• How Fungi Make Nutrients Available to the World

    A recent article by the US Department of Energy reviews research and breakthroughs in biotechnology related to the conversion of woody biomass residues to useful bioproducts and biofuels. Professor Barry Goodell’s research in the UMass Microbiology department is discussed along with that of several other leading researchers in the field. Goodell’s work has led to the discovery on a unique, and highly efficient, non-enzymatic mechanism that fungi use to deconstruct wood. Read more »

  • Morita Lab Studies Glycolipid Biosynthesis as a Potential Drug Target

    The American Lung Association recently awarded Dr. Yasu Morita a grant to advance research to identify a protein involved in the production of glycolipids that can be targeted by new drugs. Read more »

  • Applied and Molecular Biotechnology (AMB) Master's Program in its Fifth Year

    The Applied and Molecular Biotechnology Program welcomed its fifth class in Fall 2017. Read more »

  • Holden Studies Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents in Northeastern Pacific

    One of the many research projects currently underway in the Holden Laboratory is the study of geomicrobiology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. Read more »

  • Derek Lovley

    Lovley Invention Boosts the University's Number of Patents Recorded in One Year

    Derek Lovley, Distinguished University Professor, and Kelly Nevin Lovley, Research Assistant Professor, have developed and licensed a new technology, microbial electrosynthesis, which led the University of Massachusetts to record 62 patents in 2015 which is a record-high for the University. Read more... Read more »

News & Announcements

Sloan Siegrist Participates in SEA-PHAGES Program

October 2020: Sloan Siegrist, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, was among life science faculty who participated in the pilot of CNS's Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) program. In order to improve the academic success of students majoring in STEM disciplines, the UMass Inclusive Excellence Initiative aims to provide authentic research experiences to science majors, especially those majoring in the life sciences, as part of a student’s first year curriculum and continuing into their upper division courses. As part of this initiative, CNS launched the Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) program in the introductory biology laboratory experience. Read more...

Mandy Muller Receives NIH Grant

September 2020: Mandy Muller, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, recently received a five-year Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from NIH’s National Institute for General Medical Sciences. Dr. Muller will continue her advanced studies into how certain viruses evade the body’s immune response by hiding, undetectable, deep in tissues for decades. Read more...

Barry Goodell and Reuben Shipway Receive NSF Grant

June 2020: Dr. Reuben Shipway at the University of Portsmouth in the UK, and Professor Barry Goodell, UMass Microbiology, have received a 2-year National Science Foundation (IOS- Plant Biotic Interactions) award for $476,483 entitled: “How do shipworms eat wood? A non-enzymatic, symbiont-mediated mechanism for the digestion of lignocellulose in teredinids”. Read more...

Microbiology and Engineering Electrically Connect

June 2020: In a series of four recent papers in Nature and other high visibility journals the Yao lab in Engineering and the Lovley lab in Microbiology report on new applications for microbial nanowires. Read more...New Green Technology, Electronics, Sensitive Chemical Sensor

 

Jonathan Miller Interviewed by Journal of Cell Science

May 2020: Jonathan Miller, Ph.D., a recent graduate of the Microbiology Graduate Program, was interviewed by First Person. First Person is a series of interviews of first authors of a selection of papers published in the Journal of Cell Science. The series helps to promote early-career researchers and their published research findings. Read more...

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