News

Top story: UMass Chan leaders and invited dignitaries cut the ribbon on the new education and research building, as WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, received an honorary degree and delivered the keynote address. 

Top story: UMass Chan Medical School researcher Victor R. Ambros, PhD, will share the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of microRNA, the very short, single-stranded RNA molecules that are now understood to play a critical role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.

Victor R. Ambros, PhD, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Tuesday, Dec. 10 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Victor Ambros, PhD, presents 2024 Nobel Lecture: A marvelous unfolding story of microRNAs.  

Victor R. Ambros, PhD, will be in Stockholm, Sweden, celebrating Nobel Prize week.

Virology experts gather at UMass Chan Medical School for 2024 MassCPR Symposium learn about biology and infectious mechanisms of viruses.  

The 2024 Nobel Prize Symposium in Washington, D.C., was hosted by the Embassy of Sweden and the National Academy of Sciences.

In a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast, Jason Kim, PhD, discussed his research into the link between Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes.  

Transcript

UMass Chan and the entire UMass ecosystem are poised for further breakthrough advances in biomedical research, university leaders and congressional delegation members tell ARPA-H director at Medical School visit.  

The Conversation Weekly podcast interviewed UMass Chan Nobel Laureate Victor R. Ambros, PhD, to learn more about his role in the discovery of microRNA and what comes next. Dr. Ambros shares the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with collaborator Gary B. Ruvkun, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.  

Victor Ambros, PhD, shared his gratitude to his wife and collaborator, Rosalind “Candy” Lee, as well as to the Medical School and scientific community, at a celebration of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine he co-received with Gary Ruvkun, PhD, professor at Harvard Medical School, for their discovery of microRNA.  

The UMass Chan Medical School community embraced its newest Nobel Laureate on Monday, Oct. 7, after Victor Ambros, PhD, was named the co-recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of microRNA. See how the day unfolded in this video.

Victor R. Ambros, PhD, has garnered international media attention after he was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his role in the discovery of microRNA.  

Students in the Ambros lab at UMass Chan Medical School and 2006 Nobel Prize winner Craig Mello, PhD, celebrated their mentor, Victor Ambros, PhD, as he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Gary Ruvkun, PhD, for their discovery of microRNA.  

Although Victor Ambros, PhD, was scheduled to move his lab into a new building today, the announcement that he and Gary Ruvkun, PhD, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of microRNA, put those plans were put on hold. Read more about how his day unfolded.  

Watch a video of the UMass Chan Medical School press conference on Monday, Oct. 7, held after the announcement that UMass Chan researcher Victor R. Ambros, PhD, was a co-recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of microRNA.

Internationally renowned geneticist and pioneer of microRNA, Victor R. Ambros, PhD, who will share the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of microRNA, is the Silverman Chair in Natural Sciences and professor of molecular medicine at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, Mass.

UMass Chan Medical School researcher Victor R. Ambros, PhD, will share the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of microRNA, the very short, single-stranded RNA molecules that are now understood to play a critical role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.  

Thirty college students participated in the 2024 Summer Undergraduate Research Program at UMass Chan Medical School, refining their career goals through networking with peers and mentors, collaborative research and developing critical thinking skills.  

UMass Chan Medical School and QurAlis Corporation, a clinical-stage biotechnology company investigating treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia and other neurodegenerative and neurological diseases, have formed a collaboration to investigate an antisense oligonucleotide technology for the potential treatment of fragile X syndrome.  

The year-end celebration highlighted the 22 students enrolled in Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program and the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development program who completed major milestones.  

UMass Chan leaders and invited dignitaries cut the ribbon on the new education and research building, as WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, received an honorary degree and delivered the keynote address.  

A tightly choreographed process to move faculty, staff and equipment into the new education and research building on the Worcester campus has begun. The building opening will be celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 7.  

Physician-scientist Jeremy Luban, MD, provides key insights and perspective on pressing concerns around the H5N1 bird flu in the United States.  

The two UMass Chan faculty members are among 500 scientists, engineers and innovators elected this year.

Researchers have identified amino acid changes in the AGO1 protein that cause Argonaute syndrome. These genetic mutations, studied in the C. elegans model, cause an organism-wide disruption of the RNA silencing process impacting hundreds of different genes.  

STAT News has selected three research teams from UMass Chan to compete in its 2024 STAT Madness competition. Members of the public are invited to vote for the best biomedical research from 2023. The first round of voting, which will narrow the field from 64 to 32, has begun.

In an article for The Conversation, Nate Hafer, PhD, and Apurv Soni, MD, PhD’21, answer common questions related to how COVID-19 antigen tests perform against new variants. Anuradha Rao, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics at Emory University also contributed to the article.

Construction equipment and office trailers used in the construction of the new education and research building at UMass Chan will soon be removed as construction enters the final phase before completion of the building in early June.

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 Medical School and UMass Lowell have received an $8.9 million award from the National Institutes of Health for renewed support of their initiative to advance the development of home-based and point-of-care health technologies.

UMass Chan Medical School scientists Phillip D. Zamore, PhD, and Roger J. Davis, PhD, FRS, were elected to the National Academy of Medicine on Oct. 9 for their distinguished contributions to medicine and health.

These highly accomplished faculty members have been appointed to endowed chairs at UMass Chan Medical School: Dale L. Greiner, PhD; Danny G. Winder, PhD; Elinor K. Karlsson, PhD; Jeannette M. Wolfe, MD; J. Kevin Donahue, MD; and John E. Harris, MD, PhD’05.

Four faculty members were honored with chancellor’s medals and four others were invested as endowed professors at the Convocation and Investiture ceremony at UMass Chan Medical School.

The festivities begin on Friday, Sept. 8 with the annual White Coat Ceremony, welcoming the new T.H. Chan School of Medicine students into the medical community.

PhD candidate John Girgenrath has received a competitive award from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to conduct fertility research.

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.

A team from UMass Chan recently discovered that the mutated gene responsible for fragile X syndrome is active in most people with the disorder. As two team members write for The Conversation, correcting a processing error suggests that a potential treatment for symptoms of fragile X may one day be available.

David Guertin studies brown fat and its correlation with protection resistance to metabolic diseases such as obesity, insulin resistance and fatty liver disease.

Craig Ceol, PhD, and his team recently discovered a new way in which melanocytes, a small subset of epidermal cells, regenerate. Dr. Ceol explains why zebrafish are good models to study melanocytes in this piece for The Conversation.

An antisense therapy developed by Joel D. Richter, PhD, Sneha Shah, PhD, and Jonathan K. Watts, PhD, at UMass Chan Medical School and Elizabeth Berry-Kravis, MD, PhD, at RUSH University Medical Center, restores production of the protein FMRP in cell samples taken from patients with fragile X syndrome. 

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.

Jessica Spinelli, PhD, and members of her lab are leveraging the discovery of a new mammalian metabolite and mitochondrial pathway to develop tools to reprogram the electron transport chain.

A branch from an Oriental plane tree on the island of Kos, Greece, believed to descend from the “Tree of Hippocrates,” is now planted on the UMass Chan Medical School campus.

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.  

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.

A multidisciplinary team of UMass Chan scientists has developed a technology for delivering siRNA molecules locally to lung tissue, providing the first evidence of a platform capable of delivering chemically modified siRNAs to the lungs nasally and achieving robust genetic silencing.

PhD candidate Kathleen Morrill received the 2023 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award for her work on canine behavioral genomics and its relevance to human genetics and psychiatric disorders.

UMass Chan Medical School has licensed the rights to develop and commercialize a bioinformatic software platform developed by UMass Chan researchers Alper Kucukural, PhD, and Manuel Garber, PhD, and colleagues in the UMass Chan Bioinformatics Core to Via Scientific Inc., in Cambridge

Jeremy Luban, MD, discusses the latest SARS COV-2 variant of concern and the future of vaccines in the fight against COVID in a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast.

Top story: Findings from a new study led by UMass Chan Medical School researchers are the basis for a safety communication issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Aug. 11 regarding serial use of at-home antigen tests for COVID-19.

UMass Chan experts break down common questions regarding at-home COVID-19 tests in a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast.

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.

UMass Chan Medical School pediatric researchers are working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical company Pfizer to fine-tune understanding of appropriate dosing of Paxlovid to prevent moderate cases of COVID-19 in high-risk patients from getting worse.

In his annual Convocation address to the UMass Chan Medical School community on Thursday, Sept. 16, Chancellor Michael F. Collins expressed optimism for the Medical School’s ambitious future and touted the enormous momentum moving the school forward.

Thirty-two college undergraduates interested in careers in medicine and science spent 10 weeks immersed in the cutting-edge laboratories of UMass Chan investigators.

Jeremy Luban, MD, is a physician-scientist who studies the interaction between human cells and deadly pathogens including HIV-1, Ebola virus and SARS-CoV-2. He shares his insights on what we might expect next from COVID-19 and what researchers might focus on going forward.

Kathleen Morrill, a PhD candidate in the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, has made national headlines for her research into behavioral traits of dogs.

Findings from a new study led by UMass Chan Medical School researchers are the basis for a safety communication issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Aug. 11 regarding serial use of at-home antigen tests for COVID-19.

The 2022 Dan and Diane Riccio Fund for Neuroscience seed grants will support four teams of researchers collaborating on multidisciplinary projects.

BRIDGE Innovation and Business Development at UMass Chan Medical School has awarded $2.2 million to seven faculty-led biomedical research projects.

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.

In an article written for The Conversation, Nate Hafer, PhD, and Apurv Soni, MD, PhD'21, explain the data regarding accuracy of rapid COVID tests, based on their extensive research as part of the RADx team.

A UMass Chan Medical School genetic study of more than 2,000 purebred and mixed-breed dogs, published in Science, shows that behavioral traits in dogs are not specific for breed. That means a golden retriever, for example, is only slightly more likely to be friendly than another breed.

UMass Chan Medical School researchers and others involved in the National Institutes of Health Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative are looking for participants from almost anywhere in the United States to help them learn more about the performance of new at-home tests for COVID-19.

Two recent studies supported by the National Institutes of Health Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Tech program demonstrate how widespread distribution of COVID-19 at-home antigen tests can be used as an effective public health strategy to reduce the spread of the disease.

John Haley received a Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. The fellowship will allow Haley to study the impact that signaling and metabolic pathways have on a nutrient-sensing complex in the liver.

A new study led by UMass Chan Medical School shows at-home antigen tests perform well in identifying the COVID-19 omicron variant.

Raffi Van Aroian, PhD, studies intestinal parasitic nematodes, or worms, which can seriously impact children. To combat drug resistance, he and colleague Gary R. Ostroff, PhD, are working on a new type of treatment.

The UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science has awarded seven pilot grants faculty and research collaborators to accelerate the translation for basic discoveries into practical, cost-effective solutions that improve human health.

In a new PNAs paper, Elinor Karlsson, PhD, said that by comparing genomes between species, scientists can “access the results of a natural experiment carried out on an unfathomable scale.”

UMass Chan Medical School researchers and their partners in the National Institutes of Health Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative are starting new studies to determine if the performance of at-home COVID-19 antigen tests currently on the market in the U.S. is affected by the omicron variant.

UMass Chan Medical School researchers are embarking on a clinical trial of an mRNA vaccine by Moderna against the Epstein-Barr virus, a common cause of infectious mononucleosis. Katherine Luzuriaga, MD, is principal investigator for the study at UMass Chan.

UMass Medical School researchers are about to start enrolling adolescents ages 12 through 17 in a clinical trial to test the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine made by Moderna. (Originally published on Jan. 26, 2021)

Nate Hafer, PhD, explains how rapid tests are used to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a piece written for The Conversation, Nate Hafer, PhD, explains why rapid tests play a critical role in fighting COVID-19 and describes how they work.

UMass Chan Medical School researcher and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Imaging Scientist Caterina Strambio De Castillia, PhD, is the senior author on two papers and a co-author on four more published in the December issue of Nature Methods.

In a piece written for The Conversation, Nate Hafer, PhD, explains the differences between PCR and antigen tests for SAR-CoV-2. He is part of the RADx research team at UMass Chan. 

UMass Chan Medical School researchers, supported by the NIH RADx initiative, are studying rapid, at-home COVID-19 tests to determine how effective and feasible they are for broad-based population screening.

Funded projects led by faculty, students, staff and community partners have the potential to improve the health of Central Massachusetts residents, particularly those who are economically or educationally disadvantaged or underrepresented.

The Program in Systems Biology has been elevated to full department status, with Marian Walhout, PhD, serving as the founding chair of the Department of Systems Biology.

Several times a week, UMass Medical School researchers offer Worcester-area residents the opportunity to enroll in some of the studies conducted for COVID-19 Test Us.

Roger Davis, PhD, FRS, and the Cryo-EM Core facility at UMass Medical School have received $2.8 million from The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center to purchase an advanced Glacios cryo-electron microscope from Thermo Fisher Scientific.

The Dan and Diane Riccio Fund for Neuroscience has awarded four teams of UMass Medical School researchers $50,000 seed grants for interdisciplinary collaborations leading to innovative discoveries that deepen understanding of normal brain function and what goes awry in neurological diseases.

UMass Medical School and UMass Lowell announced the winners of the 2021 Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center $200K Challenge. Acoustica Bio, a startup aiming to transform how patients receive intravenous medications, is the top winner.

Two research teams from UMass Medical School have been selected by STAT News to compete among 64 contestants in the 2021 STAT Madness competition. Voting begins March 1.

Five UMass Medical School scientists from the UMass Diabetes Center of Excellence are part of the JDRF Center of Excellence in New England that launched Feb. 23. The goal of the is to create a cell replacement therapy that could treat and potentially cure type 1 diabetes.

MD/PhD student Webb Camille sees a future as a hospitalist as well as a researcher, allowing him to do bench and clinical research that will ultimately benefit his patients.

UMass Medical School researchers are about to start enrolling adolescents ages 12 through 17 in a clinical trial to test the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine made by Moderna.

Raffi Van Aroian, PhD, and Gary R. Ostroff, PhD, and colleagues are developing an engineered bacterium that can be used to safely treat hookworms in animal models and is a potential therapeutic against the parasitic worm in humans.

Atalanta Therapeutics, a biotech founded by UMass Medical School and three faculty research scientists to pioneer treatment options for neurodegenerative diseases, has launched with financing by venture capital fund F-Prime Capital and strategic collaborations with Biogen and Genentech.

The new vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna use messenger RNA to stimulate the immune system to protect against COVID-19. These vaccines are the first of their kind and researchers at UMass Medical School are among the leading RNA biologists in the world.

A new study by Alejandro Vasquez-Rifo, PhD, and Victor Ambros, PhD, shows that certain strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a rod-shaped bacterial pathogen that causes disease in plants and animals, including humans, have a unique mechanism for disabling and degrading the ribosome in its host cells.

New research by Silvia Corvera, MD, and Tiffany Moore Simas, MD, MPH, MEd, show that low levels of a protein commonly seen in screening tests for chromosomal disorders is associated with adipose tissue remodeling, glucose resistance and gestational diabetes mellitus in pregnant women.

National Institutes of Health research funding to UMass Medical School grew by 78 percent for the first quarter of fiscal 2021, which began July 1. Grants and contracts from all funding sources increased by nearly 50 percent.

A multidisciplinary team of scientists led by Elinor Karlsson, PhD, has captured biodiversity at a genetic level, according to a new study published in Nature.

On behalf of the UMass Medical School community, we extend our sincere condolences to Jake Kennedy’s family and to all who knew and loved him. Jake Kennedy died Tuesday, Oct. 13, at age 65, in his Salem, N.H., home of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

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.