Students in the Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) and Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences gathered on Zoom recently for a unique opportunity to practice their quick-thinking skills.

What makes an organization committed to fully inclusive gender equity? That was the framework for the first in a series of UMass Medical School community conversations on diversity and inclusion, held over Zoom on Wednesday, Oct. 21.

The second in a series of campus conversations on diversity and inclusion was framed by the book that’s the UMass Medical School’s campus read, Ibram X. Kendi’s 2019 book How to Be an Antiracist.

Research exists around gender, sexual orientation and weight status inequities and eating disorders, but little is known about how these disparities intersect and what role social determinants may play, according to graduate student Ariel Beccia.

Investigators at UMass Medical School have received two, five-year grants totaling $13 million to explore how the 4D genome structure influences gene expression, cellular function, development and disease as it reshapes itself over time. The Center for 3D Structure and Physics of the Genome, led by Job Dekker, PhD, will receive the bulk of the funding—approximately $11 million. Paul D. Kaufman, PhD, will receive $2 million to investigate the role of the nucleolus in human genome organization in normal and disease states.

Mohona Gupta, PhD candidate in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, moved to Massachusetts from Kolkata, India, in 2018 to attend UMass Medical School. It was the first time she had ever left her hometown, her family and her house for more than a few days.

UMassMed Cares, the new UMass Medical School employee charitable giving campaign, will begin on Monday, Nov. 2, and continue through Wednesday, Nov. 25. UMassMed Cares replaces the former Commonwealth of Massachusetts Employees Charitable Campaign known as COMECC. The new in-house program’s minimized administrative costs ensure that every dollar contributed goes toward addressing causes close to employees’ hearts.

Surrounded by poppers, cranks, spinners, spoons, jigs and shiners, Manning School of Business senior Ben Kenney flips open his laptop and settles in for class.

Like most students, Kenney is taking his courses remotely this semester because of the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike most students, though, Kenney is taking his online courses while sitting behind the counter of his very own business: Ben’s Tackle Shack.

Thanks to a pair of recent state grants, students, faculty and staff are closer to having a protected, shared-use path when walking or bicycling along Pawtucket Street between South and East campuses.

The “Pawtucket Greenway,” a collaboration between UMass Lowell and the City of Lowell, is one of three pilot projects being implemented with a $165,755 grant the city received from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s (MassDOT) Shared Streets and Spaces program.  

A new honors seminar, The Science of Energy, is inspiring students from a wide range of majors to get involved in research into renewable energy, in Haiti and on campus.