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Axovant Gene Therapies, a clinical-stage company developing innovative gene therapies based on UMass Medical School research discoveries, has announced that the FDA has lifted its clinical hold and cleared Axovant’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application to initiate a registrational study of gene therapy to treat patients with Tay-Sachs disease and Sandhoff disease. The Axovant therapy, AXO-AAV-GM2, is the first investigational gene therapy to achieve IND clearance for Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff.

Biochemist Marsha Moses, PhD, accepted the 30th Gregory Pincus Medal of the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research and UMass Medical School and delivered the annual Pincus Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 10.

Dr. Moses, the Julia Dyckman Andrus Professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, described her lab’s groundbreaking work in rationally designed precision “theranostics” for cancer and its metastases.

A multidisciplinary team of scientists led by Elinor Karlsson, PhD, associate professor of molecular medicine in the Program in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, has captured biodiversity at a genetic level. By sequencing the genome of 240 mammalian species, 122 of which had never been sequenced, researchers identified a correlation between regions of reduced genetic diversity in species with a higher risk extinction.

AMHERST, Mass. – The �鶹��Ƶ Amherst is partnering with , a company founded by Korean food pioneers with one focus in mind: the well-being of your family and the environment.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has named Deborah DeMarco, MD, the recipient of its 2020 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Lead Award. The award acknowledges the leadership and commitment of designated institutional officials who foster an excellent environment for resident/fellow education at their institutions.

Dr. DeMarco, professor of medicine, is senior associate dean for clinical affairs and associate dean for graduate medical education. She has been a faculty member in the Division of Rheumatology since 1992.

First results from a Pfizer and BioNTech Phase III messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccine trial, in which UMass Medical School is participating, show promising findings, with more than 90 percent effectiveness in preventing infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the companies announced on Monday, Nov. 9.

The interim analysis by an independent data monitoring committee puts the proposed vaccine on track for emergency use authorization review from the Food and Drug Administration by the end of November, according to a news release from Pfizer.

UMass Boston Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco today announced the appointment of Associate Professor Joseph N. Cooper as special assistant to the chancellor for Black life. The newly created position is intended to bring greater focus throughout the campus community to issues of inequality, racism, and social justice.

AMHERST, Mass. – �鶹��Ƶ Amherst alumnus Larry Bohn, Class of 1974, has established an endowed fund with a $1 million gift, plus $500,000 in incentives from the state, which will provide scholarship support to the children of veterans.

The Abraham Bohn Children of Veterans Scholarship endowment fund will support undergraduates who are children of deceased or disabled veterans as they work toward their degree at UMass Amherst.

Environmental health sciences (EHS) doctoral student Abosede Sarah Alli was named one of the winners of the 2020 New Researcher Abstract Award by the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE). She received the distinction as part of the ISEE’s 32nd annual conference, held virtually this year with 1800+ participants from 70+ countries convening online to share valuable research and discussion for improving environmental health policy worldwide.

AMHERST, MASS. – A �鶹��Ƶ Amherst environmental health scientist has used an unprecedented objective approach to identify which molecular mechanisms in mammals are the most sensitive to chemical exposures.

The study, published in the journal , advances the understanding of the interaction of chemicals, both pollutants and pharmaceuticals, on gene expression and the impact on human health.