Latest News

Two new donor-funded fellowships are being launched this year at UMass Chan to recruit recent postdoctoral scientists and, through intensive mentoring and resource support, foster their development as independent investigators. The fellowships align with the vision embodied in The Morningside Foundation’s transformational $175 million gift in 2021.  

Nineteen rising high school juniors and seniors spent their summer participating in the immersive 2024 High School Health Careers Program at UMass Chan Medical School.  

BRIDGE Innovation and Business Development at UMass Chan Medical School has set aside nearly $2 million in funding for six faculty-led research projects that hold promise for translation to clinical application and commercialization.  

The UMass Chan Medical School Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems is now the Department of Microbiology, according to Beth McCormick, PhD.  

Research by Andrei Korostelev, PhD, and Anna Loveland, PhD, shows that the ribosome plays an unexpected role in the activation of angiogenin, allowing it to cleave transfer RNA, thereby halting protein production. These findings shed new light on angiogenin functioning and may have important implications for the design of cancer therapeutics and neurodegenerative disease treatments.  

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.

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

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 presented “scientist-in-training” lab coats to Lake View Elementary School, one of the 11 North Quadrant schools in Worcester that are part of the UMass Chan North Quadrant Support Services Initiative.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

As the UMass Chan mourns the recent death of Michael Green, MD, PhD, two faculty have been appointed to fill positions that Dr. Green nobly held. Jonathan M. Gerber, MD, has been appointed director of the UMass Cancer Center, and Michelle A. Kelliher, PhD, will serve as interim chair of the Department of Molecular, Cell & Cancer Biology.

After college, MD/PhD student Ethan Loew was torn between practicing bench science or becoming a clinician, but his postgraduate experience in a lab and a hospital showed him how he could combine the two.

MassBiologics of UMass Chan Medical School develops novel nanobody as inhalable and affordable medicine against SARS-CoV-2 and emerging variants.

The University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees voted to approve one new endowed chair at UMass Chan Medical School and the appointment of two accomplished faculty members to endowed chairs.

In her lab, Elizabeth Shank, PhD, interprets the chemical language of bacteria with the goal of harnessing its power to potentially developing new antibiotics.

In her preliminary studies, PhD student Megan Honeywell has found that cells can trigger a cell death even when they do not have the p53 protein, the so-called “guardian of the genome.”

A recent survey of health care professionals showed nearly 60 percent of participants encountered patients whose infections didn’t respond to any antibiotic. Andrei Korostelev, PhD, says by studying the biology of bacterial cells, effective new antibiotics can be developed.

UMass Chan faculty in rheumatology, biochemistry & molecular biotechnology and cancer biology are being supported by endowments.

A large, double-blind, randomized controlled trial found that outpatients who received convalescent plasma within nine days of onset of COVID-19 symptoms were significantly less likely to be hospitalized than those who received placebo control plasma.

Read Pukkila-Worley, MD, is a physician-scientist researching how bacteria cause disease and how the immune system detects infection.

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.

Jonathan Gerber, MD, discusses a therapy that has been around for at least a century and how it has helped in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yang Wang, MD, PhD, leads a team of scientists working to discover and develop antibody-based medicines for infectious diseases and understand drug resistance in those medicines.

Worcester Business Journal readers have chosen the UMass Cancer Walk and Run as the best nonprofit fundraiser event in Central Massachusetts.

Hyundai Hope on Wheels has awarded Jason Shohet, MD, PhD, a second $300,000 Scholar Hope Grant to continue his research on neuroblastoma, a deadly cancer in children that affects the peripheral nervous system.

Results of a clinical trial led by Jonathan M. Gerber, MD, suggest that early use of convalescent plasma treatment for COVID-19 helps avoid hospitalization.

Brian Lewis, PhD, is studying therapeutic resistance in pancreatic cancer cells, hoping to change the grim statistics for patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Research by Sharon Cantor, PhD, into how chemotherapy works in inherited breast and ovarian cancer overturned a long-held model in the field and will play a key role in developing successful therapies.

Daniel Bolon, PhD, said he lost his grandfather to cancer as a child, and the loss inspired him to pursue research into the disease. He studies drug resistance in cancer.

Celia A. Schiffer, PhD, has been named chair of the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biotechnology, newly renamed to reflect the expanded role of cutting-edge technologies as well as the science of pharmacology in bringing a molecular perspective to problems in biology and medicine.

The Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UMass Chan Medical School honored 57 new doctoral candidates during the Qualifying Exam Recognition Ceremony on Tuesday, Sept. 14.

In a new video series, UMass Medical School scientists explain their research to address the global health challenge of drug resistance. In the first video of the series, Medicines Designed to Last, Celia Schiffer, PhD, sets the stage with a straightforward overview of drug resistance.

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.

PhD candidate Sarah Cleveland’s mission is to ensure that diverse voices are represented and heard. Cleveland, who studies mechanisms of T cell tolerance, wants to pursue a career in science policy after earning her degree.

Research from the lab of Sharon Cantor, PhD, provides a new understanding of a PARP inhibitor, a chemotherapy drug commonly used against breast and ovarian cancer.

Sumeet Nayak’s research in the lab of Sharon B. Cantor, PhD, has led to a renewed understanding of how cancer develops and has opened up avenues to effectively advance anti-cancer therapies.

Roger J. Davis, PhD, FRS, has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in recognition of his research on stress signaling pathways that are connected to a range of diseases, such as arthritis, cancer, stroke, heart disease and diabetes.

The University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees approved two “accomplished and visionary” University of Massachusetts faculty as endowed chairs at its April meeting.

New research by Kaleido Biosciences, Inc., and UMass Medical School’s John P. Haran, MD, PhD, and Beth McCormick, PhD, shows that the company’s microbiome metabolic therapy candidate produced positive results in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19.

Brian Lewis, PhD, was recognized in the Evening of Hope 2020 Honor Roll during the Biomedical Science Careers Program’s annual fundraising ceremony. He was honored for his commitment to the organization’s mission of closing the equity gap and increasing diversity in science professions.

A new study by researchers at MassBiologics of UMass Medical School published in Nature Communications suggests that COVID specific IgA monoclonal antibodies may provide effective immunity in the respiratory system against the novel coronavirus—a potentially critical feature of an effective vaccine.

A UMass Medical School research team has been awarded a National Cancer Institute grant to advance understanding of how hereditary breast and ovarian cancer genes work, and why tumors lacking these genes are sensitive to chemotherapy.

Celia Schiffer, PhD, has been selected as a fellow of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program at Drexel University College of Medicine.

Discoveries made by Beth McCormick, PhD, and licensed by Bacainn Therapeutics, Inc. are heading to Phase I clinical trials for ulcerative colitis and other diseases associated with uncontrolled inflammation in the gut.

More than 100 critically ill COVID-19 patients in the UMass Memorial Health Care system have been treated with convalescent plasma through a UMass Medical School clinical trial led by Jonathan M. Gerber, MD.

In an essay originally published by The Conversation, Cancer Center Director Jonathan Gerber, MD, discusses the specifics of recently reported declines in cancer deaths and provides perspective for future continued progress.

In a new Voices of UMassMed podcast, Jason Shohet, MD, PhD, highlights new advances in pediatric cancer research at UMass Medical School, and Luis Portillo Reyes, a young cancer patient, opens up about going through treatment for leukemia.

Amir Mitchell, PhD, has received the Maximizing Investigators' Research Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to support research into cellular decoding of signaling dynamics.

UMass Medical School clinician-scientist Jason Shohet, MD, PhD, accepted a $300,000 grant on Monday, Sept. 23, from the Hyundai Motor America Hope on Wheels campaign to continue his work toward developing more effective and less toxic therapies for childhood cancers with a special focus on neuroblastoma.

Learn about the UMass Cancer Walk and Run and the latest advancements in cancer research in this Voices of UMassMed podcast with Jonathan Gerber, MD.

The UMass Medical School Summer Undergraduate Research Program hosted 29 students for 10 weeks, among them Sang Vo and Amina Bradley. The undergraduates from across the country conducted biomedical research under the direction of faculty, students and postdoctoral fellows.

Celia A. Schiffer, PhD, has been named the 2020 recipient of the prestigious William C. Rose Award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

At an event characterized by a mix of smiles and tears, the race to raise money for the 2019 UMass Cancer Walk and Run officially began on June 3 as more than 100 team leaders, cancer survivors and event sponsors gathered at the Albert Sherman Center.

Under the guidance of Amir Mitchell, PhD, 250 high school students from Massachusetts, California and Israel have had the opportunity to research one of medicine’s biggest challenges today—the emergence of superbugs.

UMass Medical School and UMass Memorial Medical Center are hosting the biannual Consortium for New England Childhood Cancer Survivors for its members from all 13 pediatric oncology programs from all six New England states.

Roger J. Davis, PhD, FRS, has accepted the position of chair of the Program in Molecular Medicine, succeeding Michael P. Czech, PhD, the founding chair.

Jason Shohet, MD, PhD, is focused on developing more effective and less toxic therapies for childhood cancers with a special focus on neuroblastoma.

Jane Freedman, MD; Jonathan Gerber, MD; Jason Shohet, MD, PhD; and Zhiping Weng, PhD; were officially invested into named professorships at the 2018 Investiture Ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 13, bringing the total number of endowed chairs at UMass Medical School to 49.

Four faculty members have been appointed to endowed professorships at UMass Medical School in recognition of their contributions to biomedical research, education and patient care. Each will be formally invested Sept. 13 at the Convocation and Investiture ceremony.

The UMass Cancer Walk and Run will celebrate its 20th anniversary this September. Sponsors and fundraising team leaders gathered on campus on Wednesday, June 20, to meet with cancer researchers and clinicians, tour cancer research labs, and get to work on the event’s ambitious goal of raising $750,000 this year.