News & Announcements
UMass Amherst Institute of Applied Life Sciences Announces Winners of the Inaugural Manning/IALS Prize
UMass Amherst Institute of Applied Life Sciences Announces Winners of the Inaugural Manning/IALS Prize
Peter Reinhart, director of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Institute of Applied Life Sciences (IALS), has announced the research teams that have been named recipients of the first Manning/IALS Seed Grants. The awards will support next steps in their research such as proof-of-concept studies and business development, fundamental research into new products, technologies and services to benefit human health and wellbeing. Faculty researchers will receive seed funding of $100,000 each over three years, along with business training and mentorship from IALS, the College of Natural Sciences, the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship and the Isenberg School of Management, among others.
Earlier this year, alumnus Paul Manning and his wife, Diane, committed $1 million through their family foundation to establish the Manning Innovation Program. It provides three years of support in advancing a robust and sustainable pipeline of applied and translational research projects from UMass Amherst. The seed grants were awarded after a competitive process that narrowed 35 teams to six winners, including the following MCB faculty:
- Jeanne Hardy, chemistry, “Development of Potent Zika Virus Protease Inhibitors”
- S. “Thai” Thayumanavan, chemistry, and Steve Faraci, “Pre-Clinical efficacy evaluation of liver-targeted, thyromimetic-encapsulated IntelliGels for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)”
- Neil St. John Forbes, chemical engineering, “Bacterial delivery of therapeutic peptides to treat advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
- Shelly Peyton, chemical engineering, “GelTech” to enable tissue-specific drug discovery and help eliminate potential false-positive hits from screening
Constance Angelou wins American Association of Immunologists Young Investigator Award
Constance Angelou wins American Association of Immunologists Young Investigator Award
Constance Angelou received the American Association of Immunologists' (AAI) Young Investigator Award for her poster presentation at the 2019 New England Immunology Conference in Woods Hole, MA. Constance conducts research in the Pobezinsky Lab, and her poster was titled, "Autoreactive Th17 cell differentiation is negatively regulated by let-7 microRNAs in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis."
HHMI Gilliam Fellowship to Support Doctoral Student-Faculty Mentor Pair
HHMI Gilliam Fellowship to Support Doctoral Student-Faculty Mentor Pair
Molecular and cellular biology doctoral student Samar Mahmoud was recently named a Gilliam Mentor Training Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), an award that will support her early scientific career in the lab of Peter Chien, biochemistry and molecular biology. She will receive funds for a stipend and education costs, while Chien will embark on a year of mentor training from HHMI. The goal is to improve faculty mentoring skills, support new scientific leaders and foster diversity and inclusion in science, the institute points out.
Mahmoud and Chien are one of 44 advisor student pairs awarded the coveted fellowship in 2019. Read more
UMass Amherst Researchers Awarded $3.1 Million NIH Grant for Breast Cancer Risk Study
UMass Amherst Researchers Awarded $3.1 Million NIH Grant for Breast Cancer Risk Study
A University of Massachusetts Amherst interdisciplinary research team has received a $3.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to measure the impact of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables on the breast cancer risk of lactating women. In the unprecedented research, called the New Moms Wellness Study, environmental toxicologist Kathleen Arcaro, nutritionist Lindiwe Sibeko and cancer epidemiologist Susan Sturgeon will use breastmilk to assess whether eating at least eight to 10 daily servings of deeply pigmented and nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables reduces biomarkers of breast cancer risk. Read more
How Microtubules Branch in New Directions, a First Look in Animals
How Microtubules Branch in New Directions, a First Look in Animals
Cell biologist Thomas Maresca and senior research fellow Vikash Verma at the University of Massachusetts Amherst say they have, for the first time, directly observed and recorded in animal cells a pathway called branching microtubule nucleation, a mechanism in cell division that had been imaged in cellular extracts and plant cells but not directly observed in animal cells. Details appear this month in the Journal of Cell Biology.
In this work supported by NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the researchers set out to explore specific mechanics of cell division, what Verma calls “the rules of faithful and complete division,” in fruit fly cells. In particular, they want to understand how structures called microtubules help to define where the cell splits in half during the division process. Read more
Food Scientists Create Innovative Model for NASA To Predict Vitamin Levels in Spaceflight Food
Food Scientists Create Innovative Model for NASA To Predict Vitamin Levels in Spaceflight Food
A team of food scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has developed a groundbreaking, user-friendly mathematical model for NASA to help ensure that astronauts’ food remains rich in nutrients during extended missions in space. The new research, published in the journal Food Chemistry by senior author Hang Xiao, gives NASA a time-saving shortcut to predict the degradation of vitamins in spaceflight food over time and more accurately and efficiently schedule resupplying trips. The investigation was funded with a $982,685 grant from NASA. Read more
MCB Retreat at Stratton
MCB Retreat at Stratton
Ira Male PhD dissertation defense
Ira Male PhD dissertation defense
Monday, September 23, 2019
10:00 AM
French Hall, Room 209
Dissertation Title: “Hedgehog Signaling Regulates Neurogenesis in the Zebrafish Hypothalamus"
Advisor: Rolf Karlstrom
Timme-Laragy, Colleagues Host Visit from State Representative to Discuss PFAS Contamination
Timme-Laragy, Colleagues Host Visit from State Representative to Discuss PFAS Contamination
Alicia Timme-Laragy, associate professor and developmental toxicologist with expertise in how early life exposures to pollutants affect health, recently hosted a visit by state Rep. John Velis of Westfield to discuss her ongoing research to identify and understand the health risks of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) found in contaminated drinking water. The meeting was arranged by Westfield Residents Advocating For Themselves (WRAFT), a community group dedicated to addressing PFAS contamination in Westfield, with whom Timme-Laragy has been working as part of her Public Engagement Project (PEP). As a culmination of this project, Timme-Laragy also visited the State House on Beacon Hill to meet with Rep. Kate Hogan and legislative aides for Sen. Julian Cyr and Rep. Smitty Pignatelli. Read more
Five Professors Awarded Distinction by Board of Trustees
Five Professors Awarded Distinction by Board of Trustees
Five professors were awarded distinction by the Board of Trustees at its Friday, Aug. 2 meeting. MCB faculty Barbara A. Osborne (Veterinary and Animal Science) and Sankaran ‘Thai’ Thayumanavan (Chemistry) were appointed as Distinguished Professors. The title Distinguished Professor is conferred on select, highly accomplished faculty who have already achieved the rank of professor and who meet a demanding set of qualifications.
Professor Osborne’s accolades for her research contributions are extensive. Most notably, she has been a pioneer in her research field, where she conducted innovative studies that used cutting- edge technologies and that were published in premier journals, including Nature, Nature Immunology, Blood, and the Journal of Immunology. On campus, she has contributed her extensive expertise in foundational and translational research to the establishment of the Institute of Applied Life Sciences. The impact of her research is reflected in her extensive publication record, which encompasses more than 125 articles that have been cited over 15,000 times, giving her a stellar h-index of 51. She has supported her research through NIH grants continuously since joining UMass, attracting over $39M in external funding. Professor Osborne has taught extensively at the undergraduate and graduate level, and led the creation of undergraduate courses in biotechnology. At the graduate level, she has directed the interdisciplinary graduate program in Molecular and Cellular Biology. She has also trained and mentored a large number of Ph.D., M.S., and Honors students and postdoctoral fellows in her lab.
Prof. Thayumanavan’s research program is characterized by prolific excellence. Since promotion to Professor in 2008, Prof. Thayumanavan has published over 120 articles, with more than 30 in the top tier of chemistry journals as lead author. In the same time period, he has garnered more than $26 million in external support. He has given more than 100 presentations on his research since 2008, including keynote addresses and prestigious lectures such as the Nanqiang lecture in Xiamen University (2014), and he was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011.” He currently has grants that run several years into the future: an NIH grant with a 1.0 percentile score (amazing), an NSF grant as a CCI, an ARO MURI grant, and several other federal funded applications that are still running (an NIH R01, industrial sponsors) and many previous grants. This alone shows the longevity of his program and argues strongly for continued productivity. Read more