CNS Chemist Craig Martin Wins 2025 Mahoney Life Sciences Prize
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Craig Martin, professor of chemistry in the College of Natural Sciences (CNS), has been chosen as this year’s winner of the 2025 Mahoney Life Sciences Prize for his research into synthesizing vaccine-quality RNA using a technique that improves its quality and yield while drastically lowering the cost. The Mahoney Prize comes with a $25,000 cash award.
“It’s such an honor to win this prize for work that I’ve been pursuing for almost 40 years. It’s even more meaningful that it comes from alumni from our own chemistry department,” says Martin.
Martin’s prize-winning paper, A New Approach to RNA Synthesis: Immobilization of Stably and Functionally Co-tethered Promoter DNA and T7 RNA Polymerase, for which he was the senior author alongside Kithmie Malagoda Pathiranage and Ruptanu Banerjee, both members of his lab, is the most recent publication in his career-spanning effort to better understand how the information messenger molecule RNA is made from DNA within each cell that is responsible for building our bodies. The paper describes a new technique, building on his lab’s previous work, that streamlines the process for the synthesis and manufacture of high-quality RNA, of any length, at greatly reduced costs. Such high-quality RNA is the key ingredient of a whole host of cutting-edge therapeutics, of which the COVID vaccine is the most famous example.
Richard Mahoney, former CEO and chairman of Monsanto and a UMass Amherst alum, expressed his enthusiasm for Martin’s research: “We are proud to support groundbreaking research conducted by UMass scientists. Bridging scientific discovery with real-world application is essential to tackling today’s most urgent challenges and improving lives. Martin’s work is a powerful example of this vision in action, with the potential to transform mRNA synthesis and make a global impact on vaccine development and biomedical research. The remarkable strides being made at UMass Amherst continue to elevate the university’s reputation as a leader for research and innovation worldwide.”
Martin has spent the majority of his career doing basic science—the sort of research-driven quest to better understand how the world works without any direct application of that knowledge. About 20 years ago, Martin and his team conducted an experiment that yielded great insight into an enzyme known as “T7 RNA polymerase” and how it works with a “DNA promoter template”—a specific sequence of DNA that codes for a specific RNA. That result turned out to be surprisingly useful, and it was Martin’s turning point from basic into applied science.
“Really everything we’re doing is only because my lab has such a deep knowledge base,” says Martin. “You need the deep foundation in basic knowledge in order to effectively apply science to real-world issues.”
Martin and his colleague, chemical engineer Sarah Perry, an expert on microfluidics, recently teamed up to form a company, Waterfall Scientific, that can deliver kilograms of pure RNA for medical used.
Michael Fox, dean of CNS, says, “Craig Martin has been a recognized leader in biological chemistry, using state-of-the-art enzymology and biophysical tools to elucidate the structure and mechanism of gene transcription. In his most recent work, for which this prize was awarded, Martin and his group have streamlined the processes to synthesize high-quality RNA. This novel approach is transformative and can quickly be applied to a number of biomedical applications, including vaccine and therapeutic development. We are incredibly proud to have Martin among our faculty and all the important discoveries he has made here in the College of Natural Sciences.”
The Mahoney Life Sciences Prize is awarded annually to honor excellence and recognize academic achievement that propels significant advances in science and industry. The Mahoney brothers all received their degrees in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. They went on to become leaders in their own industries and have served as high-level alumni advisers to the campus.
The annual competition seeks scientists in CNS who are engaged in high-impact life sciences research that addresses a significant challenge and advances collaboration between researchers and industry. Following a review by an expert panel of life-science-industry scientists and executives, the $25,000 prize is awarded to one CNS faculty member who is the principal author of peer-reviewed research that meets the goals of the Mahoney Life Sciences Prize.
Richard J. Gregory, a fellow at the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, UMass Amherst alum, and one of this year’s Mahoney Prize reviewers, says that “Craig Martin’s paper is remarkable for both the quality of the science and its potential near-term applications to the production of messenger RNA for vaccine and therapeutic applications. A key criterion for the Mahoney prize is the potential translatability of the research findings to industry. In this respect, Martin’s publication stood out, as it has provided the foundation for a strong patent portfolio and led to the formation of a new company which will extend and commercialize this technology.”
“One of the things I’ve always appreciated about UMass Amherst,” Martin says, “is that it has an institutional culture that encourages collaboration; it’s easy to meet people across a wide range of disciplines and work together on solutions to complex problems, like producing pure RNA.”
Learn more about the Mahoney Life Sciences Prize.
This story was originally published by the UMass News Office.