Researcher Dong Wang (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), along with postdoctoral researcher and lead author Minsoo Kim and former undergraduate student Chris Waters and colleagues at the Noble Foundation in Oklahoma, report in the early online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences their discovery of a peptide found in alfalfa that holds the potential to improve crop yields without increasing fertilizer use.  This peptide, DNF4 (also known as NCR211), is a “double agent,” having the ability to support nitrogen-fixing bacteria present inside the plant, while also killing free-living bacteria outside.  Wang’s comments about his research in this area: “Next we want to find out why this peptide helps the bacteria inside the plant, but it can kill free-living bacteria outside the plant. Why does one molecule function as a double agent?”  Read More

Safia Omer, 4th year student in Wei-Lih Lee’s lab in the Biology Department and Cameron Butova, 2nd year student in Scott Garman’s lab in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department have both been awarded fellowships from the Biotech Training Program (BTP) for the following two years.  The BTP training program is newly established through a T23 grant.  Students granted this fellowship will complete BTP curriculum, complete an Individual Development Plan (IDP) with the Office of Professional Development, and pursue an Industrial Internship in addition to ongoing research in their labs.

Li-Jun Ma, a University of Massachusetts Amherst biochemist and genomics expert, has received a coveted five-year, $500,000 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease award to develop new treatment options for opportunistic fungal infections.  The Ma lab studies the genetic mechanisms that underlie the aggressive pathogenicity and genome evolution at the fungus-human interface in the model fungus Fusarium oxysporum.  Ma and her colleagues will combine experimental and computational approaches to investigate pathogen virulence and host defense at the same time. Because of the huge amounts of data involved, she says, this project will use the advanced computing capabilities at the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center in Holyoke.  Read the full UMass News article here.

Samuel Hazen, Biology, has received a grant from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation. The award will support sabbatical research in France next year, on using phenomics as a teaching and research tool to understand how energy crops grow.