Iron deficiency anemia is a huge global problem. It affects 2 billion people, particularly in low-income countries where many rely on grain as a staple. Yet so far, plants have managed to outwit our efforts to convince them to carry more iron. University of Massachusetts Amherst molecular biologist Elsbeth Walker has received a three-year $870,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to discover exactly how plants regulate the amount of iron they take up through their roots. Read More

Sarah L. Perry, chemical engineering, and Maria M. Santore, polymer science and engineering, are building a new class of environmentally friendly polymer materials (or polymer-based fluids) called complex coacervates that will contain solid nanoparticles. Supported by a three-year, $357,694 grant from the National Science Foundation, they also will uncover and chronicle the design rules for these materials creating a road map for further research in the field. Read more

One of the outstanding questions in neurodevelopment research has been identifying how connections in the brain change to improve neural function during childhood and adolescence. Now, results from a study in rats just reported by neuroscientists Heather Richardson, Geng-Lin Li and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggest that as animals transition into adolescence, specific physical changes to axons speed up neural transmission, which may lead to higher cognitive abilities. Read more

Richard Pilsner, associate professor of environmental health sciences in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, has received a five-year, $2.7 million National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences award to support his further research on fathers’ preconception exposure to phthalates and potential effects on reproductive health through methylation of sperm DNA. This award for work in humans complements his five-year, $2.3 million award received last year from the same agency. Read more