News & Announcements
MCB and Graduate Biological Science Programs at UMass Receive High Rankings
MCB and Graduate Biological Science Programs at UMass Receive High Rankings
According to the most recent US News & World Report, MCB and Graduate Biological Science Programs at UMass Amherst are ranked #2 among public universities in New England. In addition, the UMass Graduate Biological Science Programs are ranked #26 in public schools, and #54 overall based on a survey of academics at peer institutions. Read more
Food Scientists Rank High in Updated Global Database
Food Scientists Rank High in Updated Global Database
Six of the 12 UMass Amherst food science faculty members are ranked within the top 1.3% of their field in a publicly available, standardized global database, recently updated through 2020, which ranks scientists according to their citations and h-index. Hosted by Elsevier BV and developed by scientists at Elsevier, Scitech Strategies and Stanford using Digital Commons Data, the index measures the impact of a researcher’s scholarship production and performance.
The list includes the top 100,000 researchers in the world, representing the top 2% of all researchers. The six UMass food scientists included are: David Julian McClements, Eric Decker, Yeonhwa Park, and MCB faculty Lili He, Hang Xiao, and David Sela. Hang Xiao and three additional current faculty are also included in the career list, which covers citations throughout history. Read more
Madeline Tompach receives award for best grad student oral presentation at the Northeast Society of Toxicology meeting
Madeline Tompach receives award for best grad student oral presentation at the Northeast Society of Toxicology meeting
MCB student Madeline Tompach won the Graduate Student Oral Presentation Award at the Northeast Chapter of the Society of Toxicology 2021 Fall Virtual Meeting for her talk entitled, "EXAMINING PFOS-INDUCED DYSLIPIDEMIA AND USE OF α-LIPOIC ACID (ALA) AS A POTENTIAL MITIGATION STRATEGY IN ZEBRAFISH (DANIO RERIO)."
Abstract excerpt: Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) is an environmental toxicant found ubiquitously in the aquatic environment and drinking water supply. PFOS exposure has been associated with dyslipidemia in human and animal studies, including zebrafish (Danio rerio) where previous work demonstrates that preconception and developmental PFOS exposure alters uptake of the lipid-rich yolk sac (YS) over the first five days of development. This study investigates how PFOS affects YS uptake of palmitate, the most abundant fatty acid in humans and zebrafish, in the developing embryo and explores the use of a dietary supplement, α-lipoic acid (ALA), in preconception exposures to combat PFOS-induced dyslipidemia seen in the offspring.
Congratulations, Madeline! Read more
MCB Alumna Ana Torres-Ocampo Featured in UMass Magazine
MCB Alumna Ana Torres-Ocampo Featured in UMass Magazine
In a recent UMass Magazine article, "The One Constant: Change," MCB Alumna (PhD '21) Ana Torres-Ocampo describes what initially drew her to research and explains how she feels about it now. She became interested in research and began volunteering when a friend mentioned lab. Ana completed her PhD in 2021, and her enthusiasm for research has not changed. “I get giddy like a little kid. It’s amazing to me that I get to do this.” Read more
Jessica McGory, Kevin Guay and Jun-Goo Kwak win proposal competition
Jessica McGory, Kevin Guay and Jun-Goo Kwak win proposal competition
Congratulations to Jun-Goo Kwak, Jessica McGory and Kevin Guay on receiving the internal awards for the MCB proposal competition! MCB students write an NSF-style fellowship proposal as they enter their second year as part of our program curriculum. The proposals are reviewed internally, and prizes are awarded based on the strongest applications. The prizes for the 2020 submissions went to:
Kevin Guay, "Investigating the Mechanism of Lysosomal Sequestration by Toxoplasma Gondii During Chronic Toxoplasmosis"
Jun-Goo Kwak, "Decoupling the Roles of Matrix Proteins and Niche Cells on the Regulation of Bone Marrow Hematopoiesis"
Jessica McGory, "Elucidating the Role of Aurora B in the Mitotic DNA Damage Response Pathway and its Involvement in Tumorigenesis"
Congratulations to the award winners!
Ning-Hsuan Tseng PhD Dissertation Defense
Ning-Hsuan Tseng PhD Dissertation Defense
Thursday, December 16, 2021
10:00 AM
ILC N101/Zoom: Please contact mcb@mcb.umass.edu to be included on the email list for this announcement
Dissertation Title: Extracellular matrix stiffness as a cue to shape phenotypic evolution of triple negative breast cancer
Advisor: Shelly Peyton
Kirk MacKinnon PhD Dissertation Defense
Kirk MacKinnon PhD Dissertation Defense
Thursday, December 16, 2021
11:00 AM
Zoom: Please contact mcb@mcb.umass.edu to be included on the email list for this announcement
Dissertation Title: Genetic and environmental regulation of plant growth
Advisor: Sam Hazen
Tracking Cancer with Chemical Tools
Tracking Cancer with Chemical Tools
Michelle Farkas, professor of chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was recently awarded a $1.25 million grant by the National Institutes of Health to develop next-generation tools to track and manipulate circadian rhythms in cells, helping researchers to understand the role that such rhythms play in disease.
The circadian clock is an internal system that helps the body respond to the time of day. Circadian clocks help regulate a number of different processes in the human body, including sleep-wake cycles, body temperature, blood pressure, food intake, hormone release, cardiac function, immune responses and metabolism. On the cellular level, circadian clocks also play a role in cellular proliferation, metabolism and DNA damage repair. Though researchers have known for years that changes to the circadian clock’s daily rhythms can lead to all sorts of diseases, including various cancers, we don’t yet know exactly what is going wrong at the cellular level when the circadian clock is altered.
“We can generate static snapshots of a cell,” says Farkas, “but they don’t tell you all that much. We need tools to help us track the dynamic changes occurring inside a cell over time.” Only then can researchers begin to see what happens when the circadian clock is altered. Read more
Eleven UMass Amherst Researchers Recognized as Among Most Highly Cited in the World
Eleven UMass Amherst Researchers Recognized as Among Most Highly Cited in the World
Eleven researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have been recognized for being among the world’s most highly cited researchers in 2021.
The analysis by Philadelphia-based Clarivate Analytics, owner of the Web of Science, serves as the basis for regular listings of researchers whose citation records put them in the top one percent by citations for their field and year.
The highly anticipated annual list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. The methodology that determines the “who’s who” of influential researchers draws on the data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information.
The eleven recognized in 2021 for their work at UMass include two MCB scientists: Professor and Clydesdale Scholar of Food Science Hang Xiao, and Goessman Professor of Chemistry Vincent Rotello. Read more
Institute for Applied Life Sciences Announces Six Winners of the Third Annual Manning/IALS Innovation Awards
Institute for Applied Life Sciences Announces Six Winners of the Third Annual Manning/IALS Innovation Awards
The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Institute for Applied Life Sciences (IALS) has announced that six campus research teams have been named recipients of the 3rd annual Manning/IALS Innovation Awards. These translational grants are designed to advance applied research and development efforts from UMass-based faculty research groups in the sciences and engineering through the development of spin-out/startup companies and the out-licensing of UMass intellectual property.
Alumnus Paul Manning and his wife, Diane, committed $1 million through their family foundation to establish the Manning Innovation Program. The gift provides three years of support in advancing a robust and sustainable commercialization pipeline of applied and translational research projects from UMass Amherst.
MCB faculty are involved in three of the six projects that were selected from a highly competitive group of applicants:
E2-PATH: Karen Dunphy/Joe Jerry, veterinary & animal sciences. A diagnostic personalized medicine screening platform for selecting optimized breast cancer treatments.
RNA4Therapeutics: Craig Martin, chemistry. A novel manufacturing technology for the synthesis of high purity, low-cost, and large scale RNA manufacturing for therapeutic use.
Volvox Sciences: Ashish Kulkarni, chemical engineering. Developing a novel supramolecular nano-therapeutic (CSF-SNT) that can efficiently remove cancer tumor cells.