, but in many cases, it boils down to the desire to make a positive impact. This rings true for Dr. Fred Metzger Jr. and his wife, Megan, who have made the first major gift to support the new Animal, Veterinary, and Biomedical Sciences Building. The seven-figure gift to name the general purpose classroom in the facility will provide funding for the departments of animal science and veterinary and biomedical sciences to support the state-of-the-art facility expected to open in the fall of 2021.
June 4, 2021
Nüket Acar, coordinator of undergraduate advising for veterinary and biomedical sciences, has received the 2021 Excellence in Academic Advising Award from Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
June 3, 2021
Researcher from VBS receives the College of Ag Sciences RAIN grant for the second consecutive year! Congrats to Dr. Sougat Misra, Asst. Research Professor, for his successful application for the Research Applications for Innovation (RAIN) grant from the College of Agricultural Sciences. The grant is awarded to one innovative research project annually with the intent to commercialize technologies developed by the researchers in the College. It is one of the most prestigious College-level funding opportunities for pursuing innovative and translational research. Dr. Misra will use the funding to pursue his studies to assess the efficacies of two novel combinatorial therapeutic regimens for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. His work involves pharmacological targeting of an amino acid transporter, essential for the proliferation and survival of leukemic cells, to enhance the delivery of small molecule candidate therapeutics. Preclinical studies involving highly relevant murine models of leukemia will ascertain the effectiveness of the proposed therapeutic interventions in this aggressive form of blood cancer. Congrats to him! Dr. Anthony Schmitt won the award last year in the Department.
May 25, 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Acar for being nominated and selected as the recipient of the 2021 Excellence in Academic Advising Award. This award is presented by the College of Ag’s Alumni Society annually to recognize excellence in advising undergraduate students in the College of Agricultural Sciences. Dr. Acar’s nomination was supported by current students, alumni, and Penn State faculty, and is a true tribute to the important impact she has on the lives of our students.
May 18, 2021
Three students in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences have been recognized for their commitment to diversity as winners of the second annual Undergraduate Diversity Essay Contest, which is sponsored by the college’s Diversity Coordinating Council.
May 10, 2021
Anthony Schmitt, professor of virology, is the 2021 recipient of the Research Innovators Award, given by the Office for Research and Graduate Education and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
May 3, 2021
From almost the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, the world waited anxiously for a vaccine, the safeguard that would enable a return to normal life. Researchers around the world eagerly picked up the challenge. Penn State scientists have been active among them from the earliest days. Drawing on the knowledge, skills, and technologies they have developed over their careers, and taking advantage of infrastructure built for the purpose, teams of experts around the university moved rapidly to face the crisis.
April 30, 2021
On June 8, 2021, ADL hosted the annual Practitioners’ Meeting, a one-day continuing education event primarily for veterinarians who utilized the diagnostics services offered by ADL. This year, like last, the event was held virtually due to the ongoing pandemic, but the event will hopefully be held in-person in 2022. 52 veterinarians were in attendance. The focus of this year’s meeting was on diagnosing causes of abortion and reproductive losses in ruminants, and also included updates from the PA Department of Agriculture. Other topics included a timely update from Dr. Suresh Kuchipudi on emerging coronaviruses in livestock, an update on the application of whole-genome sequencing technology in routine diagnostic submissions, and an overview of clostridial diseases in domestic animals. Dr. Fred Williams III, a veterinary pathologist from the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine with an interest in reproductive pathology, was the keynote speaker. He gave an engaging and well-illustrated overview of the common causes of abortion in ruminants. The meeting was well-received by attendees, with 97% of attendees rating it above average to excellent. A common response from attendees was the desire for face-to-face interactions, which will hopefully happen next year. In the words of one participant, “Overall, I think this was one of the best ADL practitioners' meeting ever. It was focused, high quality, useful information.” For additional information, please contact Erin Luley at ehl5008@psu.edu
April 30, 2021
We are thrilled to announce that our own Dr. Adrian Barragan has been chosen as the recipient of Dr. William Henson Diversity Achievement Award by the Diversity Coordinating Council within the College of @agsciences. This award recognizes Dr. Barragan for his distinctive and outstanding teaching, research, extension or creative work that advances diversity in the College. Dr. Barragan gives back to our students and our community in a number of ways, from translating all papers, reports, workshops and webinars from English to Spanish, to being an advisor to the @pennstateprevetclub. Congratulations Dr. Barragan!
April 27, 2021
Tyler Fuller, IID Major, was recently accepted into the Primary Care Scholars' Program at the PSU Hershey College of Medicine. Although the program is virtual this year, He will be virtually shadowing various physicians, growing his understanding of diverse practice environments, & gaining insight into the life of a medical student. The 3 week program also includes guidance on applying to medical school as well as information about residency training from the admissions committee for Hershey. Overall, the point of the program is to grow leaders that will understand & promote the importance of Primary Care in addition to serving in underserved areas. Congratulations Tyler!
April 21, 2021
“COVID-19 Vaccines: Asked & Answered” video series- Troy Sutton, assistant professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences, explains that because variants continue to emerge, we anticipate that SARS-CoV-2 will continue to circulate in humans for several years, causing regular outbreaks.
April 21, 2021
Tony Schmitt, VBS Professor of Molecular Virology, has been named the 2021 recipient of Penn State’s Research Innovator Award. The award recognizes faculty and staff in the College of Agricultural Sciences who have commercialized technologies generated through Penn State research. Tony’s research group is developing a technology that allows delivery of therapeutic proteins into cells. The technology is based on the discovery that for certain viruses, the particle formation process can be manipulated in a way that allows proteins of interest to package into the particles in the same way that virus genomes would normally be packaged. The end result is virus-like particles that are loaded with the desired protein, and capable of depositing the cargo into the cytoplasms of target cells. Applications include CRISPR-based genome editing, which is severely constrained at present by the lack of safe and effective delivery strategies.
April 2, 2021
The impending vaccination of heretofore unvaccinated Pennsylvania food and agricultural workers against COVID-19 can go a long way toward ensuring business continuity and stable supply chains in one of Pennsylvania's top economic sectors, according to experts in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
March 30, 2021
Faculty in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences continue to develop novel courses designed to increase cultural awareness and knowledge of food systems here in central Pennsylvania and throughout the world. Two of these courses will be offered in the fall 2021 semester.
March 24, 2021
Through short content lectures and interaction with embedded online tools, students and other users can develop a better understanding of how pandemics are studied, modeled, prepared for and mitigated.
March 17, 2021
A team led by researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has developed a diagnostic test that can identify virulent forms of the swine bacterial pathogen Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus — often referred to as "Strep zoo" — which can cause severe illness and death in pigs, other animals and rarely people.
March 8, 2021
Brooke Migdal, a senior majoring in veterinary and biomedical sciences, plans to attend veterinary school and work with marine animals.
March 8, 2021
Faculty in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences are using immersive technology to enhance learning.
March 1, 2021
Researchers found that that the optimal timeframe for donating convalescent plasma for use in COVID-19 immunotherapy is within 60 days of the onset of symptoms.
February 9, 2021
The Society of Toxicology has named Tombros Early Career Professor Andrew Patterson of Penn State as the recipient of its 2021 Achievement Award, recognizing his significant contributions to the field of toxicology within 15 years of obtaining the highest earned degree.
February 9, 2021
CLIA certification is underway to support University Park campus testing, ability to send results directly to individuals
February 2, 2021
Congratulations to two of our Pathobiology Graduate students, Juhi Arora and Fenghua Qian, for being chosen to receive the Grier Scholarship for 2020! In order to be considered for the award, students must be a Ph. D. candidate in Pathobiology, and must have passed the qualifying examination for the Ph.D. no later than July 1 and the award does come with a monetary prize. Congrats to you both again!
January 20, 2021
Hailey Reiss, an immunology and infectious disease major from Quakertown. A graduate of Quakertown Community High School, Reiss was the summer scholar at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, where she performed statistical analysis and reviewed and presented data. Hailey is advised by VBS faculty member Dr. Pamela Hankey-Giblin.
January 6, 2021
Kristin Passero (Hall Lab PhD student) and Dr. Molly Hall organized the session "What about the environment? Leveraging multi-omic datasets to characterize the environment’s role in human health" for the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) with environmental health research experts Dr. Chirag Patel (Harvard Medical School), Dr. Arjun Manrai (Harvard Medical School), Dr. Kimberly McAllister (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences), and Dr. Shefali Setia Verma (University of Pennsylvania). Kristin and organizers published an introduction to the session and gave an introductory talk as well: https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9789811232701_0029. Hall Lab MD/PhD student, Morris Aguilar, also gave a talk on his metabolomics research which is published here: https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9789811232701_0030
December 18, 2020
A world leader in the field of metabolomics, Andrew D. Patterson, PhD, has been awarded the 2021 SOT Achievement Award for his leadership, vision, service, and dedication to the field of toxicology. Dr. Patterson has established himself as a prestigious investigator at the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania, where he holds multiple positions, including Professor of molecular toxicology and Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. He is the Tombros Early Career Professor and Huck Endowed Chair, as well as the Penn State Cancer Institute Metabolomics Shared Resource Director. Dr. Patterson received his PhD in genetics in 2006 through a graduate partnership program between George Washington University and the National Cancer Institute. He then undertook a postdoctoral fellowship in the Laboratory of Metabolism at the National Cancer Institute, during which he focused on the development and refinement of metabolomics approaches to determine how toxicants and other environmental exposures influence the metabolome. At a time when this field was just emerging, Dr. Patterson’s work furthered metabolomics as an invaluable tool for understanding drug metabolism and promoted the development and identification of translational biomarkers for ionizing radiation exposure, toxicity, diabetes, and cancer. Dr. Patterson’s research illustrates the connection between toxicology and medicine in ways that have clear implications for the development of therapeutics and for public health measures to address risk factors associated with nongenetic metabolic diseases and their associated chronic disease manifestations. His laboratory has become a world leader in metabolomics research and is a major resource for numerous laboratories within and outside the United States that are trying to incorporate this approach into their science. Dr. Patterson’s current research interests are focused on understanding the host-metabolite-microbiota axis—specifically how the manipulation of gut bacteria affects host metabolites and how these host/bacterial co-metabolites interact with host nuclear receptors and modulate toxicity and cancer. In addition to his research, Dr. Patterson’s service in the field of toxicology is exemplified by his long list of advisees and mentees. Dr. Patterson has mentored nearly 50 young researchers, from undergraduate students to junior faculty. Many postdoctoral fellows under his mentorship have progressed to academic and industry careers, and he has trained graduate students who have earned PhDs with an emphasis on metabolomics and toxicology. Since Dr. Patterson joined SOT in 2012, his laboratory has presented research findings every year at the SOT Annual Meeting, including poster presentations and a Platform Session. He also has served on the Editorial Board of Toxicological Sciences (ToxSci) and currently serves as an Associate Editor of ToxSci and Environmental Health Perspectives. In addition to participation within SOT, Dr. Patterson also is a member of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry and the American Chemical Society and is an Editorial Board member of several high-impact journals. Congratulations Andrew!
December 15, 2020
Congratulations to McKayla Nicol who won first place for the 2020 CIDD Best Student Paper, McKayla is a Pathobiology Grad student in Dr. Girish Kirimanjeswara's lab in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Nicol, M.J., Brubaker, T.R., Honish, B.J., et al. Antibacterial effects of low-temperature plasma generated by atmospheric-pressure plasma jet are mediated by reactive oxygen species. Sci Rep 10, 3066 (2020).
December 7, 2020
Penn State senior A’dryanna Jenkins earned a 2021 Marshall Scholarship, allowing her to pursue graduate studies in pathology at Cambridge University for one year. Jenkins, of Easton, Pennsylvania, is an immunology and infectious diseases major in the College of Agricultural Sciences and a Schreyer Scholar. After graduating, she plans to pursue a combined MD/PhD degree and work as a physician-scientist in academia and government. She will use the Marshall Scholarship to join the Roychoudhuri Laboratory in Cambridge University’s Department of Pathology.
November 23, 2020
Funding from the National Institutes of Health will enable Margherita Cantorna, distinguished professor of molecular immunology and nutrition in the College of Agricultural Sciences, to study whether vitamin D supplementation could help people ward off or reduce symptoms caused by COVID-19.
October 29, 2020
October 27, 2020
Dr. Troy Sutton, Assistant Professor, has received funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID/NIH) to determine how long immunity to COVID-19 lasts after an initial infection. Specifically, Dr. Sutton’s research group will use animal models to determine how antibody levels change over time, and the relationship between decreasing levels of antibodies and susceptibility to re-infection. Using a similar approach, he will also explore how long vaccine induced immunity is protective, and working with Emory University, the findings in animal models will be compared to antibody responses in humans.
