Toddler with Canavan disease and family from Italy visit UMass Chan to thank researchers
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in NIH Funding in the last decade
Medical school in New England for NIH research funding
Average federal research support per faculty
Average number of publications per student by graduation
Our diversity efforts strengthen our capacity for vital advancements, for research discoveries that change the world, and for carrying out our shared mission of educating tomorrow’s science leaders.
The multiculturalism of our diverse faculty, staff, and student body, and the diverse communities we are part of, create unique opportunities for leveraging our differences as fundamental to our institution’s excellence. Our work is a global effort enhanced by the great diversity of the local and regional communities in which we live and serve.
Please engage with the following videos to see our leadership's commitment to the work, and diverse students in action.
PhD candidate Jessica Peura, MS, is working on deleting a specific gene in a pancreatic cancer mouse model. Peura’s research is inspired by her mother, who died of leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer that can grow in the intestines, stomach, bladder and blood vessels.
“There was not much research at the time when she was diagnosed,” Peura said. “I want to make sure that patients and their families don’t have to go through the same thing.”
When Peura searched for a PhD program, she feared that the lab environment would be competitive or cutthroat. Then she interviewed at UMass Chan.
"While everyone was proud of the work their lab was doing, everyone talked about how closely they worked with other labs. It was super collaborative. Everyone just seemed to love being here.”
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Jessica Peura, MS
PhD Candidate
Pitarresi Laboratory
Cancer Biology Program
PhD candidate Suk Namkung is working to improve viral vectors for gene therapy, a technique that modifies a person’s genes to treat various diseases.
“It will be a dream to implement it in clinical trials and for patients,” Namkung said.
Namkung worked in the Air Defense Airspace Management cell as part of the Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army for two years, and then worked with epidemiologists from Africa at the International Vaccine Institute in South Korea before earning his master’s degree in molecular microbiology and immunology.
“I started looking at pioneers in the gene therapy field and I always came back to UMass Chan and its faculty members who are forerunners in gene therapy research,” Namkung said.
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Suk Namkung
PhD Candidate
Guangping Gao Laboratory
Interdisciplinary Graduate Program
PhD candidate Clevanne Julce, MPH, is focused on preconception mental health care and equipping people with mental health tools and resources before they become pregnant. Julce’s ultimate goal is to become an independent investigator and design culturally responsive preventive interventions for historically underrepresented populations with mood and anxiety disorders.
“The Population Health Sciences Program has provided me with fantastic mentorship that has helped me foster my identity as a doctoral trainee,” she said. “Faculty are dedicated to helping me grow my expertise in quantitative methodology. And I have a phenomenal cohort of trainees who have served as a critical source of encouragement from the very beginning.”
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Clevanne Julce
PhD Candidate
Population Health Sciences Program
Mentor: Nancy Byatt, DO, MS, MBA
