Members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation, UMass President Marty Meehan, chancellors of each university campus, and leaders of the Massachusetts biotech industry met at the UMass Chan Medical School campus in Worcester on Oct. 29 to share the UMass research success story with Renee Wegrzyn, PhD, inaugural director of ARPA-H.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, is a federal research agency that aims to accelerate breakthroughs in conquering intractable diseases. It was launched last year with $1.5 billion in annual funding, built on the model of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, that played a large role in bringing COVID-19 vaccines to market.
“Our mission at ARPA-H is to accelerate better health outcomes for everyone, and we take that seriously,” Dr. Wegrzyn told the attendees. “We’re really here to deliver and address that gap between bench research and getting tools and therapeutics and diagnostics out for patients in the real world.”
Wegrzyn said ARPA-H is a catalyst to entire health systems. Rather than funding grants like traditional federal research support, it works as an independent component of the Department of Health and Human Services, operating like a business with program managers overseeing portfolios of contracts and cooperative agreements.
In his welcome, President Meehan thanked members of the congressional delegation for their commitment to research. “Our delegation is tops in the country at making sure that we bring together universities and hospitals and research biotech industry, and that’s why Massachusetts is a leader,” he said.
Meehan highlighted the recent announcement that UMass Chan Medical School researcher Victor R. Ambros, PhD, the Silverman Chair in Natural Sciences and professor of molecular medicine, shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of microRNA, becoming the second UMass Chan Nobel Laureate after UMass Chan Distinguished Professor Craig C. Mello, PhD, was co-recipient of the same prize in 2006 for his discovery of RNA interference or RNAi.
U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, from Springfield, touted the “University of Massachusetts constellation” as a key player in scientific advances.
“I was thrilled to join President Meehan in hosting ARPA-H Director Dr. Wegrzyn at UMass Chan Medical School to discuss the countless investments being made throughout the commonwealth. Our health care system and higher education institutions are the envy of the nation and will play a critical role in advancing ARPA-H’s mission of accelerating better health outcomes for everyone,” Neal said.
“The natural resource of Massachusetts is our educational institutions, and UMass is at the heart of it,” said U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, from Worcester.
McGovern said he “comes from a family of patients” and he wanted to keep people from becoming patients. “It’s about fast-tracking breakthroughs in disease prevention, treatment and detection, and it’s about preventing suffering.”
U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, from Newton, emphasized the importance of the ecosystem of academic medical centers, universities and industry, and highlighted the importance of quantifying the value of biomedical research to secure funding and support.
UMass Chan Chancellor Michael F. Collins noted key milestones in the Medical School’s history, its research funding and ranking as the top medical school in the Northeast for primary care education, among other accomplishments. Touching on notable research focuses such as RNA biology, neuroscience, gene therapy, digital medicine, infectious disease research, health equity and fundamental basic science, Chancellor Collins underscored the importance of collaboration among researchers with other higher education institutions and with industry.
Chancellors Javier Reyes, PhD, from UMass Amherst; Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, PhD, from UMass Boston; Mark Fuller, PhD, from UMass Dartmouth; and Julie Chen, PhD, from UMass Lowell, highlighted the unique research focuses of their institution and how they contribute to the UMass research ecosystem.
Following the discussion, guests were invited on a tour of the new education and research building, where they met Dr. Ambros and his collaborator and wife, senior scientist Rosalind “Candy” Lee, outside the Ambros lab.
“I don’t know if you all heard, but UMass is awesome,” Dr. Ambros said. “There’s a story here at UMass, where people can have fun doing science and also knowing what they’re doing is going to useful purposes.”
Ambros echoed the role that teamwork plays in scientific discoveries and that UMass Chan fully supports its researchers.
