News Highlights
Plastics Compound BPS Alters Mouse Moms’ Behavior and Brain Regions--UMass Amherst Study Finds Impaired Behavior in Pregnant and Lactating Mice
Plastics Compound BPS Alters Mouse Moms’ Behavior and Brain Regions--UMass Amherst Study Finds Impaired Behavior in Pregnant and Lactating Mice
In the first study of its kind, environmental health scientist Laura Vandenberg and neuroscientist Mary Catanese at the University of Massachusetts Amherst examined the effects of the compound bisphenol S (BPS) on maternal behavior and related brain regions in mice. They found subtle but striking behavior changes in nesting mothers exposed during pregnancy and lactation and in their daughters exposed in utero. Read more...
Sam Hazen awarded NSF grant to study gene regulation of cell wall growth in Brachypodium in collaboration with local biotechnology group
Sam Hazen awarded NSF grant to study gene regulation of cell wall growth in Brachypodium in collaboration with local biotechnology group
The grass species Brachypodium is a model for the Hazen lab to better understand the transcription networks regulating secondary cell wall biosynthesis. The research grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) is part of a Small Business Innovation Research program, and the three-year $713,000 award will fund research aimed at demonstrating how higher yields of renewable biomass can be provided by adapting the processes of secondary cell wall gene regulation that take place in grasses. Read More
Life Sciences Graduate Research Symposium
Life Sciences Graduate Research Symposium
The 6th annual UMass Life Sciences Graduate Research Symposium will be held on Friday, December 2. The event brings together graduate students from all areas of life sciences research at UMass to present their work in both talks (9:00 am-5:00 pm, Life Sciences Laboratories Building, Room S340) and a poster session/reception (5:00-6:00 pm). This event is open to everyone who wants to learn about the fantastic life sciences work going on at UMass! The schedule for presentations is available on the LSGRC website.
MCB students awarded NIH funded two-year traineeships through the UMass Biotech Training Program
MCB students awarded NIH funded two-year traineeships through the UMass Biotech Training Program
Graduate students in the MCB Program, Margaux Audett (Maresca Lab) and Heather Sherman (Osborne and Minter Labs), have been awarded 2016 traineeships through the BTP Program. The 2-year NIH funded Traineeships allow the students to continue current research in their home labs, and also offer opportunities to make connections and network with others in the biotech industry through career events, seminars and an annual symposium. Laboratory modules, originally established through the Institute for Cellular Engineering, have been continued through the Biotech Training Program, giving students hands-on experience with cutting edge techniques, and industrial internships for students in BTP are available. Current internships are through Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi (Genzyme) and the Material and Analytical Sciences team at Boehringer Ingelheim. Read More
PB MS student Kelly Allen receives $15K SARE award
PB MS student Kelly Allen receives $15K SARE award
Kelly S. Allen, a PB MS student working with Dr. Rob Wick, was recently awarded a Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Graduate Student Grant for $15,000 for her proposal titled “Improving Basil Downy Mildew Control with Cultural and Biological Methods”. Sweet basil is one of the most commonly-grown herbs worldwide, and crops are highly susceptible to becoming diseased with basil downy mildew, caused by the pathogen Peronospora belbahrii. This pathogen results in devastating crop losses and economic losses totaling in the tens of millions of dollars in the US. Basil growers are also spending an estimated 10 million dollars each year to manage the disease. Basil downy mildew is not effectively controlled with organic fungicide spray programs, and conventional fungicides are limited and can risk increased pathogen resistance. This research aims to improve cultural control methods for greenhouse propagation of sweet basil, and will investigate the efficacy of a filamentous yeast as biological control agent.
Timme-Laragy Recieves Grant from NIEHS Using Zebrafish to Study Possible Genetic and Molecular Links Between Pollutants and Predisposition to Diabetes
Timme-Laragy Recieves Grant from NIEHS Using Zebrafish to Study Possible Genetic and Molecular Links Between Pollutants and Predisposition to Diabetes
Environmental Health Sciences Department member, Alicia Timme-Laragy, has received a 5-Year $1.7 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for a multi-level study to determine the effects of early life exposure to environmental contaminants. Effects of toxic chemicals commonly found in the environment, such as PCB 126, PFOS and phthalates, will be studied to better understand the development of the pancreas on a genetic, molecular, and biochemical level. The research will look at how pancreas formation is affected by exposure to common pollutants, and how this contributes to diabetes. Read More
Bhowmik Honored at International Weed Science Congress
Bhowmik Honored at International Weed Science Congress
Stockbridge School of Agriculture professor Prasanta Bhowmik was honored with a 2016 Outstanding International Achievement Award at the International Weed Science Society 7th International Weed Science Congress in June in Prague. Bhowmik offered a presentation on the invasive giant hogweed during the congress, which was attended by more than 800 participants from 57 countries. Read more.
BMB Faculty, Dong Wang and Li-Jun Ma, Recognized for Research at International Meeting
BMB Faculty, Dong Wang and Li-Jun Ma, Recognized for Research at International Meeting
Faculty Dong Wang and Li-Jun Ma from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology were recognized for their research at the 17th International Congress of the International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions held July 17-21 in Portland, Ore. Wang received the inaugural MPMI Young Investigator Award and Ma presented a plenary talk at the meeting. Read more.
Ajay Kumar Wins $20,000 in Seed Money in Annual UMass Innovation Challenge Finals
Ajay Kumar Wins $20,000 in Seed Money in Annual UMass Innovation Challenge Finals
Fourth-year NSB student, Ajay Kumar, received second-place honors in the 2016 UMass Innovation Challenge Finals that took place on April 7. Ajay accepted the award for GeneRisk, the software service he founded. GeneRisk allows medical clinicians to detect neurodevelopmental disorders, such as early indicators of autism. Medical professionals extract a patient’s saliva sample, which they send to a laboratory for gene sequencing and diagnosis. According to Kumar, to date, diagnosis of such disorders has relied largely on questionnaires and trial-and-error treatment, despite advances in understanding complex genetic disorders.
Coordinated by the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship, an initiative that promotes entrepreneurship across the UMass Amherst campus, the multi-stage Challenge, in its culminating event of the year, featured six student teams that vied for $65,000 in awards. Each finalist presented a three-minute project description, followed by twelve minutes of probing questions from the competition’s six judges.
Rob Wick travels to Nepal to train farmers to combat clubroot disease
Rob Wick travels to Nepal to train farmers to combat clubroot disease
Rob Wick, PB faculty member in the Stockbridge School of Agriculture, was invited by USAID/Winrock to help farmers curb clubroot disease of brassica crops in Nepal. Rob was a “Trainer to train Trainers” at the Sidhuwa Multipurpose Cooperative in the district of Dhankuta located in the eastern hills of Nepal, from June 1- June 20, 2016. The farming cooperative, at around 7000 feet elevation, has about 1,200 households participating on approximately 4,000 acres of terraced hill gardens. Losses due to clubroot have been rising since the disease was first reported in 1993. Millions of dollars are lost each year to the disease. Cabbage and cauliflower are lucrative cash crops for Nepal, mostly grown for export to India. Clubroot is caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae, a devastating plant pathogen of the cabbage family. The disease is named for the large clubby galls, some as large as a tennis ball, that form on the roots and restrict the uptake of water and nutrients. A single gall can release billions of resting spores into the soil which can survive a decade or more; thus contaminated soils cannot support brassica crops without crop rotations of 6 to 10 years.
