🧬 Biology Student Seminar this week!
Join us for two exciting talks:
🧠 Troy LaPolice & Nittany AI Group
Transforming university scheduling with MatchMyLab
🧬 Natalia Grube
Taenia evolution & what it reveals about carnivory in hominins
🗓️ 12:00–1:00 PM
📍 8 Müller Lab
#PSUBiology #StudentSeminar
🎉 Big congratulations to our 2025–26 Biology Graduate Student Award winners!
Recognized for outstanding academic achievement and promise across our department 👏
Special shoutout to all recipients of the Popp, Mohnkern, Troxell, and Hill awards—you make #PSUBiology proud! 🧬🌿
From lived experience to cutting-edge research—exploring MDMA, mood, and genetics.
Don’t miss it!
🚨 Biology Seminar this Tuesday!
Join us for a powerful talk by Christopher Medina-Kirchner (Harvard Medical School):
“Agony and Ecstasy: A Scientist’s Path from Incarceration to MDMA Research”
🗓️ April 14
⏰ 12–1 PM
📍 8 Müller Lab
Come join us today for our seminar
📖 Read / listen: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/o...
#Biology #Neuroscience #Consciousness #Ecology #AI #Science
🔬 Big biological question:
If consciousness isn’t uniquely human…
how should that change how we think about animals, ecosystems — or even AI?
With AI, social media, and attention-hacking technologies, our inner mental world is increasingly being shaped (and exploited).
Pollan calls for “consciousness hygiene” — actively protecting our ability to think, reflect, and experience the world.
🧠 Are we really as “special” as we think?
In a recent Ezra Klein interview, Michael Pollan explores a provocative idea:
👉 Human consciousness may not be as unique — or as protected — as we assume.
www.inquirer.com/education/ha...
Learn more about all things neurobiology (including all of our amazing science and how trainees can get involved in #research) at #PennState at lnkd.in/gVBgpx9E and be sure to follow The Penn State Neuroscience Institute on LinkedIn!
Check out The Philadelphia Inquirer highlighting Penn State University’s new neurobiology majors!
📊 Takeaway from yesterday’s poll:
Our department leans toward calling viruses alive… but not without debate.
We’ll keep running these pre-seminar polls each week —
follow along for results & more bio debates 👇
@PennStateBio
@psubiodept.bsky.social
🤔 So… are they alive?
It depends on how you define life.
Viruses sit right at the boundary — which is why this debate never really ends.
🚫 The case for “NO, viruses are not alive”
• No independent reproduction
• No metabolism
• No cellular structure
• Inert outside a host
By traditional definitions, they don’t meet key criteria for life.
🦠 The case for “YES, viruses are alive”
• They have genetic material (DNA or RNA)
• They evolve through natural selection
• They replicate (inside host cells)
• They’re deeply embedded in the tree of life
Some argue they’re a dependent form of life — still biological, just not independent.
🧬 Penn State Biology Pre-Seminar Poll
Before our last seminar, we asked a classic question:
Are viruses alive?
Here’s what our department said 👇
86% — Yes
14% — No
Join us tomorrow for our seminar:
Speaker: Jubao Duan, Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Chicago
Title: From GWAS to disease biology: neurogenomics in human iPSC models
Time: 12:00–1:00 PM
Location: 8 Müller Lab
This year-long professional development opportunity supports full-time Penn State faculty who want to implement Global Learning in an existing undergraduate course. Faculty do not need prior experience in global learning, just an interest in becoming global learning educators.
Congratulations, to Carly Sjogren who was just named a Global Learning Fellow.
The seminar will feature the BioGSA invited speaker, Junseok Park, Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine, who will give a talk entitled, "Decoding Structural Variant Pathogenicity: A Multimodal Deep Learning Model Approach Integrating AI and LLM-Guided Path”.
Despite the weather delay, we will still be having the Biology seminar today at the usual place and time (noon in Müller 008).
Thab
Thank you for your excellent work, Karen!
If you are a student: seek out research opportunities early and talk to people across fields.
Building diverse experiences is the best way to discover what excites you and grow your skills"
My favorite part is being part of the Becker Lab community and staying connected to research — plus getting to interact with such a diverse group of scientists.
I help with amphibian microbiome and landscape ecology projects 🐸
What excites me most is learning new sequencing and library prep skills while contributing to understanding how microbiomes vary across landscapes.
No two days are the same!
Usually: lab checks ✔️ ordering supplies ✔️ research support ✔️ admin tasks ✔️
It’s busy but keeps things interesting.
Working with different mentors across interdisciplinary projects gave me experience in both field and lab research — and taught me how to adapt, collaborate, and keep learning.
"My journey was non-linear and started with an REU internship after my freshman year at UCF, where I discovered research and got hooked.
Back at Penn State, I volunteered in the Becker and Miller Labs, which led to technician roles and eventually my current position.