News & Announcements
NIH Supports Microbiologists Morita, Siegrist in Further Anti-bacterial Research
NIH Supports Microbiologists Morita, Siegrist in Further Anti-bacterial Research
Microbiologists Yasu Morita and Sloan Siegrist recently were awarded a two-year, $422,500 Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant from the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to investigate a new strategy for interfering with a well-proven antibiotic target, cell wall synthesis. If successful, their work may suggest alternative ways to kill or control the pathogen that causes tuberculosis.
They will work in a model mycobacterial system that is a “cousin” to the one that causes tuberculosis, combining the complementary expertise of the two labs and using techniques that have not been previously combined, Morita explains. Mycobacteria cause not only TB but leprosy. Doctoral students Alam García-Heredia and Ian Sparks, with postdoctoral fellow Takehiro Kado, are also part of the team. Read more
Studying the Role of Inhibition and Neuro-estrogens in Bird Song
Studying the Role of Inhibition and Neuro-estrogens in Bird Song
Neurobiologist Luke Remage-Healey, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences, recently received a five-year, $1.7 million grant, the renewal of a prior period of funding from the National Institutes of Health. He and colleagues plan to investigate fundamental mechanisms of how the brain learns and processes complex stimuli like birdsong. As anyone learning a new foreign language can report, sensory stimuli like speech and song are near-continuous streams of complex sound and can be difficult to understand. But “with practice, listeners can learn to parse the meaning in streams of Mandarin or Stravinsky, just like birds learn to process high-velocity songs,” he explains. The new grant will allow Remage-Healey and colleagues to investigate in detail the timing and precision of neurons that encode streams of complex vocal signals.Read more
Four Students Win Awards at Toxicology Conference
Four Students Win Awards at Toxicology Conference
Four students working in the lab of Alicia Timme-Laragy, associate professor of environmental health sciences, claimed top prizes at the Society of Toxicology’s annual meeting held in Baltimore, Md., this past spring.
Archit Rastogi, a doctoral student in the department of molecular and cellular biology, placed second in the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Section’s graduate student poster competition and third for the Molecular and Systems Biology Specialty Section Graduate Research Award. He attended the conference in part through a student travel award and the Sheldon D. Murphy Mechanisms Specialty Section Student Travel Endowment Award. Read more
Tyler Marcinko PhD dissertation defense
Tyler Marcinko PhD dissertation defense
Thursday, May 30, 2019
1:00 PM
Life Sciences Laboratory, Room N410
Dissertation Title: "Characterization of β-2 Microglobulin pre-amyloid oligomers and their role in amyloid inhibition"
Advisor: Richard Vachet
UMass Amherst Distinguished Professor Lila Gierasch Elected to National Academy of Sciences; Celebration Held on May 28
UMass Amherst Distinguished Professor Lila Gierasch Elected to National Academy of Sciences; Celebration Held on May 28
A celebration will be held in honor of Lila M. Gierasch’s induction into the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on Tuesday, May 28 from 2 to 4 p.m. in Old Chapel. Read more
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences announced earlier the election of 100 new members to the academy in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. They include Lila M. Gierasch, distinguished professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The NAS is charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. Scientists are elected by their peers to membership in the NAS for outstanding contributions to research. Gierasch’s research focus for decades has been protein folding, that is, how amino acid sequence determines the three-dimensional structure of a protein. She is particularly focused on how proteins fold in the cellular environment and the role of molecular chaperones in ensuring high fidelity in the folding process. Read more
A New, Social Science-based Approach to Improve Weed Management
A New, Social Science-based Approach to Improve Weed Management
In the early days of New England, many towns and villages set aside a fenced field, the common, where residents could safely pasture their sheep, cows or other livestock for the day. But the arrangement came with a dilemma that became known as “the tragedy of the commons” – it turned out to be unsustainable. Individuals acting in their own self-interest eventually threatened the resource by over-use, depleting and spoiling it for everyone. This concept is at the heart of a new approach to the global problem of weeds – whether ecological or agricultural invaders – recently advocated by an unusual international collaboration of plant scientists and social scientists that included evolutionary biologist Ana Caicedo, biology. In their recent publication in “Nature Plants,” they propose that a new, nuanced approach can be helpful in protecting shared-resource plant systems around the world. Read more
Food Scientist in the Spotlight
Food Scientist in the Spotlight
Food scientist Matthew Moore is featured in the “Beyond the Bio” section of the current issue of “Food Protection Trends,” the publication of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP). In the magazine profile, Moore, an assistant professor who joined the university in 2018, discusses his lifelong journey that led him to a position at the one of the top academic food science programs in the world. Read more
Congratulations to the 2019 CNS Outstanding Achievement Award winners!
Congratulations to the 2019 CNS Outstanding Achievement Award winners!
MCB award winners include:
Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion
Ana Torres Ocampo, PhD Student of Molecular and Cell Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Outstanding Research
Richard Vachet, Professor, Chemistry
Luke Remage-Healey, Associate Professor, Psychological and Brian Sciences (Early-career Award)
Congratulations to all of the 2019 CNS Outstanding Achievement Award winners!
Trisha Zintel receives NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement (DDRI) Grant
Trisha Zintel receives NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement (DDRI) Grant
Congratulations to Trisha Zintel, recipient of a 2019 NSF Biological Anthropology Program Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant! Trisha works in the Babbitt group, and received the DDRI grant for her work on "Investigating astrocyte-mediated adaptive changes in primate brain metabolism." The Biological Anthropology Program supports multifaceted research to advance scientific knowledge of human biology and ecology, including understanding of our evolutionary history and mechanisms that have shaped human and nonhuman primate biological diversity. These awards are intended to enhance and improve the conduct of dissertation research by doctoral students who are pursuing research in biological anthropology that enhances basic scientific knowledge. Read more
S. ‘Thai’ Thayumanavan, professor of chemistry, is awarded the Mahoney Life Sciences Prize for his paper: “Shrink-wrapped Proteins as Next Generation Biologics.”
S. ‘Thai’ Thayumanavan, professor of chemistry, is awarded the Mahoney Life Sciences Prize for his paper: “Shrink-wrapped Proteins as Next Generation Biologics.”
Thayumanavan’s work addresses major challenges in delivering protein-based drugs and devices across a cell membrane while keeping the protein stable and avoiding unwanted immune system responses. The award-winning study presents a “robust and sustainable” strategy which overcomes those challenges: the protein itself serves as a template, and polymers self-assemble to form a sheath around it. The technology has exciting potential applications in therapeutics. Congratulations to Thayumanavan, and to the eight additional featured scientists—showcased on the Mahoney Life Sciences Prize site—creating an additional bridge to further application of their groundbreaking work. Thayumanavan will receive the prize and present his research findings as part of a Celebration of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UMass Amherst April 29. Read more