Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | March 10, 2025 | Worcester Business Journal 9 Member FDIC Located in Worcester County. Supporting Worcester County. For more information, contact: Bob Paulsen Commercial Banking Center Manager 100 Front Street | Worcester, MA 01608 Cell: 508.254.8582 Robert.Paulsen@RocklandTrust.com Commercial Banking & Lending Treasury Management Services Investment Management Solutions* * Not Insured by FDIC or Any Other Government Agency. Not Rockland Trust Guaranteed. Not Rockland Trust Deposits or Obligations. May Lose Value. "When the biology is not known, you can't really model it really well in a lab," Dave said. In addition, researchers have to nav- igate the lack of good preclinical mod- els. e cell and mice models used in research today are not necessarily good representations of what is happening in the disease with humans. More than 95% of clinical trials fail, due to this lack of reliable biomarkers and the unknown cause, he said. Researchers are working on three elements of ALS research, he said: discovering the disease's cause, drug development, and clinical trials; capacity building and data and sample collection; and creating therapies to help people today. All of this research costs millions upon millions of dollars, and that's where the beauty of donations like the $35 million from the DiMare Founda- tion come into play, said Collins. "Having funds like this with which faculty members can access without having to participate in that compet- itive grant process is really wonderful because they can work on ideas that are novel, and perhaps haven't already been … proven to work" he said. With the proper investments, the UMass Chan endowment fueled by these donations will grow and further its reach. "Hopefully someday it'll be a billion, and that spins off monies that the cam- pus will have forever," said Collins. Trump's planned cuts Grants and donations go to a wide range of costs that both directly and indirectly make research possible, said Dave. Direct costs are defined as those that can be identified specifically with a particular sponsored project, according to the National Institutes of Health. Examples of these costs include hiring research technicians, purchasing test tubes, and acquiring animal models, said Dave. ese funds are generally granted directly to a scientist for the intended research. While exactly how the DiMare donation will be delegated is still to be determined, Brown said it would allow UMass Chan to support a number of direct costs, including expanding its faculty and investigators in neurode- generative disease. Funding can also support the hiring of those doing basic work, also known as fundamental or pure work, including geneticists and scientists. Without those researchers who devise the technology for discovery of disease, finding the first ALS gene would not have been possible, said Brown. "Part of the whole enterprise is mak- ing sure that the basic underpinning is indeed supported," he said. On the other hand, indirect costs, or overhead costs, are those that cannot be readily identified with a project. ese can range from building maintenance and utilities to purchasing computers, said Dave. Conversations around direct and indirect costs have become part of everyday lexicon since early February when the President Donald Trump Administration announced it would cap NIH funding for indirect costs to 15% for biomedical and public health research. UMass Chan expects the Trump cuts to have a significant impact on its operations and expects to lose about $50 million in annual revenue. While a federal judge temporarily blocked the cuts, universities and research institu- tions are anxiously waiting in limbo on next steps. "ese types of massive cuts and attacks on universities, it's going to have an impact on the science for many decades to come," said Dave. e federal government is the largest funder of ALS research in the U.S., he said; all major discoveries in ALS happened because someone had an NIH grant. e void the cuts would create would be impossible to fill by any single dona- tion, including the likes of the DiMare donation. As they await news of the Trump cuts, Brown and his colleagues at UMass Chan are taking research from petri dish to mouse models, to hopefully in the near future reach human trials. Brown's long-term goal holds stead- fast: to cure the disease. "It's a bold ambition to be sure, but an important one," he said. "We would like our grandchildren to ask in 20 years, 'What was that disease?'" W Largest donations in UMass history When UMass Chan Medical School received a $35-million donation in February, it marked the third-largest donation ever awarded to the entire University of Massachusetts system, not adjusting for inflation. Donation amount Recipient Donor Date Donation use $175 million UMass Medical School, The Morningside Foundation, Sept. 7, 2021 An unrestricted gift that subsequently renamed to owned by the Chan family significantly increased the UMass Chan Medical School of Hong Kong school's endowment $50 million University of Robert and Donna Manning Sept. 1, 2021 To enhance diversity within Massachusetts the healthcare industry and system improve accessibility $35 million UMass Chan Medical Paul J. DiMare Foundation Feb. 13, 2025 To fund research of School neurodegenerative and genetic diseases, especially ALS $21.5 million College of Nursing at UMass Elaine Nicpon Marieb Sept. 16, 2021 To support the school's nursing Amherst, then renamed to Charitable Foundation engineering center and student the Elaine Marieb College scholarships, an endowed of Nursing professorship, in addition to mentorship and research efforts developed to boost access, equity, and excellence in nursing education $20 million The Isenberg School 1971 Alumnus Douglas March 16, 2023 To create endowed faculty of Management at Berthiaume and Diana positions and chancellor UMass Amherst Berthiaume professorships, endow support for doctoral fellowships and a new behavioral research lab, increase faculty research at the university's Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship Source: UMass Chan Medical School and individual school press releases and websites

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