As many as four in 10 adults would refuse or hesitate to get a COVID-19 vaccine, according to participants in a national survey conducted during the coronavirus pandemic. The findings from the Meyers Primary Care Institute, in collaboration with UMass Medical School, indicate that health education outreach would be necessary to achieve widespread uptake of a safe and effective vaccine when one becomes available.

Melissa Condren, MSN, RN, CPNP, a Doctor of Nursing Practice candidate in the Graduate School of Nursing, was awarded the 2020 M. Louise Fitzpatrick Nursing Scholarship Award from the Nurses Educational Funds, Inc. The award was established in memory of the late dean of the Villanova College of Nursing, and reflects Dr. Fitzpatrick’s commitment to community, leadership and patient care.

A Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences research team’s far-reaching project to support professional development of early-career scientists received a significant boost recently with the award of a $2.3 million Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training, or IPERT grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

MassBiologics of UMass Medical School has entered into an agreement with PTC Therapeutics to manufacture biological investigational new drugs and commercial pharmaceutical products for use in humans.

“We are delighted to collaborate with PTC Therapeutics to create new medicines for rare diseases,” said Mark S. Klempner, MD, executive vice chancellor for MassBiologics. “For more than 125 years, MassBiologics has researched, developed, manufactured and distributed medicines for better lives.”

Kim Winiker, SOM ’21, ran his first Boston Marathon on Sept. 6 for the Marathon Strides Against MS team and raised nearly $20,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, an organization that strikes a personal chord for him. The virtual course was his first marathon.

The Remillard Family Community Service Fund has awarded eight grants for projects with the potential to improve the health of Central Massachusetts residents, particularly those who are economically or educationally disadvantaged or underrepresented.

Designed to amplify the impact of UMass Medical School on the local community, the endowed fund  provides support for community outreach programs undertaken by faculty, clinical staff, residents and students that are consistent with the education, patient care and research missions of UMMS.

BOSTON – On the eve of National Voter Registration Day, the five elected UMass student trustees released the following joint statement in support of the UMass Votes campaign, which encourages all UMass students to vote in the upcoming national election.

Associate professor Alejandro Heuck’s biochemistry lab, in collaboration with Worcester-based Microbiotix, Inc., has been awarded a two-year, $600,000 NIH Small Business Technology Transfer award to develop a high-throughput screening method to identify inhibitors of a bacterial secretion system that attacks human cells by injecting toxins. A treatment based on the inhibitors could act by a new mechanism to enhance the host’s innate immune response to infection, Heuck says. 

For the fourth time in the past five years, the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management has been judged by its academic peers as the number one sport management program in the world, according to “SportBusiness” magazine’s annual global rankings released today.

In addition to its top global ranking in the “Professors’ Choice” category, the McCormack graduate program, which includes both its MBA/MS and MS in Sport Management degree programs, was also ranked number one in the “Graduates’ Choice” category and number two overall in the world.

The International Association for Geoscience Diversity recently named Michele Cooke, geosciences, as the recipient of its 2020 International Association for Geoscience Diversity Inclusive Geoscience Education and Research Award for her work as a “foundational leader in accessible and inclusive geoscience teaching in both the classroom and field for over 20 years, all while maintaining a successful research career in geomechanics and structural geology.