UMass Amherst Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Dept

02/18/2021

Join Dr. Li-Jun Ma TONIGHT for a discussion about how fungi make plants sick as part of Life Science Cafe! Learn more at https://oebsciencecafe.org 🌱

02/12/2021

A Message to BMB Majors - Feb 2021

Shout-out to all of our amazing students who continue to persevere through this pandemic, especially those who are self-sequestering on campus right now to keep everyone safe! We're thinking of you and are here if you need support 💚
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR4J5lkZBZI

It's been a rough start to the Spring 2021 semester, with students having to self-sequester on the UMass Amherst campus to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We...

02/11/2021

International Day of Women and Girls in Science | United Nations

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! We're always celebrating women in BMB, but today let's give a special shout-out to all of the female-identifying scientists at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19 👩‍🔬👩‍⚕️
https://www.un.org/en/observances/women-and-girls-in-science-day

The purpose of the day is to achieve full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls.

02/10/2021

Looking for a mentor? Learn more about the CNS Life Sciences Mentoring Program TONIGHT! 😁

01/28/2021

Calling all BMB Freshmen and Transfers! Are you looking for a way to connect with other BMB majors and learn how to make the most of your time at UMass? Enroll in Biochem 190B this Spring! 🙋💻

01/25/2021

Our Opportunities - University of Massachusetts Amherst Scholarships

Winter break is almost over, but there's still time to apply for UMass Amherst scholarships and awards through AcademicWorks! Applications for BMB awards (the Jessica Hayes Memorial Scholarship and the Linda Slakey Award) are due Feb 15th ⏳💰
https://umass.academicworks.com/

Below you will find a listing of scholarships available to currently enrolled UMass Amherst students with brief information about the scholarship qualifications. To apply to scholarships, you must first sign in with the same user name and password you use to access the campus login portal.

01/14/2021

We are thrilled to hear that BMB Alum Emily Agnello '18 was awarded $100,000 from First Aid Beauty to help with her student loans! Emily worked in Dr. Meg Stratton's lab as and undergrad and is now a Ph.D. student at the University of Massachusetts Medical School 👩‍⚕️💸

01/08/2021

Congratulations to Prof. Alice Cheung and Prof. Emeritus James Staros for being named 2020 Fellows of the AAAS - The American Association for the Advancement of Science! 🧑‍🔬🎉
https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/three-umass-amherst-researchers-named-2020

12/16/2020

Early Success in UMass Lab

Congratulations to Allyson Rosati '19 for having her undergraduate thesis research published in the journal Human Reproduction! Allyson's research team identified a biomarker in sperm DNA that may predict male reproductive health and refine the diagnosis of male infertility 👨‍👧‍👦🔬
https://www.umass.edu/gateway/feature/early-success-umass-lab

It’s very rare for an undergraduate to publish research as the lead author in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Rosati accomplished this and more after her research team identified a biomarker in sperm DNA that may predict male reproductive health and refine the diagnosis of male infertility. Ro...

12/11/2020

The CNS Career Center is open over winter break! Login to Handshake to check-out virtual workshops and events or meet with a career advisor: https://app.joinhandshake.com/login

12/10/2020

Want to learn more about managing your basil plants? There's still time to join this virtual workshop that runs throughout the day today and tomorrow! Register here: https://forms.gle/42YtekcPrdNsRfv26 🌱💻

11/10/2020

Join the UMass Junior Fellows Program as they host Dr. Jeffrey Karp for a virtual talk on Thursday, November 12th at 5pm. Dr. Karp's work focuses on drug delivery, medical devices, tissue adhesives, and stem cell therapeutics. Learn more and register at umass.science/drkarp 🔬🦠

11/04/2020

Not even a global pandemic and some chilly weather can stop science! BMB majors Levon Haroutunian '22 and Julia Tupper '21 spent yesterday afternoon teaching a local homeschool group about osmosis #science #outreach

10/29/2020

Registration for the Spring 2021 semester is coming soon, and our BMB Peer Advisors will be answering your registration questions at tomorrow's Brown Bag Lunch! Find the Zoom link on the "BMB Community" Moodle page 💻🙋‍♀️

10/27/2020

Looking for an internship, co-op, or full time job? Meet with tons of different companies at the Life Sciences & Biotech Career Fair on Oct 29th (THIS THURSDAY)! Open to Undergrad, Masters, and PhD students. Learn more: https://www.cns.umass.edu/advising/cns-career-center

10/26/2020

Calling all BMB Majors! If you'd like to enroll in Biochem 276, Biochem 426, and/or Biochem 430H this Spring, don't forget to complete the batch enrollment forms before midnight tonight. There's no other way to enroll! More info in your email inboxes 💻📨

10/16/2020

We're so excited to celebrate Jedaidah Chilufya's international fellowship from the AAUW! Jedy is a PhD student in Dr. Dong Wang's lab, and will use the fellowship to continue her research on using legume farming to eradicate hunger 🌱🥜
https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/umass-amherst-scholar-among-aauw

10/15/2020

BMB majors, check your email for information about batch enrollment! This Spring, we are manually building the rosters for Biochem 276, Biochem 426, and Biochem 430H. Want to enroll in these courses? Learn more: https://forms.gle/ejDcSyVSEVvJ1Dcd7

10/07/2020

Li-Jun Ma Receives Joint Genome Institute Award for Fungi Research

Congratulations to Prof. Li-Jun Ma, who just received an award from the DOE Joint Genome Institute to continue her research on a group of soil fungi called Fusaria that are devastating to crops 🌱🌾
https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/li-jun-ma-receives-joint-genome-institute

Professor Li-Jun Ma, biochemistry and molecular biology, has received support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute Community Science Program to conduct in-depth research on a group of soil fungi, Fusaria, that are economically important because they devastate crops.

09/25/2020

Have you been playing a lot of Animal Crossing: New Horizons during this pandemic? We want to see your island! Join us this Tuesday at 1pm to meet with other BMB majors and share screenshots of your favorite designs, areas, and villagers #anch 😜

09/24/2020

Join us for our next BMB Brown Bag Lunch tomorrow at 12:20pm as we hear from recent BMB graduates about what they've been doing since graduation! More info on Moodle 🎓🔬

09/14/2020

Heuck’s Lab Honored with NIH Small Business Technology Transfer Award

Congratulations to Alejandro Heuck for receiving the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Small Business Technology Transfer Award! Dr. Heuck will use the award to continue his work with MicroBiotix Inc. to identify inhibitors in bacterial Type 3 secretion systems 🦠🧫
https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/heuck%E2%80%99s-lab-honored-nih-small-business

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 t...

09/11/2020

Calling all arts & crafts lovers! We're hosting a show & tell event on Monday, Sept 14th at noon for students who'd like to show-off their quarantine creations and meet other BMB majors. We can't wait to see all of your cool projects! 🎨🖌✂️

09/02/2020

College of Natural Sciences at UMass Amherst

As #NationalImmunizationAwarenessMonth comes to a close, we want to share how a CNS alum is helping advance vaccine research and development.
🔬
Dr. Robert Daniels received his UMass Amherst Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Dept PhD in 2007. Today he’s a Senior Staff Fellow in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration lab that works to improve influenza vaccines. In this photo, Dr. Roberts is with his son Finn on Teneriffe!

Dr. Daniels explains that there are three influenza vaccines available which are based primarily on the major influenza surface antigen hemagglutinin (HA). The lab is researching how influenza vaccines could benefit from adding a second influenza surface antigen, neuraminidase (NA). They’re developing a systematic analysis platform for NA that will complement the current one used for HA.
🦠
Visit http://umass.science/rdaniels to learn more about the research Dr. Daniels is doing in his lab.

08/27/2020

BMB Students, Faculty, and Staff: Join us every Friday this semester for our BMB Brown Bag Lunch, where we will continue to foster our BMB community virtually! More details in the "BMB Community" Moodle course (assuming Moodle doesn't crash again🤞).

08/21/2020

College of Natural Sciences at UMass Amherst

There are lots of ways to connect with fellow UMass Amherst students – even during this time of remote learning and social distancing. Student Life is hosting virtual events for both students at home and on campus to participate in. Tomorrow night at 8pm there’s a Zoom Comedy event with SNL stars Melissa Villasenor and Ego Nwodim, and over the weekend there will be virtual trivia, yoga, and much more!

Check out the Virtual Student Event Calendar here: https://www.umass.edu/studentlife/virtual-student-life

08/12/2020

Study Shows Detailed Molecular Workings of a Key System in Learning and Memory Formation

The Stratton Lab has uncovered a new regulatory role for the CaMKII protein, which is vital for learning and memory formation 🧠📖
https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/study-shows-detailed-molecular-workings

One of the new realities in biomedical research is that it’s increasingly difficult to use a general approach to score advances. Now, investigations into disease mechanisms, for example, are often conducted at the molecular level by specialists who dedicate years to interrogating a single protein ...

08/07/2020

How Cells Keep Growing Even When Under Attack

How do cells keep growing even when they're under attack? Researchers in BMB Prof. Peter Chien's lab just published their findings on how bacteria "switch gears" to maintain normal cell functions 🦠🧬
https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/how-cells-keep-growing-even-when-under

In an unexpected new finding, biochemists at UMass Amherst report observing that a damage-containment system in stressed bacteria can become overrun and blocked, but that this leads to cells responding by turning on very different pathways to make sure that normal growth continues.

08/06/2020

No one is sure what the Fall 2020 semester is going to look like, but your BMB Advising Team wants to to know that we're here to support you as we figure it out together! Please reach-out if you have any questions, concerns, or just need someone to listen: https://www.umass.edu/biochem/undergraduate/contacts-undergraduates

07/16/2020

UMass Amherst Student Success

We are super excited for this new project! Check-out the trailer for Trajectory: a Student Success podcast below, and listen to the first episode now out on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/successumass

Volume UP!!! Listen to our Trajectory: a Student Success podcast trailer and get excited for the debut episode later this week!

#myumass
#success
#studentsuccess
#podcastinginplace
#poscast
#umassamherst
#students

07/10/2020

Congratulations to our three BMB colleagues who received CNS Outstanding Achievement Awards! Lila Gierasch and Li-Jun Ma were both recognized for their research, and Megan West was celebrated for her commitment to diversity and inclusion 👩‍🔬🎉
https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/cns-outstanding-achievement-awards-honor-0

07/10/2020

UMass Amherst Office of Admissions

Aww, thanks for the kind words Bryson! 🥰

Meet Bryson, a biochemistry and molecular biology major here at the University of Massachusetts Amherst! How did he become interested in these two types of science? Watch the video! (hint: it involves advice from his mom).
- Videography by Maddie Bottasso '22

06/29/2020

UMass Amherst

Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy has shared the Fall 2020 Reopening Plan, which details how the fall semester will proceed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

To read the comprehensive report, FAQs, and more, visit umass.edu/coronavirus.

06/22/2020

Huge congratulations to Jenny Krichevsky for her new faculty position at California State University, Fresno! Jenny is a founding member of our Writing Fellows program, and her support of BMB students and faculty has been invaluable to us. We wish her all the best!https://www.umass.edu/biochem/sites/default/files/Jenny%20Krichevsky%20Thank-You.pdf

06/17/2020

BMB Distinguished Prof. Lila M. Gierasch just received an Achievement Award from the Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College, on the same year as her 50th college reunion no less! https://alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/events-programs/awards/award-recipients/