Today’s top 5 from Purdue University

‘Purdue News Now’

Football and volleyball open up their seasons this weekend, plus the Purdue for Life Foundation names a new CEO. After another busy week on campus, Trevor Peters has you covered with all the headlines in the latest edition of “Purdue News Now.”

Plus, check out five good stories below you may have missed. 

Purdue, Panama enter agreement to support semiconductor academic collaboration and workforce development

Purdue University and the country of Panama have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance educational opportunities and workforce development, placing special emphasis on developing and strengthening the Central American nation’s semiconductor industry. The MOU also seeks to create training programs, research opportunities and academic exchanges in critical areas, including cybersecurity, supply chain management, emerging technologies and other fields relevant to the training and development of Panama’s workforce.

Media contact: Wes Mills, wemills@purdue.edu

Purdue researchers take inspiration from viruses to improve delivery of nucleic acid-based therapies to cancer cells

A researcher in Purdue University’s College of Science is developing a patent-pending platform technology that mimics the dual-layer structure of viruses to deliver nucleic acid (NA)-based therapies to targeted cancer cells. David Thompson leads a team developing the carrier system called LENN. He is a professor in the James Tarpo Jr. and Margaret Tarpo Department of Chemistry and on the faculty of the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research and the Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery. Thompson and his team, including postdoctoral researcher Aayush Aayush, used LENN to deliver NA-based therapies to bladder cancer cells. Their research has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Biomacromolecules.

Media contact: Steve Martin, sgmartin@prf.org

From lab to lunar and beyond: Check out some of the innovative space research from Purdue University

Space scientists are the boots on the ground of extraterrestrial exploration, and Purdue’s researchers rank among the most elite.This collection of impactful news from Purdue University’s space research labs represents the wonder of outer space’s limitless potential.

Media contact: Christy McCarter, mccarter@purdue.edu

Purdue’s entrepreneurial ecosystem undergoes record-breaking growth in 2024

Since the creation of Purdue Innovates in 2023, the comprehensive system has worked to streamline access and strengthen support to technology commercialization and startup support resources. The push to provide top-tier resources for entrepreneurial activities in Indiana is paying off. In fiscal year 2024 Purdue once again reached new entrepreneurial milestones, shattering records set just last year, according to a summary report presented to the university’s Board of Trustees by President Mung Chiang.

Media contact: Polly Barks, phbarks@prf.org

Purdue Memorial Union celebrates 100 years with a week of events

The Purdue Memorial Union is celebrating a century of tradition and community with a weeklong series of events, starting Sept. 9 and culminating in a grand finale on Sept. 17. This historic milestone will be commemorated with an array of activities, performances and special events open to the Purdue and Greater Lafayette communities.

Media contact: Trevor Peters, peter237@purdue.edu

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About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.