Virologist Mandy Muller, microbiology, recently received a five-year, $1.9 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) grant from the NIH’s National Institute for General Medical Sciences to continue her advanced studies into how certain viruses, such as those in the Herpes family and those that cause Kaposi’s sarcoma in immune-compromised individuals, evade the body’s immune response by hiding, undetectable, deep in tissues for decades.
A collaboration of seafood processing firms, lobstermen and others in the Gloucester area, with fish ecologists and food science researchers on campus, have launched a new socio-economic study to look at developing and evaluating a sustainable alternative bait for use in the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery, says study director Adrian Jordaan, environmental conservation.
You can’t herd them, you can’t put two in a corral and hope they will breed to produce offspring with desirable traits, but the humans of 10,000 to 13,000 years ago figured out how to domesticate molds and other fungi to preserve food, make it tastier and to make wine.
Five researchers from campus have been selected to receive a one-year, $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s “10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments” series to conduct a series of national workshops to identify research challenges associated with transitioning to an equitable and sustainable energy system.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a launch partner for The Collective Think Tank, a global consortium of some of today’s greatest academic minds and industry leaders focused on gender parity and improving diversity. A first of its kind, this group will share data, insights and information to promote more opportunity for women to succeed in sports.
Malawi has one of the highest rates of cervical cancer in the world, with an estimated 2,979 women dying from the disease every year. Cervical cancer accounts for 45.4 percent of all cancers in Malawian women. The statistics are startling, and yet to most villagers, they’re nothing more than numbers.
The Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition (MAWOCC) and the UMass Boston Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy will jointly host a virtual forum entitled, “Standing in our Power: Women of Color Leading Change,” on Saturday September 19 and 26. The forum will focus on civic engagement, voting, electoral representation, and policy reform.
Officially launching an “anything but ordinary” academic year with a virtual convocation address, UMass Boston Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco called on the higher education community to “sharpen its focus and redouble our endeavors to forge anew the indispensable tools for social justice.”
Harvard University’s James Bryant Conant University Professor Danielle Allen delivered the keynote address at UMass Boston’s virtual 2020 Fall Convocation, outlining “red flags” signaling that American democracy is deeply troubled but also offering a path forward for a more resilient democracy.
AARP Foundation has awarded a grant to the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston for a two-year project to increase access to economic opportunities for older people of color in the greater Boston area.