UMass Amherst’s impact in fighting COVID-19 extends to a program backed by the university in Afghanistan. Two graduates from the first cohort of the Biomedical Technology (BMET) associate degree program at Kabul University of Medical Sciences (KUMS) in Afghanistan have been recognized for their efforts to design and construct a low-cost ventilator using locally available materials. Afghanistan has a lack of ventilators address the COVID-19 pandemic.
AMHERST, Mass. – A new study reported this week by evolutionary ecologist Lynn Adler at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Rebecca Irwin of North Carolina State University, with others, suggests that flower strips – rows of pollinator-friendly flowers planted with crops – offer benefits for common Eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) colony reproduction, but some plants do increase pathogen infection risk.
Graduate students in Jennifer Bender’s Introduction to Environmental Innovation Clinic class have won protection in Massachusetts for the sand lance, a previously unregulated fish. Because of its slender shape, several species of sand lances are referred to as "sand eels," even though they are not related to eels.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Associate Professor Erin Bromage (Biology) created a blog to help friends and family understand the practical ways that the virus can spread through a community. On May 6, 2020, he posted “The Risks – Know Them – Avoid Them”, an explainer that showed how people breathing and talking spread particles in the air in common locations like restaurants, churches, and offices. As the world grapples with how to safely reopen society, Dr.
Dr. Yong K. Kim, chancellor professor in the Department of Bioengineering at UMass Dartmouth, has developed and patented materials and methods to make swabs that are now being used in millions of COVID-19 test kits. The method involves using randomly arranged sea-island bi-component fibers to increase the effectiveness of medical swabs by collecting more materials from patients.
Just like classes, the career fair, advising sessions and campus tours, the 23rd annual Student Research and Community Engagement Symposium moved online this spring.
Video conferencing applications have helped people stay connected during the coronavirus pandemic — whether it’s for business, education or just to hang out with friends and family. One of the most popular platforms, Zoom, has reportedly seen its number of daily users skyrocket from 10 million to more than 300 million over the past three months.
Fourth-year School of Medicine student Michelle Shabo has recovered from a serious bout with the novel coronavirus and is sharing her story to help others understand that people of all ages can contract the disease. The Worcester native, who is doing an emergency medicine rotation at the Worcester field hospital at the DCU Center, said she is dedicated to helping others fight the virus.
UMass Medical School investigators John P. Haran, MD, PhD, and Beth McCormick, PhD, have teamed up with Kaleido Biosciences, Inc. to research the role of the microbiome in patients who are positive for SARs-CoV-2 infection with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. The study, which is being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Haran and researchers at the UMass Center for Microbiome Research, plans to enroll 400 outpatients with SARs-CoV-2 to evaluate Kaleido’s microbiome metabolic therapy candidate added to supportive self-care.
UMass Medical School researchers have developed a platform for constructing vaccines using virus-like particles, which one scientist says could be a promising—and safer—approach for a COVID-19 vaccine.
Trudy Morrison, PhD, professor of microbiology & physiological systems, said her work on a VLP-based vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes severe lower respiratory track disease in young children and the elderly, could be adapted to COVID-19. And it would avoid some of the problems inherent in developing vaccines from inactivated or live viruses.