News

More than 1,330 research projects were submitted to the 2024 AMA Research Challenge for consideration.

The VA Summer Research Program, established in 2022 to strengthen and diversify the VA scientific workforce, will remain at UMass Chan for another five years. The research program at UMass Chan is the only site of 25 nationally that is solely focused on women’s health.  

MD/PhD student Michelle Narváez Ramos is researching antimicrobial peptides and their effect on bacteria to make antibiotics more effective.  

The two published papers both started with a single question: “What regulates the immune response in C. elegans?”

Research aimed at identifying the mechanisms that promote resistance to radiation therapy in patients with triple negative breast cancer is underway at UMass Chan Medical School by Arthur M. Mercurio, PhD, thanks to a new $2.6 million cancer research award from the National Institutes of Health.

The Robert W. Finberg Physician-Scientist Training Program is named in honor of the late Robert W. Finberg, MD, chair emeritus and distinguished professor of medicine.  

The second annual Deborah Harmon Hines, PhD, Commencement Celebration honored graduating UMass Chan Medical School students of color by presenting them with Kente and multicultural stoles to wear at the 51st Commencement.

In its annual pre-Commencement celebration, the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences honored student scientists at the 2024 Student Achievement and Leadership Awards Ceremony. 

Second Look Day introduced accepted medical students to the T.H. Chan School of Medicine and included programming from the Diversity and Inclusion office.

Five graduates from the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences returned to campus to crown a winner for UMass Chan’s inaugural Three Minute Thesis competition. PhD student Najihah Aziz and MD/PhD student Ayush Kumar took home prizes.  

In a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine, UMass Chan researchers reported analyses from the National Institutes of Health RADx program showing a small percentage of people, largely women with autoimmune disorders, persistently test positive on rapid home antigen tests for COVID-19 despite concurrently testing negative on molecular PCR tests.  

At noon on Friday, March 15, members of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine Class of 2024 will simultaneously tear open their envelopes from the National Resident Matching Program to discover where they will begin their careers in medicine.

In a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast, John P. Haran, MD’07, PhD’18, and Ethan Loew, MD/PhD student, shed light on their ongoing research to better understand the connection between the gut microbiome and cognitive health, particularly how it impacts older people.

Transcript

MD/PhD student Abigail Hiller has received an award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study the role genes linked to Alzheimer’s disease play in ALS.

UMass Chan MD/PhD student Nick Bolden has discovered a pathway in the brain that could block addictive behavior. Inspired by his father, a retired judge, Bolden has devoted his career to treating addiction.

The UMass Chan community gathered to celebrate 53 PhD candidates and MD/PhD students who transitioned from student to candidate for a doctoral degree during the 2022-2023 academic year.

MD/PhD student Ayush Kumar has received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Award from the National Cancer Institute to study the most aggressive type of breast cancer.

According to research by Katarina A. Ferrucci, PhD’23, transgender and gender-diverse people face more challenges than cisgender people in accessing treatment for eating disorders, and care providers aren’t always aware of the barriers.

Roberto Caricchio, MD, is leading the new UMass Chan Lupus Center at UMass Chan in partnership with UMass Memorial Health.

Beth McCormick, PhD, and Vanni Bucci, PhD, are leading a $3 million effort to explore engineering the gut microbiome to counteract the effects of radiation exposure and total body irradiation.

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.

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

In its annual pre-Commencement celebration, the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences honored student scientists and recognized Mary Ellen Lane, PhD, for reaching her five-year mark as dean at the 2023 Student Achievement and Leadership Awards Ceremony.

Perinatal mental health conditions are the leading cause of maternal mortality or pregnancy-related death in the United States. UMass Chan researchers Nancy Byatt, DO, MS, MBA, and Tiffany Moore Simas, MD, MPH, MEd, have spearheaded creation of new resources to help obstetric care clinicians identify and care for patients with mental health conditions.

In a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast, Ana Maldonado-Contreras, PhD, and Heidi Leftwich, DO, discuss their research on the role the gut microbiome plays in our overall health.

Craig Ceol, PhD, has received a grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases to fund research on cellular and molecular regulators of melanocyte regeneration using zebrafish as a model.

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.  

Scientists at UMass Chan Medical School and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole have identified the first gene to play a crucial role in regulating circatidal behavior in the crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis. The study by Patrick Emery, PhD; Joshua Rosenthal, PhD; and colleagues demonstrates the first molecular link between circatidal and circadian clocks.

Phillip D. Zamore, PhD, is one of 120 newly elected members of the National Academy of Sciences who were recognized for distinguished achievements in original research. Dr. Zamore is credited with identifying the biochemical machinery responsible for RNA silencing.

The Program in Innate Immunity is hosting Innate Immunity Day 2023: Mechanisms and Consequences of Cell Death on May 10 in the Albert Sherman Center Auditorium in the Sherman Center from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

An international team of researchers co-led by UMass Chan researcher Elinor Karlsson, PhD, has demonstrated how comparative genomics can not only shed light on how certain species achieve extraordinary feats, but also help scientists better understand the parts of our genome that are functional and how they might influence health and disease.

Read Pukkila-Worley, MD, identified a new mechanism to detect microbial infection that intercepts pathogen-derived signals of growth and virulence to assess the relative threat of virulent bacteria.

After college, MD/PhD student Ethan Loew was torn between practicing bench science or becoming a clinician, but his postgraduate experience in a lab and a hospital showed him how he could combine the two.

MD/PhD student Bethany Berry plans to champion diversity and advocacy as UMass Chan Medical School’s student representative on the UMass Board of Trustees. Her research focuses on epigenetic mechanisms of meningioma, a type of intracranial tumor.

In a piece originally published on The Conversation, Nate Hafer, PhD, and Apurv Soni, MD, PhD'21, help allay confusion about how to get the most accurate results from COVID-19 rapid tests.

MD/PhD student Claire Branley is passionate about fighting food insecurity to prevent disease. The president of the UMass Chan Community Garden, Branley is researching community-based nutrition policy.

The UMass Chan Community Garden gives student volunteers the opportunity to tackle food insecurity and prevent chronic disease through diet.

Carly Herbert, an MD/PhD student at UMass Chan Medical School, is a student investigator and the first or second author named on six publications on rapid COVID-19 tests.

A new tradition will be celebrated at UMass Chan Medical School on Friday, June 3, when graduating students of color from all three schools at UMass Chan will be given colorful Kente and multicultural stoles to be worn as regalia during Commencement.

Created by students in 2021, UMass LIGHT aims to increase diversity, equity and inclusion; promote career growth; and create professional development opportunities through mentorship and community events.

Physician-scientist, educator and mentor Catarina Kiefe, MD, PhD, has been named the new director of the MD/PhD program at UMass Chan.

Peter Cruz-Gordillo was overjoyed to match into his first choice as a neurosurgery resident at Oregon Health Center in Portland at Match Day 2022 on Friday, March 18. It’s a perfect match for his interests in understanding and treating brain tumors and performing neurosurgery at the lab bench and bedside.

UMass Chan Medical School MD/PhD student Zach Dyer is serving as a student trustee on the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees and is focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Scientists from the McCormick lab at UMass Chan Medical School and the University of Bath have identified a new connection between molecules produced by the microbiome and the function of a human protein that impacts gut inflammation.

MD/PhD student  Nick Peterson is studying host-pathogen interactions in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology and is co-chair of the MD/PhD Curriculum Committee.

The Massachusetts Department of Education has named MD/PhD candidate Apurv Soni the UMass Medical School “29 Who Shine” honoree for 2021.

The GSBS Diversity Interest Group is “centered on sharing the voices of our fellow trainees and having their stories and experiences heard.”

Two MD/PhD students in the lab of Read Pukkila-Worley, MD, have each received Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards from the National Institute of Health.

Prompted by a health issue that his grandmother had, MD/PhD student Eric Ding is studying how smart watches monitor heart rhythms and detect atrial fibrillation in older adults. His work is supported by a three-year National Institutes of Health grant.

MD/PhD student Laël Ngangmeni, MBS, started school when she was 3 in her home country of Cameroon. A natural-born learner and curious thinker, Ngangmeni knew science was her calling.

MD/PhD student Benjamin Helfand is co-first author on a study published in the Journal of American Medical Association Network Open that examines the frequency of COVID-19 positive older adults presenting to the emergency department with delirium.

School of Medicine and Graduate School of Nursing students explored a range of public health issues through population health clerkships and presented their work virtually.

Students in the Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program and Initiative for Maximizing Student Development of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences gathered on Zoom recently to practice their quick-thinking skills through workshops in improvisation.

A new four-year, $2 million grant will allow Silvia Corvera, MD, to learn more about whether the development and function of two types of fat cells differ in people with type 2 diabetes, and may help explain what causes diabetes and obesity.

MD/PhD candidate Kevin Gao has received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship to study a rare autoinflammatory disease in infants called STING-associated vasculopathy with onset in infancy.

A research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine, co-authored by UMass Medical School MD/PhD student Benjamin Helfand, reports that older adults were likely to be excluded from more than 50 percent of COVID-19 clinical trials and 100 percent of vaccine trials initiated early in the pandemic.

Jill Moore, PhD’18, Zhiping Weng, PhD, and MD/PhD students Michael Purcaro and Henry Pratt are lead authors on the latest publication of data from the ambitious ENCODE project. 

MD/PhD student Eric Romo received the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

David McManus, MD, and MD/PhD candidate Apurv Soni developed a tool to predict risk of severe illness in COVID-19 patients.

A new study by a team of UMass Medical School researchers, led by Jordan Smith, MD/PhD candidate, has identified a new therapeutic target in hepatoblastoma, a rare, primarily pediatric liver cancer.

As medical professionals are working to care for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and critical supplies of protective gear are running low, students in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UMass Medical School produced nearly 130 gallons of hand sanitizer to help sustain local hospitals.

School of Medicine 2020 class members Lauren Colwell, Britney Atwater and Ashley Matthew were matched to their specialty residency programs in January. Colwell is going into ophthalmology; Atwater and Matthew urology.

The 15th annual Physician-Scientist Retreat at UMass Medical School shined a light on students working to complete both medical and biomedical sciences doctoral degrees through the Medical Scientist Training Program.

According to new research from the lab of Jeanne Lawrence, PhD, differentiated human cells retain the ability to undergo chromosome silencing in response to XIST, a naturally occurring “off switch” for the female X-chromosome.