Awarded by the UMass Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), the Lilly Fellowship for Teaching Excellence enables promising early-career faculty to expand their expertise in teaching while pursuing the teaching and scholarly activity expected of faculty at a major research university.

Their latest research, published in Nature in collaboration with former postdoc Qiaohong Duan (now a professor at Shandong Agricultural University), explores how the FERONIA and S-locus receptor kinase respond to signals from compatible or incompatible pollen. Their findings show that this system can be manipulated, overcoming the species barrier and allowing for interspecific hybridization in crops.

The K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award recognizes graduate students who show exemplary promise as future leaders of higher education and who are committed to academic innovation in the areas of equity, community engagement, and teaching and learning. Jedy, a graduate student in the Wang Lab, received her award at the AAC&U Annual Meeting in January.

In their recent study in the journal Plant Cell, the Vierling Lab described how a factor known as CstF77 is essential for HSP101 to accumulate. HSP101 is found in all plants, so its role in tolerance of extreme heat is widespread, and their finding suggest that plants require very specific levels of HSP101 to survive. The study benefited from support of the M2M focus group in IALS for help with the bioinformatic analysis.

Harry has been using his experience in Food Science and BMB to make food more resilient, healthy, and accessible. His latest research project focuses on physical modification of plant proteins as a simple approach to improve food 3D printing applications.

The Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) program is designed to enhance scientific productivity among talented and promising scientists, increasing the odds of important breakthroughs. The Stratton Lab studies the CaMKII protein, which is key to the development of long-term memory.

Timothy has always had an interest in studying infectious disease, and the COVID-19 pandemic further cemented his passion for virology. His research focuses on how the protein C19ORF66 (named “Shiftless”) inhibits Kaposi’s-sarcoma associated herpesvirus (KSHV).

In their recent publication in the journal Cell Reports, the Chien Lab details how the enzyme ClpX can mutate to fix multiple cellular issues and respond to changing levels of cellular energy to help keep a cell healthy.

The SEA-PHAGES Program is a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) where freshmen perform unique research projects in their introductory lab courses. BMB Professor Peter Chien was instrumental in implementing the program at UMass Amherst, which was designed to help foster a sense of belonging in science among students from all walks of life.

How do mitochondria know what kind of cell they’re in? The Vierling Lab will work with colleagues at Dartmouth, San Diego State University, and the University of Georgia to investigate the role that a protein known as ATAD3 plays in the mitochondria.

UMass Amherst BMB is accredited by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), which gives our majors the opportunity to take an exam and have their degree certified to demonstrate competitiveness against peers from across the nation.

BMB Professors Lila Gierasch and Dan Hebert, in collaboration with UMass Amherst’s Institute for Applied Life Sciences (IALS) and the UMass Chan Medical School, detail their work mapping the expression and maturation of the protein alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The results of this decade-long collaboration will be instrumental in helping to treat a wide range of genetic diseases.