News & Announcements
Babbitt Receives a Three-year $330,000 NSF Grant for Research
Babbitt Receives a Three-year $330,000 NSF Grant for Research
Courtney Babbitt, Biology, has received a three-year, $330,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to use new state-of-the-art computational, evolutionary and experimental methods to examine how natural selection has shaped gene expression in the human brain. Babbitt and colleagues will test the hypothesis that there are functional links between adaptation in the genome and changes in neural types that occurred during human evolution. Read more
Research Identifies Plant Cell Wall Sensing Mechanism
Research Identifies Plant Cell Wall Sensing Mechanism
An international collaboration of plant researchers this week reports yet another newly discovered role for the versatile receptor kinase, FERONIA, in the model plant Arabidopsis. The researchers say it acts as a sensor in the plant cell wall to help maintain its integrity and protect the plant from environmental assaults. Read more
That's Life [Science] grad student blog publishes their 150th post
That's Life [Science] grad student blog publishes their 150th post
Graduate students in the UMass IDGP programs created That's Life [Science], an interdisciplinary outreach blog, in 2016. Since then, the group has published 150 articles covering interesting topics across life science fields for the general public. "A Day in the Life of a Bird Nerd" is their 150th article!
Black to Discuss Animal African Trypanosomiasis to Open Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series
Black to Discuss Animal African Trypanosomiasis to Open Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series
Samuel Black, professor of veterinary and animal sciences, will speak on “Approaching the Endgame: Seeking Sustainable Control of Animal African Trypanosomiasis” on Monday, Feb. 5 at 4 p.m. in the Great Hall of Old Chapel. Black will be presented with the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest recognition bestowed to faculty by the campus, at the conclusion of the lecture. Read more
Elsbeth Walker Named Public Engagement Faculty Fellow
Elsbeth Walker Named Public Engagement Faculty Fellow
Eight faculty members from across seven departments and six colleges have been named Public Engagement Faculty Fellows by the Public Engagement Project (PEP). They will draw on their substantial research record to impact policy, the work of practitioners and public debates. The fellows, who will receive a stipend and technical training in communicating with non-academic audiences, will also travel to Beacon Hill to share their research with lawmakers. Read more
Gierasch Wins American Chemical Society Award
Gierasch Wins American Chemical Society Award
Lila M. Gierasch, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, has been named the 2018 recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry. She was honored for “her seminal contributions to peptide structure and function, peptide models for protein folding and function, and roles of peptide and protein aggregation in disease,” according to her award citation. Read more
Sela’s Paper Among Most-Viewed of 2017
Sela’s Paper Among Most-Viewed of 2017
A paper by nutritional microbiologist David Sela, food science, and colleagues at Harvard and Arizona State University was recently named one of the top five most viewed papers of 2017 in the open access journal, PeerJ, in four topic areas: food science and technology, gastroenterology and hepatology, nutrition, and pediatrics. The article, “Handling stress may confound murine gut microbiota studies,” had 1,553 views over the year. Read more
Tyler’s class on dragon genetics featured on blog
Tyler’s class on dragon genetics featured on blog
The Concord Consortium ran a piece about a course taught by Ludmila Tyler, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, in which students used Geniverse software to study dragon genetics and develop new genes, mutant alleles, and phenotypes based on investigations of scientific literature. Concord Consortium
Joe Torres PhD Dissertation Defense
Joe Torres PhD Dissertation Defense
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
4:00 PM - PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE
Integrated Sciences Building, Room 221
Dissertation Title: "Canonical Notch Signaling Positively Regulates MicroRNA-155 Transcription in an NFkB-Dependent Manner"
Advisor: Lisa Minter
Emrah Ilker Ozay PhD Dissertation Defense
Emrah Ilker Ozay PhD Dissertation Defense
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
1:00 PM
Integrated Sciences Building, Room 221
Dissertation Title: "Defining and manipulating the function of Protein Kinase C-theta in Graft-vs-Host responses"
Advisors: Lisa Minter and Gregory Tew