Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Newsmakers

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

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.  

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.

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.  

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.

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.  

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.  

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.

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.

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

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.

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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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. 

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.

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.  

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.

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. 

The cover story for the winter 2023-24 issue of @umasschan magazine highlights how the families of children with genetic disorders inspire gene therapy research and how UMass Chan is streamlining the pathway from bench research to clinical trials for new treatments.

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.

A multisite Veterans Affairs study led by A.M. Barrett, MD, and Kevin Houston, OD, aims to define and validate brain imaging biomarkers that predict response to prism adaptation therapy in patients with spatial neglect following right-brain stroke.

UMass Chan researcher Li Li, PhD, writes for The Conversation about how mRNA drug development, which led to the first COVID-19 vaccine, offers significant advantages over traditional drug development.

A study published in Lancet Public Health and led by Nancy Byatt, DO, and Tiffany Moore Simas, MD'00, found that two approaches to helping obstetric practices screen, assess and treat perinatal depression were equally effective in improving depression symptoms.

A UMass Chan study led by Jean Frazier, MD, suggests maternal inflammation may influence emotional, cognitive, behavioral problems later in life.

A new study published in Nature Cell Biology by Mark Alkema, PhD, establishes an important molecular link between specific B12-producing bacteria in the gut of the roundworm C. elegans and the production of a neurotransmitter important to memory and cognitive function.

The MISSION program combines three evidence-based practices in a multidisciplinary team approach to treating adults with substance use disorders and co-occurring mental illness.

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Anthony Rothschild, MD, will lead a study at UMass Chan to evaluate the effectiveness of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.

Video: In 2023, UMass Chan Medical School moved boldly forward to grow our deliberately inclusive campus, home to impactful research and the No. 1 program for primary care education in New England.

Top story: Boston toddler Noa Greenwood, who was one of the first to receive an investigational gene therapy for Canavan disease developed at UMass Chan Medical School, delivered a very special “thank you” to the research team in a visit with her parents earlier this year.

Top story: The T.H. Chan School of Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School is best in New England and in the top 10 percent nationwide for primary care education according to the U.S News & World Report 2023-2024 Best Graduate Schools rankings.

Top story: Katie Couric, former host of NBC’s Today show and anchor of CBS Evening News, delivered the Commencement address at UMass Chan on Sunday, June 4.

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.

UMass Chan Medical School researchers are taking lessons learned from a pilot study on at-home COVID-19 testing and telehealth and broadening their evaluation to a larger federal Home Test to Treat program.

New study led by Nils Henninger, MD, PhD'18, suggests interplay between genetic factors and traumatic brain injury in behavioral and neurological deficits related to ALS and FTD in mice.

UMass Chan Medical School has been named one of The Boston Globe’s 2023 Top Places to Work in Massachusetts and recognized for its diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

PhD student Valeria Sanabria, MD, won the Zelda Haidak Scholarship in Cell Biology, which was established to enhance training for women pursuing research careers in cell biology. Her research is focused on studying gene expression at the transcriptional level.

Vaccination against COVID-19 was linked to reduced inflammation in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, according to a paper co-authored by UMass Chan Medical School researcher Jonathan M. Gerber, MD.

The annual Thanksgiving food drive is hosted by UMass Chan Department of Public Safety.

The Research Scholar Grant will support Dr. Ruscetti’s research on senescent cells and their role in tumor progression and immune suppression in prostate cancer.

Anne Larkin, MD, and David Hatem, MD, have designed the Health Education Academy for Leadership and Learning to foster the personal and professional development of those who want to make health care education a significant component of their career trajectory.

Military veterans face a higher risk of ALS than the civilian population, according to years of studies. UMass Chan researchers are pursuing therapies to address the biological basis for this fatal neurodegenerative disease and work with clinical partners to provide expert rehabilitation for veterans.

UMass Chan Medical School generated more than $2 billion in economic activity in Massachusetts in 2022, according to the recently released UMass Economic Contribution Analysis report.

Last year, the UMass Chan Cares campaign raised $222,000. Since its launch, UMass Chan Cares has raised nearly $1 million.

Representatives from UMass Chan presented on several topics and career paths, including RNA Therapeutics Institute, ScienceLive, community and government relations, diversity and inclusion and media and arts in sciences.

The study, which appeared in JAMA Network Open, presents an innovative model for community disease management, using mobile health tools with support from clinical pharmacists and community health workers.

David McManus, MD’02, MSc’12, and Neil Marya, MD’12, describe the potential impact of artificial intelligence on health care.

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The UMass Chan Medical School light microscopy core facility, Sanderson Center for Optical Experimentation, announced a new collaboration with Leica Microsystems.

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.

Elizabeth M.C. Hillman, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering & radiology at Columbia University, will present the annual lecture on high-speed 3D microscopy.

Michael Lodato, PhD, has received a 2023 National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award from the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program.

The Angel Fund for ALS Research has announced a $711,000 donation to support the research of Robert H. Brown Jr., DPhil, MD, at UMass Chan Medical School.

More than a dozen of Michael Green’s former colleagues, trainees and others are scheduled to speak at the symposium.

A new RNA therapeutic for preeclampsia is based on work by UMass Chan researchers and collaborating scientists. Researchers explain the importance of a multipronged approach to addressing factors underlying health disparities in this Science for Living article.

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.

Beth A. McCormick, PhD, has been named the new chair of the Department of Microbiology & Physiological Systems (MaPS), and Michael P. Stauff, MD, has been appointed chair of the Department of Orthopedics & Physical Rehabilitation.

Chancellor Michael F. Collins kicked off a new season of the Voices of UMass Chan podcast days after he welcomed UMass Chan Medical School’s largest medical school class.

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Data from the 2023 Diversity Engagement Survey, administered last spring by the Diversity and Inclusion Office, shows an increase in participation and in an overall favorable response to UMass Chan Medical School’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

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 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.

Faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from Hanoi Medical University and Hanoi Medical University Hospital are at UMass Chan this month as part of an ongoing research collaboration to curb the rising burden of noncommunicable diseases in Vietnam.

This discovery that neurons promote axon regeneration by communicating with nearby glia cells may be useful to scientists designing new treatments for a variety of disorders, from spinal cord injury to traumatic brain injury.

Faculty, staff and students gathered to share how they are advancing medicine, science and nursing together and launch UMass Chan’s new brand.

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.

Nicholas Harper, a PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, has received a prestigious award from the National Cancer Institute to study cell death as it relates to cancer therapies.

Returning UMass Chan students from the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing, Morningside School of Biomedical Sciences and the T.H. Chan School of Medicine welcomed incoming students on Aug. 17 during the Diversity and Inclusion Office’s Inclusive Excellence Orientation.

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.

PhD candidate Sarah Zvornicanin has received an award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study HTLV-1, a retrovirus that can cause a type of cancer and a progressive nervous system condition.

A total of $160,500 in grants has been awarded for this year’s innovative projects led by UMass Chan Medical School faculty, staff and students.

Forty future health and science professionals spent the summer immersed in UMass Chan’s cutting-edge laboratories.

A $3.3 million grant will allow the Munson lab to study what happens in the specific point in time before vesicles are fused to the membrane in eukaryotic cells and discover how vesicle targeting and membrane fusion is achieved.

Stephanie Carreiro, MD, PhD'22, is the lead investigator on the development of the MINDER system, which includes a wearable device, a mobile app and an online portal for clinicians to monitor medication use and withdrawals.

Water Safe Worcester’s summer session is underway every Wednesday night through the end of August. The program is free and open to all teenagers in the Worcester area.

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.

Danny Winder, PhD, a renowned expert in the field of addiction neuroscience, will start at UMass Chan in January.

Nineteen rising high school juniors and seniors spent July in Worcester participating in the immersive 2023 High School Health Careers Program at UMass Chan Medical School.

A new study involving more than 9,000 Framingham Heart Study participants shows standard electrocardiograms can predict biological age and risk of cardiac disease and death.

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.

Mary Munson, PhD, will serve as president-elect on the ASCB executive committee starting next year and will assume the role of the society’s president in 2025.

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.

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

Boston toddler Noa Greenwood, who was one of the first to receive an investigational gene therapy for Canavan disease developed at UMass Chan Medical School, delivered a very special “thank you” to the research team in a visit with her parents earlier this year.

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.

The NIH-funded Center for Accelerating Practices to End Suicide through Technology Translation (CAPES) includes a network of organizations working with UMass Chan, including UMass Memorial Health, UMass Lowell, UMass Amherst, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Zero Suicide Institute and more than 100 other collaborating institutions.

Andrea Reboldi, PhD, was awarded a $500,000 grant for his research on the regulation of intestinal humoral immunity by cholesterol metabolites.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Josué Flores Kim, PhD, is one of five scientists to receive a 2023 Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research from the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation.