News & Events

UMass Amherst officials welcomed Hokkaido University President Kiyohiro Houkin and his delegation this week to celebrate the long-lasting partnership between the two institutions and explore opportunities for future collaborations. 

This is President Houkin’s first visit to UMass Amherst. Before his role at Hokkaido University, he was a leading expert in neurosurgery and served as the director of Hokkaido University Hospital from 2013 to 2019.

Join us on Friday, May 5 from 4-5:30 p.m. for music, food, drinks, socializing and more in the IALS Conference Center.

The Institute for Applied Life Sciences Clinical Testing Center (ICTC) manager, Ashley Eaton and Ryan Baker from the Osborne group in Veterinary & Animal Sciences attended the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Serological Sciences Network (SeroNet) Investigators Meeting at the Frederick National Laboratory on the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD.

Attendees shared cutting edge research into understanding the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and/or vaccines as well to provide an opportunity to foster new ideas and collaborations.

Join the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing community on Monday, April 3 for a day of talks, activities, posters, art, poetry, and digital storytelling to promote understanding, healing, and stoolidarity.

In its fifth year, Western Massachusetts’ first all-women and nonbinary student hackathon welcomed over 300 programming enthusiasts for 24 hours of innovation and problem-solving.

Leading the charge into Women's History Month, over 300 student programming enthusiasts swarmed the Integrative Learning Center at UMass Amherst Feb. 25-26 for the fifth annual Hack(H)er413 - Western Massachusetts' first all-women and nonbinary student hackathon - eager to learn, network and pollinate ideas.

The team of Hana Power, Jenna Marando and Zachary Clark claimed top prize in both the “Policy” and “Integrating Health Equity” categories

The School of Public Health and Health Sciences (SPHHS) at UMass Amherst held its inaugural Health Innovators Challenge on March 8, in the Life Sciences Laboratory conference room. The event served as a showcase for the innovative ideas and problem-solving abilities of SPHHS students.

Lynn Adler

University of Massachusetts Amherst biologist Lynn Adler has won the Mahoney Life Sciences Prize for her research demonstrating that different kinds of wildflowers can have markedly different effects on the health and reproduction rate of bumblebees.

MLSC President Kenn Tuner with Latde CEO Emily Melzer

Latde Diagnostics won $50,000 and Quaesar Therapeutics won $25,000 in Lever Innovation Grant funding after competing in Lever’s Western Mass Health Tech Challenge on Friday, March 3rd at the Institute for Applied Life Sciences at UMass Amherst. The two startups were selected from among five finalists by a panel of expert judges.

 

Elateq's chief science officer Ljiljana Rajic and chief executive officer Roderick Anderson. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican)

Elateq’s patent-pending advanced electrochemical technology allows removal of pathogens, organic and inorganic contaminants, metals and other materials in water using less energy while recovering more water.

PepsiCo launched its green initiative and hired Elateq to install its unique filtration systems at all the multinational company’s plants.

“We will be turning wastewater into potable water in all of their manufacturing plants all over the world,” he said.

MassVentures has chosen Govind Srimathveeravalli, assistant professor in the UMass Amherst Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, for a $16,250 Acorn Innovation Grant Award to support his research on a pioneering prostate cancer diagnostic technology.

Srimathveeravalli will collaborate with Dr. Stephen Solomon, MD, of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to translate this groundbreaking technique to patients.

Specific molecules stick to nanowires grown on genetically modified E. coli.  Credit: UMass Amherst

The Center for Personalized Health Monitoring (CPHM) researchers recently announced the invention of a nanowire 10,000 times thinner than a human hair that can be cheaply grown by common bacteria and tuned to “smell” a vast array of chemical tracers—including those given off by people afflicted with a wide range of medical conditions, such as asthma and kidney disease.

Alicia Timme Laragy

Professor of environmental health sciences Alicia Timme-Laragy has been selected to serve on the Massachusetts Toxic Use Reduction Science Advisory Board. She began her term in February following her November 2022 appointment by Charlie Baker, governor of Massachusetts at the time.

Eric Decker

Professor Eric Decker, among the world’s preeminent food scientists, was honored recently in Denmark with one of his field’s major awards – the 2022 Nils Foss Excellence Prize.

The annual award, named after the late founder of FOSS, a multinational food tech company, is given to a globally respected scientist for world-class innovative research that leads to “remarkable improvements” in the quality, safety, nutrition and sustainability of
food.

The Western Massachusetts Health Technology Challenge will accelerate up to eight early-stage companies operating in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden or Hampshire Counties. Finalists will participate in acceleration workshops, work with expert mentors, and pitch their concepts at a final pitch event. Expert judges will award a $50,000 Innovation Grant to the top team, and a $25,000 Innovation Grant to the runner-up.

Friday, March 3, 2023
1:00-4:00 pm

Susan Hankinson

A University of Massachusetts Amherst epidemiologist has been awarded a five-year, $4 million grant renewal by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance her research into the relationship between chronic stress and an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and other age-related conditions including Alzheimer’s.

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