Worcester Business Journal

4 Worcester Business Journal | October 14, 2024 | wbjournal.com I N B R I E F Hospital merger "This is the right time, and UMass Memorial Health is the right partner to pave the path for our promising future." Edward Kelly, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health – Milford Regional Medical Center, on Milford Regional officially joining the UMass Memorial Health system Oct. 1 Retiring executive "I'm not a banker, but to be able to work in an organization that provides a service to people that can help them reach their goals, whether they be financial or personal, whatever, has just been again, the joy of my life." Bay State Savings Bank Chief Community engagement Officer Diane Giampa reflecting on her 27-year career with the Worcester-based bank as she announced her retirement come Dec. 31 Strategic plan "With the scale of operations in the second largest city in New England, we need a detailed plan to guide, prioritize, track, and evaluate our work." Worcester City Manager Eric Batista in a letter on the City's five-year plan outlining 49 objectives to guide City operations until 2029 BY MICA KANNER-MASCOLO WBJ Staff Writer V ictor Ambros, a scientist at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, has been named the recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of microRNA, short RNA molecules playing an integral role in gene regulation. Ambros shares his Nobel win with Gary Ruvkun of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, both in Boston. Ambros, whose discovery about the impact of microRNA was tested on nematodes, said the study of laboratory organisms is fundamental to advancing understanding of biology in a way he and his colleagues are constantly moving into unexpected territory. "e processes that bring living things to the state where we as we see them today are poorly understood and the underlying processes in ourselves and the processes that manage and coordinate the action of an organism like this are still deeply mysterious," he said at a press conference at UMass Chan on Oct. 8. Ambros's win is the second UMass Chan Medical School scientist to take home the prestigious award for the Worcester institution. Scientist Craig Mello shared the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of RNA interference with scientist Andrew Fire of Stanford UMass Chan researcher wins Nobel Prize Victor Ambros speaks at a press conference on Oct. 7 following the announcement of his Nobel Prize win. University School of Medicine in California. Mello said Ambros and Ruvkun's recognitions are long overdue and it's a relief for him to have them acknowledged. "I was surprised that they had awarded the prize to us [Mello and Fire], skipping over Gary and Victor for now almost 18 years," said Mello. "It's kind of a relief to finally feel like justice has been done. e discovery that Victor and Gary made was an inspiration to me." UMass Chan is the marquee medical research institution in Central PHOTO | COURTESY OF UMASS CHAN MEDICAL SCHOOL Massachusetts. For example, the school received 353 National Institutes of Health funding awards totalling $179 million in fiscal 2023. e next closest organization was Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which received 16 awards totalling $7 million. From its research, the school and its personnel spin off a number of businesses to help bring real-world applications to the market. Phio Pharmaceuticals in Marlborough is working on cancer treatments, and Atalanta erapeutics in Boston is working on neurodegenerative disease treatments; and both are relying in part on research performed by Mello. With the amount researchers know today regarding genome and DNA sequences and gene products, Ambros said it can feel from the outside like scientists know all they need to know about the area. "But that is actually an illusion that we have to consciously disabuse of ourselves of and leave ourselves open for the surprises," he said. Specifically, discoveries like Ambros' have potential application for future therapies treating human health conditions, especially those rare and understudied. "e deeper we understand living systems, the better equipped we are to figure out what's wrong when these systems go awry in the context of disease," said Ambros. W

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