AMHERST, Mass. – Qteros, the biofuel company that grew from discovery of the Q Microbe by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been revived by three of the company’s original founders and is primed for success with a new, less capital-intensive business model, says CEO Stephan Rogers of Amherst.
Rogers, a founder in 2007 of SunEthanol, Qteros’s precursor, served as chief operating officer, managed business development, finance, personnel and assisted in raising $35 million for that earlier startup.
AMHERST, Mass. – Today the National Academy of Sciences announced a three-year, $271,930 grant to chemist Vincent Rotello at the University of Massachusetts Amherst 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), Pakistan.
AMHERST, Mass. – Leading Bluefin tuna researchers at the universities of Massachusetts and Maine issued a rebuttal to a “factsheet” they say is an “irresponsible distortion of the information available” issued by the Pew Charitable Trusts this week, as the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna’s (ICCAT) expert working groups meet in Montréal beginning today to discuss tuna stocks.
AMHERST, Mass. – Reporting this month in Molecular Microbiology, Peter Chien and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst 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.
AMHERST, Mass. – In the cover story for the journal Genetics this month, neurobiologist Dan Chase and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst describe a new experimental technique they developed that will allow scientists to study the function of individual proteins in individual cell types in a living organism.
AMHERST, Mass. – University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy has appointed Amilcar Shabazz, professor of Afro-American studies, to serve as his faculty advisor for diversity and excellence.
AMHERST, Mass. – Geckskin, a super-strong adhesive device developed by University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers that can hold 700 pounds on a smooth wall, has been named one of the top five science breakthroughs of 2012 by CNN Money.
AMHERST, Mass. – For a fourth consecutive year, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is among the “100 Best Values in Public Colleges” compiled by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. The 2012-13 ranking cites four-year schools that combine outstanding education with economic value.
AMHERST, Mass. – Building on its success in attracting and retaining women, underrepresented minorities and people with disabilities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) over the past decade, the University of Massachusetts Amherst has formed a new STEM Diversity Institute (SDI) to serve as a campus-wide umbrella to coordinate diversity efforts, particularly those funded by federal grants. 
AMHERST, Mass. – Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have received a two-year, $867,040 grant from the National Science Foundation to build a high-bandwidth optical data network to handle large amounts of computerized research data. The new network is designed to separate research data traffic from the rest of the data traffic on the Amherst campus.
AMHERST, Mass. – Joseph Goldstein, an engineering professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is part of a research team trying to produce an iron-nickel alloy that is currently only found in meteorites, for use in making supermagnets. The goal of the research is to develop bulk quantities of commercially viable, environmentally sound supermagnets, which can be used in electric vehicles, wind-turbine generators and many other machines.
AMHERST, Mass. – University of Massachusetts Amherst officials praised the completion of a two-year, $12.3 million laboratory renovation in the Lederle Graduate Research Center today, saying the project will enhance research in the biological and physical sciences and make the campus competitive nationally.
AMHERST, Mass – The W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is being awarded this year’s American Historical Association’s Equity Award recognizing success in training and placing nearly 100 percent of its minority historians in academia.