Past News & Announcements

May 2014: Wilmore Webley, Associate Professor of Microbiology, was recently awarded a one-year grant from American River Nutrition Inc. (ARN) for his study of asthma.  ARN is a local biotech company and the maker of DeltaGold®, an all-natural, pure tocotrienol from the annatto plant. The current study is a first step in what is expected to be a fruitful, long-term collaboration with ARN.  The Webley Lab will utilize pure tocotrienol supplied by ARN to identif specific therapeutic targets in the arachidonic acid pathway of asthmatic inflammation and will confirm their impact on infection induced and inhaled corticosteroid-resistant asthma. The Webley Lab is excited about the future of this venture.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting over 300 million people worldwide and has multiple phenotypes and inflammatory triggers. These phenotypes share common inflammatory features, although their specific immunologic pathways may differ mechanistically. As we dissect and better understand these mechanisms at the molecular level, the treatment of patients with asthma can be better tailored to specific phenotypes. The Webley Lab previously confirmed that a certain subset of hard-to-control asthma is mediated by Chlamydia pneumoniae. Tocotrienols, members of the vitamin E family are potent antioxidants that stand out as potential treatment options for at least some of the asthma phenotypes known today because they are known to block specific molecules in the inflammatory pathway. In addition, tocotrienols were previously shown to inhibit the extent of chlamydial entry and progeny.

May 2014: James Holden, Associate Professor of Microbiology, has been awarded an Exobiology research grant from NASA for his research project "Biogenic iron oxide transformations by thermophilic and mesophilic iron-reducing microbes".  The project is in collaboration with mineral spectroscopist and Mount Holyoke College Professor Darby Dyar.  The goal is to identify and model mineral spectroscopy biosignatures that are indicative of life in ancient rocks.

April 2014:  Congratulations to John Sisay-Beckford from the Microbiology Class of 2015.  Mr. Sisay-Beckford was one of four students awarded a Rising Researcher Award for 2014 at a reception at the Chancellor's house on April 23, 2014.  Johanna Fitzgerald, LSAMP campus coordinator; Margared Riley, Professor of Biology and Jane Kent-Braun, Professor of Kinesiology serve as Mr. Sisay-Beckford's faculty advisors.

March 2014:  Jesús Alvelo-Maurosa, a Ph.D Candidate in the Department of Microbiology, has been selected to represent UMass at the Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering (CASE) Workshop to be held in Washington DC in late March 2014.  The workshop is being offered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is sponsored by a number of scientific societies and organizations to provide the opportunity for graduate and upper-class undergraduate students in science, mathematics, and engineering disciplines to learn about science policy and advocacy.  Read more...

January 2014:  Kelly Nevin, Research Associate Professor of Microbiology, has been awarded a Phase I grant from DOE STTR for her research project "Portable Sensor for Detection of Microorganisms in Groundwater."