News & Announcements
A Splashy Welcome for Incoming Graduate Students
A Splashy Welcome for Incoming Graduate Students
Incoming students in the interdisciplinary graduate programs in the life sciences (MCB, NSB, OEB and PB) enjoyed a day of whitewater rafting on the Deerfield River. Several faculty, staff and current students joined the group. The rafting adventure was a great way to get to know one another and have a ton of fun at the same time.
Outreach Highlight: Sallie Smith Schneider's Summer Internship Program for High School Students
Outreach Highlight: Sallie Smith Schneider's Summer Internship Program for High School Students
Sallie Smith Schneider (Director, Biospecimen Resource and Molecular Analysis Facility, Baystate Medical Center) led a summer internship program for seven high school students from various programs such as the Baystate Springfield Educational Partnership and Girls Inc. The students participated in a 6 week summer internship in biomedical science focusing on the effect of environmental exposures to benzophenone 3 and propyl paraben on changes in breast epithelial cells. The high school students partnered with near peer mentors to address a question and work on their own project. The undergraduate and graduate student mentors came from assorted schools (Smith College, WPI, Colorado State University, Boston University, UMASS and Princeton), and were trained for a month to prepare them to help mentor and train the high school students. Dr. Kelly Gregory held lectures on the theory behind the experimental techniques and Dr. Smith Schneider led panel discussions on topics such as college application process/1st year of college, traditional and nontraditional scientific career options, and how to read and use scientific manuscripts to further research.
Chen, Colleagues Discover New Channel-Gating Mechanism
Chen, Colleagues Discover New Channel-Gating Mechanism
Computational biophysicists are not used to making discoveries, says Jianhan Chen at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, so when he and colleagues cracked the secret of how cells regulate Big Potassium (BK) channels, they thought it must be a computational artifact. But after many simulations and tests, they convinced themselves that they have identified the BK gating mechanism that had eluded science for many years. Their work is reported in the journal Nature Communications. Read more
IDGP Student and Faculty BBQ August 28, 2018
IDGP Student and Faculty BBQ August 28, 2018
Please join us for an all student and faculty BBQ mixer to welcome the incoming Fall 2018 cohort!
IDGP New Student Reception BBQ
Date: August 28, 2018
Time: 5:00pm start time
Location: Durfee Lawn (the lawn just north of French Hall, near the pink pillars and Durfee greenhouse)
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Please RSVP by August 20
Hope to see you there! The BBQ will include vegetarian food options and a cash bar will be available.
UMass Amherst Biophysicist, Cell Biologist Team Up to Explore Mechanics of Cell Division
UMass Amherst Biophysicist, Cell Biologist Team Up to Explore Mechanics of Cell Division
When humans construct a building, it’s intended to stand for many years, but in biological systems, cells routinely build structures and take them apart, re-using the pieces in different places and dissolving them again in an intricate process that scientists are just beginning to explore at a deep physical level, say cell biologist Patricia Wadsworth and biophysicist Jennifer Ross at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Ross and Wadsworth recently received a four-year, $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate the biological and physical underpinnings of cell division from this perspective. Read more
UMass Amherst’s Yubing Sun Part of Research Team Exploring How Mechanical Signals Help Develop the Human Nervous System
UMass Amherst’s Yubing Sun Part of Research Team Exploring How Mechanical Signals Help Develop the Human Nervous System
A team of researchers including Yubing Sun of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has demonstrated that human pluripotent stem cells can be guided to become the precursors of the central nervous system and that mechanical signals play a key role in this process. Sun and his colleagues outlined their findings in a recent paper published in the journal Nature Materials. Read more
Computational Biophysicist Receives Grant to Study ‘Floppy’ Proteins
Computational Biophysicist Receives Grant to Study ‘Floppy’ Proteins
Computational biophysicist Jianhan Chen recently received a four-year, $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study a newly recognized class of proteins with highly flexible three-dimensional structural properties, in particular some extra-floppy ones called intrinsically disordered proteins. Read more
Safia Omer PhD dissertation defense
Safia Omer PhD dissertation defense
Monday, August 27, 2018
10:30 AM
Life Sciences Laboratory, Room N210
Dissertation Title: “Studies of dynein anchoring protein in budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae”
Advisors: Wei-lih Lee and Patricia Wadsworth
'Ray of Hope' breast cancer registry reaches milestone
'Ray of Hope' breast cancer registry reaches milestone
UMass Amherst Veterinary and Animal Sciences Professor and Rays of Hope Center for Breast Cancer Research (link is external) co-director, D. Joseph Jerry, has reached a milestone. The project—building a tissue sample registry of patients linked to breast cancer diagnosis and treatment—now includes some 1,000 participants. Read more
Chelsea Marcho PhD dissertation defense
Chelsea Marcho PhD dissertation defense
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
2:30 PM
Integrated Sciences Building, Room 221
Dissertation Title: Characterizing dynamic epigenetic phenomena during early mammalian development
Advisor: Jesse Mager