About

IALS was established in 2014, based on a total investment of more than $150 million from the Massachusetts Life Science Center (MLSC) and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Our vision for the Institute for Applied Life Sciences (IALS) is to translate fundamental research into innovative product candidates, technologies, and services that deliver benefits to human health and well-being. To achieve this vision we combine deep and interdisciplinary expertise of more than 200 faculty led research groups from 29 departments on the UMass Amherst campus, with the diverse capabilities from industry and government partners.

The Institute is organized into three large centers that focus on creating state-of-the-art wearable devices in the Center for Personalized Health Monitoring (CPHM), new types of biomolecule/delivery vehicle combinations in the Center for Bioactive Delivery (CBD), and discovering novel disease-related cellular pathways, drug-targets, and therapeutic candidates in the Models to Medicine (M2M) Center.

IALS has also just launched more than 30 Core Facilities – that facilitate a wide range of projects, from device prototyping, precision manufacturing and roll-to-roll fabrication, to human motion and gait studies, calorimetry, magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy, as well as, EEG and sleep studies. These facilities are equally accessible to academic, government, and industry collaborators.

In close proximity to these core facilities are “Collaboratories” – lab space available to industry partners to work closely with and alongside IALS faculty. Our Industry Sabbatical Program allows industry researchers to spend time embedded in UMass research laboratories or in the IALS Core Facilities.

In summary, IALS works with industry partners to combine the best in academic innovation with an industry-like focus on delivering commercially significant products, services, and technologies over a defined timeline. Hence, by design, IALS is product-focused, interdisciplinary, collaborative, outward-looking, and entrepreneurial. To explore how IALS can help you advance your goals, please reach out to us at contactials@umass.edu.