Rotello to bring low-cost, inkjet-printed nano test strips to Pakistan for drinking water tests

The National Academy of Sciences has awarded a three-year, $271,930 grant to Chemistry professor Vincent Rotello to develop, test and deploy new, sensitive, reliable and affordable inkjet-printed, nanoparticle-based test strips for detecting disease-causing bacteria in drinking water, with researchers at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Pakistan.
 
Rotello, with nanoparticle researcher Irshad Hussain and molecular biologist Sohail Qureshi of the LUMS School of Science & Engineering, will address drinking water safety in Lahore, the largest city in the nation’s Punjab

Lawmakers approve $34b state budget that supports freezing tuition and fees

A proposal to freeze tuition and fees for the coming academic year moved ahead July 1 as the Legislature approved $39 million in additional funding for the UMass system as part of a $34 billion state budget and sent the measure to Gov. Deval Patrick.
 
Crafted by a legislative conference committee, the compromise budget package cleared the House by a 122-39 vote and the Senate, 36-3. Patrick has 10 days to review and sign the budget, issue vetoes or offer amendments.
 
The $478.9 million allocation for the five-campus system puts UMass on track to equalize the share of educational costs borne

Biochemists ID protease substrates important for bacterial growth, development

Reporting this month in Molecular Microbiology, assistant professor of Biochemistry amd Molecuar Biology Peter Chien and colleagues describe using a combination of biochemistry and mass spectrometry to “trap” scores of new candidate substrates of the protease ClpXP to reveal how protein degradation is critical to cell cycle progression and bacterial development. The new understanding could lead to identifying new antibiotic targets.
 
As Chien explains, to carry out fundamental life processes such as growing and dividing, cells must orchestrate, in time and location, the production and

Woolf named a Presidential Innovation Fellow

President Barack Obama’s office has named computer science education pioneer Beverly Woolf a Presidential Innovation Fellow for 2013, recognizing her leadership in designing software tutors that respond to a student’s mood and personal learning pace, for example, to dramatically improve lesson effectiveness.
 
Woolf’s work combines artificial intelligence, computer network technology and multimedia features in digital tutoring software for teaching mathematics according to individual students’ needs. She attended a ceremony at the White House on June 21 to accept the award.
 
President

Trustees authorize tuition and fee increase if state funding increase falls short

Meeting in Lowell, the Board of Trustees on June 19 authorized President Robert L. Caret to raise tuition and fees by up to 4.9 percent for the coming academic year if the Legislature’s compromise budget does not include a $39 million funding increase for the five-campus system.
 
“Because the state budget has not been finalized, we find ourselves with the need to give President Caret the authority to raise tuition and fees if … and only if… state funding comes in at a figure lower than the $479 million proposed by the governor and already approved by the House,” said Board of Trustees

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