Campus News

Summer Programs aimed at addressing issues of STEM representation prove to be beneficial for UMass Chan Medical School and the interns involved.  

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 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.  

College students enrolled in the Summer Enrichment Program highlight their educational goals and what they have learned from guest speakers, making connections with peers and research projects.  

UMass Chan Medical School and pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma Inc. have entered into a sponsored research agreement to proceed with research for an adeno-associated virus vector mediated gene therapy for the treatment of Alexander disease, a fatal, ultra-rare disease.

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.  

Medical student Akanksha Nagarkar is teaching high school students the impact of food on health through a nonprofit organization she launched in 2018 called M.E.A.L. (My Education, Action and Lifestyle) Inc.  

A study presented by UMass Chan researchers found that roughly one-third of pregnant patients with or at risk for hypertensive disorders reported food insecurity. The authors say the findings support other research suggesting more food support could lead to improved maternal and fetal health.

Benjamin Botsford, MD, assistant professor of ophthalmology & visual sciences, in an article written for The Conversation, explains that despite popular claims, there is no strong scientific evidence that eye exercises can eliminate the need for glasses.

UMass Chan Medical School has received $2.2 million from a nonprofit patient-advocacy organization to contract with Andelyn Biosciences to manufacture clinical grade AAV9-CSA vector to treat Cockayne syndrome.  

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.  

Students, faculty and special guests share the spotlight in this video of joyful moments from Sunday’s 51st Commencement at UMass Chan Medical School.  

UMass Chan Medical School presented a Chancellor’s Medal and awarded two honorary degrees at its 51st Commencement on Sunday, June 2. Learn more about the honorees in these video profiles.  

UMass Chan Medical School celebrated the Classes of 2024 of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing and the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences on Sunday, June 2.

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.

The T.H. Chan School of Medicine Class of 2024 was acknowledged for its many achievements during the annual awards breakfast and scholarship ceremony.

The Celebration of Scholarship and Awards of the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing acknowledged the hard work and dedication of the 2024 graduating class.

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. 

The UMass Chan Medical School chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society inducted 36 new members on Wednesday, May 29.  

The UMass Chan community gathered to celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month through a food and storytelling event.

The UMass Chan central Massachusetts region team serves as the statewide expert hub for MCPAP for Early Childhood.

The annual awards are sponsored by the Office of Faculty Affairs and the Women’s Faculty Committee of the Diversity and Inclusion Office.  

During a Centering the Margins event organized by the Diversity and Inclusion Office, Renée M. Landers, JD, professor of law and faculty director, Suffolk University Law School, explained the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and UNC cases.  

Medical student Jesse Sardell, MD/PhD student Julie Hugunin, and nursing PhD student Jennifer Costa, RN, APRN, PPCNP-BC, will serve as class speakers for their respective schools at UMass Chan Medical School’s 51st Commencement on Sunday, June 2.

The 51st Commencement exercises at UMass Chan will be held at noon on Sunday, June 2, following a week of Commencement celebrations honoring the Classes of 2024.  

The 12-month program is the longest-running professional development program at UMass Chan Medical School and has nearly 300 graduates.

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.  

The UMass Chan Postdoctoral Fellows Association creates community for its majority international student population.  

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

A new mural at UMass Chan Medical School was painted by students including medical students Jen Sohn and Jean Song. Its design captures collaboration among the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing.  

UMass Chan Medical School and Lahey Hospital & Medical Center celebrated the completion of construction of the new UMass Chan-Lahey regional medical school campus.  

UMass Chan Medical School, in partnership with UMass Memorial Health, hosted the inaugural Affirming Health Care for Our Trans and Gender-Diverse Communities Summit, addressing the well-being of trans and gender-diverse community members. Medical student Mina Zhang was the emcee for the event and Kai da Costa, DO, assistant professor of psychiatry, led a patient and community voices panel discussion and Q&A session.  

Researchers in UMass Chan Medical School’s Center for Microbiome Research are exploring the causal mechanisms by which bacteria in the gut influence chronic illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and Crohn’s disease and in autoimmune disorders and other conditions.

Indiana-born DNP student Eugenia Trammell-Goldsby, RN, directed her church’s choir at age 10. She has refined her early leadership skills as a nurse manager in the transplant unit at UMass Memorial Medical Center and has launched a Black nurse leader mentorship pilot program, helping nurses of color who aspire to become nurse leaders.  

Celia Schiffer, PhD, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences for her distinguished and continuing achievements in original biomedical research.

The LabCentral Ignite community workshop was held on April 24 in partnership with MassBioEd and co-hosted by UMass Chan’s ScienceLIVE.

The Worcester Business Journal has named Chancellor Michael F. Collins, Vice Chancellor Marlina Duncan and Executive Vice Chancellor Parth Chakrabarti to its 2024 Power 100 list.

Faculty members from the three UMass Chan graduate schools were honored at the 2024 Educational Recognition Awards ceremony and Susan Zweizig, MD, delivered the annual honorary Last Lecture, titled “What You Don’t See.”

UMass Chan Medical School and Dubai Health signed a memorandum of understanding to establish mutually beneficial research projects to improve patient care, create an exchange framework for learners between the institutions, and drive transformative advancements for public health locally and globally.  

The Vanderbilt AUD Research and Education Center is funded in part by a five-year, $8.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Nine T.H. Chan School of Medicine students received a health professions scholarship for the 2023-2024 academic year.  

UMass Chan partnered with local organization Glo Mom to support expectant and new mothers with access to information and services as they navigate pregnancy and motherhood.

PhD candidate Seden Bedir moved from Turkey to the U.S. to study at UMass Chan Medical School. She aims to engineer RNA sequences that don’t exist in nature in order to enable mRNA-based therapeutics beyond vaccines. In her free time, she mentors students from Turkey.  

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

The UMass Cancer Walk presented by Harr Toyota returns to Polar Park on Sunday, Sept. 29. All proceeds support adult and pediatric cancer research and more than 150 clinical trials at UMass Chan Medical School.

UMass LIGHT, a mentorship program pairing students with faculty members, has formed meaningful bonds between industry leaders and aspiring doctors. UMass LIGHT will host a conference with keynote speakers Rochelle Walensky, MD, former CDC director, and Robert “Hoot” Gibson, former chief astronaut for NASA, on May 3. 

Mariana Noto Guillen, a PhD candidate in the lab of Amir Mitchell, PhD, associate professor of systems biology, wrote an article for The Conversation explaining a recent Science paper about how nonantibiotics have sufficient antibacterial activity to affect gut microbiome composition. It explains what nonantibiotics are, and the mechanisms behind their antibacterial effects.  

The new center will focus on advancing community living and participation outcomes for young adults from disadvantaged, marginalized and vulnerable populations who have serious mental health conditions.

UMass Chan Medical School and MITRE, operator of federally funded research and development centers, announced the establishment of the Health AI Assurance Laboratory, a collaborative initiative to advance health artificial intelligence in the public interest. The initiative is at the forefront of efforts in the United States, and the first in Massachusetts, to ensure AI technology in health care is safe and effective for everyone using it.

As they make their way 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Copley Square on April 15, the UMass ALS Cellucci Fund Boston Marathon Team will be the largest group of runners in the team’s 13-year history of raising funds to support ALS research.

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

Natick resident and Stanford Online High School student Rebecca Ahn outperformed other local high school students in the final round of the competition on March 16.

The new statewide fellowship program aims to expand the pipeline of psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners entering the community health center workforce and improve retention.

In the latest episode of Voices of UMass Chan, Cherise Hamblin, MD, delves into the critical topic of Black maternal health and the significance of Black Maternal Health Week at UMass Chan Medical School.

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Fourth-year medical student Omar Taweh is continuing his emergency medicine training at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The future doctor speaks three languages and is a proud advocate for refugees.  

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 new Voices of UMass Chan podcast, Margret Chang, MD, discusses the opioid use disorder crisis and how providing treatment in a primary care setting can reduce the stigma attached to getting help.  

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The story of Raiden Pham, an Oregon toddler with an ultra-rare genetic disease was included on the Lunaprise Museum, a digital time capsule that went to the moon with the Odysseus spacecraft in February. Tommy and Linda Pham founded Raiden Science Foundation in 2021 to raise money to support research on a treatment at UMass Chan’s Translational Institute for Molecular Therapeutics.  

The second community convening of the Equity in Caregiving Project, which will be 10 a.m. – noon March 28 in the UMass Chan Faculty Conference Room S1-342, will host a panel of family and clinical caregivers to discuss caregivers’ experiences and what might reduce inequities.

Black Maternal Health Week raises awareness about the challenges faced by Black pregnant people and the importance of addressing disparities in maternal health care. Events are planned from April 11 to 17.  

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.  

UMass Chan Medical School and Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, part of the Beth Israel Lahey Health system, have signed a research affiliation agreement to create a new quantitative science research hub to improve health outcomes and disparities through population health, digital medicine and health systems science.  

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.  

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey will deliver the Commencement address and receive a Chancellor’s Medal at UMass Chan Medical School on Sunday, June 2, as UMass Chan celebrates the accomplishments of the Class of 2024 at its 51^st Commencement.  

The two graduates of the UMass Chan Baccalaureate MD Pathway Program in the Class of 2024 matched to their top choices on Match Day.

The fourth-year medical student matched in internal medicine at UC-San Francisco Medical Center.

Members of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine Class of 2024—the largest in school history at 167—celebrated Match Day at UMass Chan Medical School on Friday, March 15, with hundreds of friends, relatives and faculty cheering them on.  

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.

T.H. Chan School of Medicine students are heading to Brown University, Albany Medical College, New York Eye & Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai and UMass Chan Medical School for competitive ophthalmology residencies.

Lieutenant and fourth-year medical student Maddie Hatch successfully matched into a military residency in UC Davis’s emergency medicine program. The National Resident Matching Program announces matches on March 15.

Uché Blackstock, MD, joined the UMass Chan community for a talk about her book Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, the 2024 Diversity Campus Read.

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.

Students will be competing for the Andrew Sheridan Young Neuroscientist Award and an all-expense paid trip to participate in the 2024 USA National Bee at the University of Central Florida in April. 

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.

Dean Flotte testified in support of policies that would encourage and accelerate gene therapy for rare diseases, in a Feb. 29 hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Health.

Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences students Atinuke G. Oyinbo and Favour Akabogu discussed their research for the Black Excellence series.

Fourth-year T.H. Chan School of Medicine students Elisa Rocha, MS, and Constantine Velmahos successfully matched through the Urology Residency Match Program and learned this month where they will serve their residencies. The National Resident Matching Program announces matches on March 15.

In an updated article originally published by The Conversation in Feb. 2023, Fen-Biao Gao, PhD, talks about how frontotemporal dementia changes the brain and the research that is untangling its genetic causes.

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.

T.H. Chan School of Medicine Class of 2026 students were the first to participate in a mandatory course about anti-racism in medicine, led by Sarah Forrester, PhD, assistant professor of population & quantitative health sciences.

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.

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Inspired by her local upbringing and global interests, DNP student Morgan Hill is conducting a cultural competency project in Worcester to evaluate how UMass Chan’s Doctor of Nursing Practice curriculum covers social determinants of health in a cultural context.

The scientists will use a human cerebral organoid platform to evaluate the role of COVID in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and dementia.  

Membership in the new African Student Association at UMass Chan Medical School requires acknowledging cultural differences in order to provide better care for diverse patients, and a desire to connect and celebrate each member’s African identity. 

A new community service learning component that requires students to volunteer at local organizations is now part of the first-year curriculum for T.H. Chan School of Medicine students. 

A class of drugs designed to help patients manage diabetes also promotes weight loss, a feature that has made them wildly popular among many who want to shed some pounds. Samir Malkani, MD, from UMass Chan and UMass Memorial Health’s Diabetes Center of Excellence highlights what to know about these drugs.

MD/PhD student Pryce Michener has received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for his research on substance use and medications for opioid use disorder, a personal cause that has impacted his friends and family. 

The Department of Orthopedics & Physical Rehabilitation is working on creating space for belonging through focus groups, data collection and goal setting.  

Sharina Person, PhD, was honored with the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion at the annual tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. Keynote speaker Joan Reede, MD, MS, MPH MBA called on the medical community to move forward in values that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. 

Rebecca Beiter, PhD, a postdoc in the lab of Dorothy P. Schafer, PhD, has received an award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to analyze the role a type of brain cell plays in neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

The research, led by UMass Chan viral immunologists Liisa Selin, MD, PhD, and Anna Gil, PhD, introduced a novel treatment and a method to track effective treatment interventions. 

The Diversity and Inclusion Office introduces Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine by Uché Blackstock as its 2024 Diversity Campus Read book.

Marcus Ruscetti, PhD, resisted following in his parents’ scientist footsteps but ended up in a career dedicated to cancer research in and out of the lab.

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The award from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation will help fund a pilot program aimed at improving communication skills of fellows and residents around patient apology and disclosure.  

UMass Chan is one of the first sites to participate in the Lupus Landmark Study and enroll patients in Lupus Nexus, a nationwide collaborative research biorepository.  

Students plan to use Martin Luther King Jr. Semester of Service Awards to transform the health of refugee, immigrant and low-income families in Worcester. 

Joan Reede, MD, MS, MPH, MBA, dean for diversity and community partnership and champion of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Harvard Medical School, will serve as keynote speaker for UMass Chan’s 36th annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.

 A UMass Chan professor of molecular, cell & cancer biology explains the science behind CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology, following the FDA’s first approval of a gene-editing treatment for sickle cell disease.

The New England Commission of Higher Education confirmed its inclusion of a new regional medical school campus at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington in UMass Chan Medical School’s accreditation.

Young adults ages 18 to 25 years old consistently report the highest rates of co-occurring alcohol use disorder and suicidal thoughts and also have very low participation in substance use treatment.