News

Andreas Bergmann, PhD, has received a five-year, $3.5 million Maximizing Investigators' Research Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Cole Haynes, PhD, was named one of 84 faculty scholars by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Simons Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

UMass Medical School scientist Craig L. Peterson, PhD, has received a five-year, $4.5 million Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institutes of Health for research that explores the role chromosome structure plays in regulating gene expression, DNA repair and DNA fidelity during cell division.

In this Women in Science video, PhD candidate Yvonne Chan talks about her exploration of how proteins fold and maintain their three-dimensional structure.

Dohoon Kim, PhD, was named a 2017 Suh Kyungbae Science Foundation Young Investigator Award recipient. The accompanying $2 million, five-year grant will support research into changes in metabolic pathways that support cancer cells.

Four faculty members have been appointed to endowed professorships at UMass Medical School in recognition of their contributions to biomedical research, education and patient care. Each will be formally invested Sept. 13 at the Convocation and Investiture ceremony.

The new drug, patisiran, approved Aug. 10 by the FDA, is based on the discovery of RNAi made by Craig Mello, PhD, and Andrew Fire, PhD. It was developed by Alnylam, an RNAi-based drug development company co-founded by Phillip Zamore, PhD.

Researchers at UMass Medical School have developed a genome-editing strategy to correct disease-causing DNA mutations in mouse models of human genetic diseases. Dan Wang, PhD, is first author and Guangping Gao, PhD, is a co-corresponding author on the paper published in the Aug. 18 edition of Nature Biotechnology.

Raziel Rojas-Rodriguez, a PhD candidate in the Program in Molecular Medicine, is studying how adipose tissue expansion during pregnancy is related to metabolic health. Learn more about her research in this Women in Science video. 

Guangping Gao, PhD, has been ranked one of the world’s top translational researchers, according to a new tabulation from Nature Biotechnology. The Top 20 Translational Researchers of 2017, published this month by Nature Biotechnology, places Dr. Gao fourth.

Job Dekker, PhD, creator of high-throughput chromosome conformation capture (known as Hi-C), and a team of researchers have developed a new computational framework combining optical mapping, Hi-C, and whole genome sequencing to find what are called “structural variants” within cancer genomes and learn more about how such cancers begin.

As part of UMass Medical School’s ongoing initiatives to share news about the research, academic and service achievements that take place every day on our campuses, a new magazine debuts this week, @umassmed.

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Dean Mary Ellen Lane, PhD, welcomed and congratulated 52 graduate students entering the transformative years of their doctoral research during the GSBS Qualifying Exam Recognition Ceremony on Tuesday, Sept. 18.

With a three-year, $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in collaboration with the American Chemical Society will measure the impact of career development planning for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. 

Timothy Kowalik, PhD; Stephenie Lemon, PhD; David McManus, MD; and Susan Sullivan-Bolyai, DNSc; have been named the inaugural Dr. Marcellette G. Williams distinguished Scholars at UMass Medical School.

Students from the lab of Brian Kelch, PhD, will share their biomedical training and laboratory experience with students at Worcester Technical High School, thanks to a 5-year, $1 million grant to study viral motors from the National Science Foundation.

Research from the lab of Jeremy Luban, MD, suggests targeting the HUSH complex to activate HIV-1 may be an avenue for making latent viral reservoirs susceptible to antiviral therapies.

Rodrigo Lopez Gonzalez, PhD, has been awarded the 2019 Alzheimer’s Association Research Fellowship to Promote Diversity. 

Multidisciplinary research in chemical biology, life sciences and medicine at UMass Medical School is featured in a special issue of the journal Small Methods. The collection of papers spans a wide disciplinary range that includes biomedical engineering/materials science, frontiers in optical microscopy and organic synthesis, as well as nanoparticle technology and emerging CRISPR‐based genomic sciences.

Tessa Simone, PhD, a postdoc in the lab of Michael R. Green, MD, PhD, is focused on identifying ways to teach the immune system to attack cancerous tumors without harming healthy tissue. Learn about her research  in the latest Women in Science video.

Silvia Corvera, MD, and Michael Czech, PhD, are investigating whether technologies developed in their labs will harness beige fat’s ability to burn energy and accelerate metabolism in order to improve the body’s response to sugar and lower blood glucose levels.

A gene therapy delivered to motor neurons was able to silence SOD1 protein, mutations of which are linked to ALS, without causing any adverse effects, according to a new study published in Science Translational Medicine, by Christian Mueller, PhD, and Robert H. Brown Jr., DPhil, MD.

Jonathan K. Watts, PhD, and Robert H. Brown Jr., DPhil, MD, were recognized at the annual Angel Fund for ALS Gala on Oct. 27. The organization is a nonprofit charity dedicated to supporting Dr. Brown’s research.

The Toronto-based Blu Genes Foundation, which is dedicated to developing gene therapies for rare disease, has given $1.4 million to UMass Medical School to advance a Phase I/II clinical trial for Tay-Sachs. Miguel Sena-Esteves, PhD, Terence Flotte, MD, Heather Gray-Edwards, PhD, DVM, and colleagues at  Auburn University are leading the research.

A new study by Anastasia Khvorova, PhD, and Melissa Moore, PhD, at UMass Medical School and colleagues at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Western Sydney University, suggests that RNA interference therapy could be a potential strategy for the treatment of preeclampsia.

Victor Ambros, PhD, has been elected by his peers as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Jeanne Lawrence, PhD, and Jaime Rivera, PhD, received a five-year, $2.8 million grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development at the National Institutes of Health to test a strategy in a mouse model for silencing the extra chromosome that causes Down Syndrome.

Led by Guangping Gao, PhD, and Erik Sontheimer, PhD, scientists at UMass Medical School will work to develop technology to enable safe genome editing in patients, thanks to new grant funding from the National Institutes of Health.

The Gilbert Family Foundation has announced that UMass Medical School will receive funding from a $12 million gene therapy initiative to address the underlying cause of neurofibromatosis type 1.

Axovant Sciences, a Swiss company developing gene therapies for neurological diseases, has licensed exclusive worldwide rights for the development and commercialization of two novel gene therapy programs for Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases from UMass Medical School. 

The single-minded goal of cardiologist and scientist Jane Freedman, MD, is to seek insights that will help heal patients with heart disease. Learn about her research and career in the latest Women in Science video.

UMass Medical School geriatrics expert Jennifer Tjia, MD, MSCE, has been named a fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine in recognition of her dedication to and scholarship in the field.

Sanjay Ram, MD, co-authored a new study that reveals insights into how gonococcus, the bacteria that causes gonorrhea, latches onto and enters human cells. The findings may help provide an avenue to develop therapeutics that defend against bacterial infection.

A new study in the January issue of Health Affairs by Robin Clark, PhD, shows women who were homeless during their pregnancies had significantly higher rates of health complications, such as hypertension, anemia, hemorrhage and early labor, compared with those who were not homeless.

A new study by Sybil Crawford, PhD, finds that younger women with menopausal symptoms may have foregone hormone therapy for relief as a result of the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative recommendations, despite new research showing favorable benefits versus risks for their age group.

Allan Jacobson, PhD, studies the post-transcriptional control of gene expression, focusing on the consequences and corrections of “nonsense mutations”—errors in the genetic code that serve as periods in a genetic sentence. He explains his research in a new Voices of UMassMed podcast.

Lori Pbert, PhD, has been appointed a member of the United States Preventive Services Task Force, an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine that works to improve the health of all Americans.

In a health report from WJAR-TV/NBC 10 of Providence, reporter Barbara Morse Silva explains research by Silvia Corvera, MD, into transforming white fat into beige to harness its ability to burn energy, accelerate metabolism and fight disease.

Hemant Khanna, PhD, an ophthalmology and visual sciences researcher, writes for The Conversation about a recent report in which scientists have found a new approach to target retinoblastoma using cancer-killing viruses. 

Guangping Gao, PhD, has been elected to the American Academy of Microbiology, the honorific leadership group of the American Society of Microbiology.

The American Society of Transplant Surgeons has recognized Paulo N. Martins, MD, PhD, with the 2019 Veloxis Rising Stars in Transplantation Surgery Award for his research of transplant immunobiology.

Jonathan Watts, PhD, and colleagues are advancing research to repair the disease-causing gene mutations in Rett syndrome thanks to $2.7 million in new funding from the Rett Syndrome Research Trust.

School of Medicine student John-Marc Austin has been awarded a LGBTQ+ health disparities grant from the Massachusetts Medical Society to develop curriculum materials supporting comprehensive, accurate, nonbiased information about LGBTQ+ health and health care.

UMass Medical School has created the role of vice provost for strategic research initiatives and named Michael R. Green, MD, PhD, to the post.

As the diabetes epidemic continues to grow, researchers are redoubling their efforts to understand the mechanisms that cause the disease. Learn about how MD/PhD candidate Rachel Stamateris is studying the disease in this Women in Science video.

Arlington Catholic High School junior Petra Dujmic won the 13th annual Central Massachusetts Brain Bee, hosted by the Department of Psychiatry at UMass Medical School on Feb. 9.

Roger J. Davis, PhD, FRS, has accepted the position of chair of the Program in Molecular Medicine, succeeding Michael P. Czech, PhD, the founding chair.

Anthony Rothschild, MD, explains the latest developments into the use of Esketamine for treatment-resistant depression in a new episode of the podcast Voices of UMassMed.

Five people will represent the UMass ALS Cellucci Fund in the 2019 Boston Marathon on April 15 to support amyotrophic lateral sclerosis research (ALS) underway at UMass Medical School.

A new study in the journal Cell describes how Gang Han, PhD, and colleagues developed technology to give night vision to mammals with a simple injection that contains nanoantennae, allowing the animals to see light beyond the visible spectrum, into the range of infrared light.

UMass Medical School has two research teams competing in the 2019 STAT Madness contest, in which readers are encouraged to vote online for the best pioneering biomedical research of 2018.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) has named Caterina Strambio De Castillia, PhD, a CZI Imaging Scientist and awarded more than $1 million in grant funding for her research into microscopic imaging.

The All of Us Research Program is a historic effort to gather data from one million or more people living in the United States to uncover paths toward delivering precision medicine.

Researchers at UMass Medical School and Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center have developed a strategy to treat two of the most common inherited blood diseases—sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia—applying CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to a patient's own blood stem cells.

Scot A. Wolfe, PhD, and Charles P. Emerson Jr., PhD, discovered a “reset button” for disease-causing genetic microduplications using CRISPR gene editing and a rare, innate DNA repair mechanism.

Paul L. Greer, PhD, is one of 15 young scientists in the chemical and biological sciences who have been named 2019 Searle Scholars.

Raúl Padrón, PhD, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences as a foreign associate and will be honored at the 156th Annual Meeting, April 27-30, in Washington, D.C.

Biomedical sciences career development expert Cynthia Fuhrmann, PhD, discusses her own pioneering career in this latest Women in Science video.

John Landers, PhD, will use a $300,000 grant to identify new therapeutic targets for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The grant is one of eight totaling more than $2 million awarded by the Muscular Dystrophy Association for ALS research this month.

The Dan and Diane Riccio Fund for Neuroscience will support four $50,000 seed grants in 2019 to fuel innovative discoveries through interdisciplinary collaborations that deepen the understanding of brain function and the processes that go awry in neurological diseases.

Michael Brehm, PhD, and colleagues at UMass Medical School are working to bring precision medicine to patients with type 1 diabetes, developing a model system that allows scientists to better understand the autoimmune disease. Learn more in this Expert’s Corner video.

Jeroan Allison, MD, will succeed Catarina Kiefe, MD, PhD, on June 1, becoming the second chair of the Department of Population & Quantitative Health Sciences at UMass Medical School.

MD/PhD candidate Ashley Matthew was awarded a HOPE Scholarship from the Biomedical Science Careers Program. She accepted the two-year, $7,500 award at the “Evening of Hope” celebration held at Harvard Medical School on April 25.

Two new studies from the Diabetes Center of Excellence at UMass Medical School investigate functions of the insulin-producing beta cells that are destroyed in patients with type 1 diabetes, and a reliable method to measure beta cell replication in individuals.

In a new study, Beth A. McCormick, PhD, and John P. Haran, MD, PhD, show that patients with Alzheimer’s disease have distinctly different microbiomes than patients with other forms of dementia, establishing a critical bridge connecting specific bacteria species and different types of dementia prevalent in the elderly.

The Angel Fund for ALS Research has delivered on its pledge to donate an additional $1 million in support of ALS research underway at UMass Medical School.

The Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at UMass Medical School has announced the launch of an ophthalmology residency program, recently approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Under the guidance of Amir Mitchell, PhD, 250 high school students from Massachusetts, California and Israel have had the opportunity to research one of medicine’s biggest challenges today—the emergence of superbugs.

A pair of collaborative studies led by Fen-Biao Gao, PhD, have identified two potential drug targets for the diseases amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. The studies provide a new layer of detail about how the most common genetic mutation responsible for both ALS and FTD causes neuron cell death.

UMass Medical School physician-scientist Ellen M. Gravallese, MD, received the Carol Nachman Prize for Rheumatology, an international honor for research in rheumatology, from city dignitaries at a ceremony in Wiesbaden, Germany.

UMass Medical School has awarded the first BRIDGE Fund grants to support innovative translational research. The first recipients of funding are Jie Song, PhD, and Timothy Kowalik, PhD.

UMass Medical School physician-scientist David McManus is the primary investigator of the mobile health core of the RURAL study, which seeks to understand why people born in rural communities in the South live shorter and less healthy lives than their counterparts elsewhere in the country.

The first clinical trial of a gene therapy treatment based on discoveries made by UMass Medical School and Auburn University researchers has been administered in a child at the National Institutes of Health. UMMS researchers Heather Gray-Edwards, PhD, DVM, and Miguel Sena-Esteves, PhD, collaborated with colleagues at Auburn University on the research.

When Jose Mercado-Matos graduates with an MD/PhD degree at the 46th Commencement of UMass Medical School on Sunday, June 2, it will be the culmination of a long journey inspired by his older brother, Raul, who died of synovial sarcoma at age 25.

In the days leading up to the 46th Commencement Exercises at UMass Medical School on Sunday, June 2, students from all three schools will be recognized, friends and family will be celebrated, and distinguished guests will be honored at events across campus.

At the annual student achievement awards ceremony for the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Dean Mary Ellen Lane encouraged students to seek happiness through love, meaningful work and hope for the future, following in the steps of Joseph Addison, an English playwright and politician.

UMass Medical School awarded 214 degrees at its 46th Commencement exercises on Sunday, June 2, including honorary degrees to keynote speaker Darrell G. Kirch, MD; Susan Coghlin Mailman; and Richard P. Kennedy.

See highlights of the UMass Medical School 46th Commencement in Worcester on Sunday, June 2, in a slideshow featuring graduates, family and friends, faculty, and honorees.

An article in Nature Medicine by Jeremy Luban, MD, highlights the benefits of more diverse and higher resolution genetic databases. As tools for genetic analysis become more powerful, it is critical for translational scientists to be better equipped to predict the full spectrum of consequences of given mutations, Dr. Luban said.

Anthony Rothschild, MD, is among six UMass Medical School physicians who joined more than 40 Massachusetts doctors, scientists and researchers expressing concern over the potential dangers of marijuana use among the general public in a letter to Massachusetts lawmakers in early June.

Jane E. Freedman, MD, is the new editor-in-chief of Circulation Research, one of 12 scientific journals of the American Heart Association. The first issue of the journal under her editorship was published online in June.

The 28 members of the Junior Faculty Development Program Class of 2019, along with their senior faculty mentors, were honored at a graduation ceremony at UMass Medical School.

UMass Medical School students planted four raised beds with a variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers. The launch heralds new growth for nutrition-focused, wellness-oriented initiatives that will be cultivated through the student-run community garden.

Ana Maldonado-Contreras, PhD, and Barbara Olendzki, RD, MPH, at UMass Medical School and colleagues at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai are conducting a clinical trial to determine if an anti-inflammatory diet may reduce the risk of pregnant women with Crohn’s disease relapsing after child birth and of disease transmission to the baby.

The Duchenne Program at UMass Medical School is providing an integrative approach to treating young patients living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the most common and aggressive form of muscular dystrophy. Launched a year ago, the program provides comprehensive clinical care by a multidisciplinary of medical professionals.

John E. Harris, MD, PhD, has been named a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government to outstanding scientists and engineers who are beginning their independent research careers.

Robert W. Finberg, MD, the Richard M. Haidack Professor of Medicine and chair and professor of medicine, has shared his intention to step down as chair to return to the faculty to pursue his academic and research roles on a full-time basis.

John Landers, PhD, spoke with NBC 10 Boston reporter Abbey Niezgoda at a fifth anniversary celebration of the Ice Bucket Challenge, telling her "We know so much more now than we did five and 10 years ago."

Neil Aronin, MD, led an afternoon of presentations detailing advances made by scientists at UMass Medical School in the quest to find a treatment for Huntington’s disease. CHDI Foundation President Robi Blumenstein accepted a plaque in recognition of the foundation’s $13 million in support of Huntington’s research at the medical school.

A team of researchers led by Robert W. Finberg, MD, has received funding from a newly established Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program focused on delivering powerful defenses against public health and national security threats including influenza.

Pulmonologist Hardy Kornfeld, MD, is co-principal investigator of a clinical trial that will help determine whether adding the drug metformin to standard antibiotic treatment can yield better outcomes for tuberculosis patients. Wenjun Li, PhD, is chief statistician for the trial.

Celia A. Schiffer, PhD, has been named the 2020 recipient of the prestigious William C. Rose Award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Michael P. Hirsh, MD, professor of surgery, chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery and surgeon-in-chief for the UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center, has been appointed to a newly created position of assistant vice provost for wellness and health promotion.

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences student Kellianne Alexander has been awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Graduate Fellowship. Learn more about her research in this Women in Science video.

The UMass Medical School Summer Undergraduate Research Program hosted 29 students for 10 weeks, among them Sang Vo and Amina Bradley. The undergraduates from across the country conducted biomedical research under the direction of faculty, students and postdoctoral fellows.

Zachary Kennedy, PhD candidate in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, is committed to advancing research toward a cure for ALS, after losing his grandfather and an uncle to the disease. Kennedy’s work is highlighted in the Boston Globe.

Tiffany A. Moore Simas, MD, MPH, MEd, has been named a fellow of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.

Anthony Rothschild, MD, is the lead researcher at UMass Medical School on a new JAMA study that analyzes how continuation of a combination drug therapy could help patients who have major depressive disorder with psychotic features, a disabling condition with a high-risk of suicide.

Xiaoduo Fan, MD, MPH, will compare two psychosocial interventions that can result in meaningful improvement for persons with schizophrenia and related illnesses as a member of a PCORI Advisory Panel for Healthcare Delivery and Disparities Research.

Learn about the Duchenne Program at UMass Medical School in this Voices of UMassMed podcast with Brenda Wong, MD, founding director of the program, and Tracy Seckler, co-founder and CEO of Charley’s Fund.