Department News

Zhiping Weng, PhD, the Li Weibo Chair in Biomedical Research, at UMass Chan Medical School, has been named the inaugural chair of the newly formed Department of Genomics & Computational Biology.

Faculty, staff and students gathered to share how they are advancing medicine, science and nursing together and launch UMass Chan’s new brand.

PhD candidate Sarah Zvornicanin has received an award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study HTLV-1, a retrovirus that can cause a type of cancer and a progressive nervous system condition.

Forty future health and science professionals spent the summer immersed in UMass Chan’s cutting-edge laboratories.

A $3.3 million grant will allow the Munson lab to study what happens in the specific point in time before vesicles are fused to the membrane in eukaryotic cells and discover how vesicle targeting and membrane fusion is achieved.

The BRIDGE Fund supports critical research milestones for inventions and discoveries that have high potential to change the course of disease and continues to grow, increasing from approximately $1 million per year in 2019 to $3 million in 2024.

Mary Munson, PhD, will serve as president-elect on the ASCB executive committee starting next year and will assume the role of the society’s president in 2025.

PhD candidate Carolyn Kraus has received an award from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases to develop a CRISPR/Cas9 tool for designing a safer Duchenne muscular dystrophy therapeutic.

John E. Harris, MD, PhD, and Manuel Garber, PhD, will lead a $3.75 million NIH clinical study at UMass Chan Medical School to identify potential preclinical genetic, molecular and biological signatures that may predispose patients to developing vitiligo.

Josué Flores Kim, PhD, is one of five scientists to receive a 2023 Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research from the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation.

Dozens of new microscopes will be delivered to six Worcester middle schools thanks to a partnership between UMass Chan Medical School and Moderna.

MD/PhD student Jillian Belgrad has received an award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study the pathology that drives the development of Huntington’s disease symptoms.