M2M News

IALS has received more than $4.4 million from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) to acquire an 800 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer. This high-field atomic resolution instrument will aid researchers working to develop the next generation of drugs to treat high unmet-need diseases, including various types of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

Sarah Perry, associate professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Center for Bioactive Delivery, Models to Medicine Center, has been chosen as one of two national recipients of the 2024 American Chemical Society (ACS) Macro Letters/Biomacromolecules/Macromolecules Young Investigator Award for her contributions to the field of polyelectrolyte self-assembly and the incorporation of proteins into these assemblies.

Alicia Timme-Laragy, professor of environmental health sciences, Models to Medicine Center, whose research focuses on developmental toxicology and environmental pollutants, recently served as an expert consultant for the National Academies Committee for their study, “The Role of Seafood in Child Growth and Development,” for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Craig Martin, professor of chemistry, Models to Medicine Center, and Sarah Perry, associate professor of chemical engineering, Center for Bioactive Delivery, recently received support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop an innovative approach toward efficiently, reliably and cost effectively synthesizing novel strands of specialty “long RNA.” Future genetic research into everything from basic cell biology to advanced therapeutics depends in part on having just the sort of complex, modified RNA that Martin and Perry will be working to make widely available.

Kathleen Arcaro is a professor in the Department of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, and a member of the Models to Medicine Center in IALS

The Jianhan Chen Research Group has made a major advance toward modeling and understanding how intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) undergo spontaneous phase separation, an important mechanism of subcellular organization that underlies numerous biological functions and human diseases.

3Daughters, a startup supported by the IALS Venture Development Program, announced closing of the first tranche in excess of $2 million in a Seed Round. This round was led by Thairm Bio, with a group of life science investors, and joined by the Argosy Foundation, Wexford Science and Technology, LLC, UMass Amherst, and other undisclosed investors.

IALS is excited to announce the inaugural one-year translational Graduate Student Fellows for 2024! 

We define translational research as work that aims to inform or to develop product candidates, technologies, and services that deliver benefits to human health and well-being.

Four UMass Amherst faculty scholars representing a range of disciplines in the natural and health sciences have been recognized nationally and globally in Research.com’s 2023 list of top scientists and also earned high rankings in their specific fields of research. All four of these researchers are affiliated with an IALS Research Center, with all three Centers being represented on this list.

While we often think of diseases as caused by foreign bodies—bacteria or viruses—there are hundreds of diseases affecting humans that result from errors in cellular production of its proteins. A team of UMass researchers recently leveraged the power of cutting-edge technology to unlock the carbohydrate-based code that governs how certain classes of proteins form themselves into the complex shapes necessary to keep us healthy.