The UMass Chan Medical School is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

. It is part of the

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the Public university, public university system of the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, University of Massachusetts Lowell ...

system. It consists of three schools: the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing. The school also operates a biomedical research enterprise and a range of public-service initiatives throughout the state.

History

The University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) was established by the 162nd Massachusetts General Court in 1962 to provide residents of the commonwealth an opportunity to study medicine at an affordable cost and to increase the number of primary-care physicians practicing in the commonwealth's under-served areas. The legislation was signed into law by

Massachusetts Governor The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The governor is the chief executive, head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonw ...

John Volpe John Anthony Volpe ( ; December 8, 1908November 11, 1994) was an American businessman, diplomat, and politician from Massachusetts. A son of Italian immigrants, he founded and owned a large construction firm. Politically, he was a Republican in ...

. The School of Medicine accepted its first class of 16 students in 1970. Six years later a 371-bed hospital opened on campus; the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences opened in 1979, and the Graduate School of Nursing opened in 1986. In 1998, the UMMS system of hospitals and clinics merged with Memorial Health Care to form

UMass Memorial Health Care UMass Memorial Health (UMM Health) is a non-profit healthcare network based in Worcester, Massachusetts, operated by the University of Massachusetts and primarily serving Central Massachusetts. It is the largest health system in Central Mass ...

, the largest health-care provider in

Central Massachusetts Central Massachusetts is the geographically central region of Massachusetts. Though definitions vary, most include all of Worcester County and the northwest corner of Middlesex County. Worcester, the largest city in the area, and the seat of Wor ...

and clinical partner of UMMS. In 2021, an unrestricted $175 million gift from the family of Hong Kong real estate developer Chan Tseng-hsi resulted in the name of the medical school, along with the biosciences and nursing schools, to be changed. All offers of admission to

biomedical Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

graduate students for the 2025–2026 school year were rescinded due to federal research funding cuts by the

second Trump administration Donald Trump's second and current tenure as the president of the United States began upon his inauguration as the 47th president on January 20, 2025. On his first day, Trump pardoned about 1,500 people convicted of offenses in the Janua ...

Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research

The research mission at UMMS was augmented in 1997 with the acquisition of the financially ailing Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research, the

Shrewsbury, Massachusetts Shrewsbury (/ˈʃruzberi/ ''SHROOZ-bury'') is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 38,325 according to the 2020 United States census, in nearly 15,000 households. Incorporated in 1727, Shrewsbury prospere ...

institution where researchers developed the

combined oral contraceptive pill The combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), often referred to as the birth control pill or colloquially as "the pill", is a type of birth control that is designed to be Oral administration, taken orally by women. It is the oral form of combi ...

during the early 1960s.

Academics

School of Medicine

Accredited by the

Liaison Committee on Medical Education The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) is an accrediting body for educational programs at schools of medicine in the United States and Canada.''Glossary.'' ACGME website. The LCME is sponsored by the Association of American Medical ...

, the T.H. Chan School of Medicine grants the MD degree to its graduates. With the exception of MD/PhD students, degree candidates were formerly required to be Massachusetts residents, a policy which has changed beginning with the entering class of 2016. Approximately 165 students enroll annually, and more than 4,350 students have received medical degrees from UMMS. The School of Medicine has gained a national reputation for its primary-care program and consistently ranks in the top 10 percent of schools in the annual '' U.S. News & World Report'' guide, "America’s Best Graduate Schools".

SCImago Journal Rank The SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator is a measure of the prestige of scholarly journals that accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the prestige of the journals where the citations come from. Etymology SCImago ...

listed the university at No. 74 in the US and No. 248 globally. Over half of each graduating class enters primary-care residencies, a trend underscoring the school's founding mission, though that figure has decreased in recent years. In addition, a high number of graduates practice throughout the state. UMass Medical is also

accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

by the

New England Commission of Higher Education The New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) is a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit membership organization that performs peer evaluation and accreditation of public and private universities and colleges in the United States and othe ...

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

The Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) is a PhD-granting program that trains scientists in a specialty area with a broad background in the basic medical sciences in preparation for conducting research with direct relevance to human disease. According to the GSBS website, the school offers students a multidisciplinary program of study, in which they have freedom of choice in curriculum and in the selection of mentors for their graduate-thesis research. Since the first class of seven students enrolled in 1979, more than 1000 students have earned PhDs from the GSBS.

Graduate School of Nursing

Since the opening of the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing (GSN) in 1986, more than 600 students have obtained a nursing master's, post-master's or doctoral degree from the school. The GSN prepares professional and

advanced practice nurse An advanced practice nurse (APN) is a nurse with post-graduate education and training in nursing. Nurses practising at this level may work in either a specialist or generalist capacity. APNs are prepared with advanced didactic and clinical educa ...

s, nurse scientists and educators as leaders in nursing and health-care delivery to diverse populations through education, research, practice and service (according to the GSN website).

Research

UMMS researchers have made advances in a broad range of disease families, from HIV and infectious diseases to cancer, genetic disorders, diabetes and immune disease. UMMS faculty discovered the link between the immune system and type-1 diabetes, found the genetic cause underlying the third-most-common form of the muscular dystrophies, and established the fundamental difference between HIV and other retroviruses. In the 1990s. UMMS Professor of Medicine Shan Lu, leader of the UMMS DNA-based flu vaccine efforts, worked to advance the development of a potential avian-flu vaccine. Lu's team has also been recognized for its work in the creation of an HIV vaccine, which in Phase I testing was found to generate antibody and T-cell responses in otherwise healthy people not infected with HIV. In 1998, UMMS researcher

Craig Mello Craig Cameron Mello (born October 18, 1960) is an American biologist and professor of molecular medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine ...

(an investigator at the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

) and his colleague

Andrew Fire Andrew Zachary Fire (born April 27, 1959) is an American biologist and professor of pathology and of genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with Craig C. Mell ...

(of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, then of the

Carnegie Institution The Carnegie Institution for Science, also known as Carnegie Science and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is an organization established to fund and perform scientific research in the United States. This institution is headquartered in Wa ...

in Washington, D.C.) discovered

RNA interference RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known by ...

(RNAi). They demonstrated that small pieces of double-stranded RNA had interfered with the expression of a gene whose coding sequence of DNA was similar to that of the RNA they tested. Mello and Fire received the 2006

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...

for their discoveries related to RNA interference. Federal and private research grants and contracts at UMCMS rose from about $2 million in 1977 to more than $322 million in 2022 an increase of over 16,000% over forty-five years.

MassBiologics

MassBiologics is the only publicly owned, non-profit FDA-licensed manufacturer of vaccine and other biologic products in the United States. First established in 1894, the University of Massachusetts Biologic Laboratory was re-established in 1997 by the Massachusetts legislature, and oversight was transferred from the Department of Public Health to UMMS. In recent years, MassBiologics has been called upon to respond to the threat of SARS, avian flu, and rabies. MassBiologics has developed or collaborated on five "orphan products" over the past twenty years. MassBiologics continues to market its FDA-licensed Td (tetanus and diphtheria) vaccine, providing a substantial proportion of the U.S. requirement for this vaccine. MassBiologics participates in the discovery, production and clinical testing of monoclonal antibodies (including antibodies to

Clostridioides difficile ''Clostridioides difficile'' ( syn. ''Clostridium difficile'') is a bacterium known for causing serious diarrheal infections, and may also cause colon cancer. It is known also as ''C. difficile'', or ''C. diff'' (), and is a Gram-positive spec ...

), antibodies now known as actoxumab and

bezlotoxumab Bezlotoxumab, sold under the brand name Zinplava, is a human monoclonal antibody designed for the prevention of recurrence of Clostridioides difficile infection, ''Clostridioides difficile'' infections. Bezlotoxumab binds to ''Clostridioides di ...

In 2005, the firm opened an $80 million facility for monoclonal-antibody production. Co-developed with

Serum Institute of India Serum Institute of India (SII) is an Indian multinational biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals company, based in Pune. It is the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume. It was founded by Cyrus Poonawalla in 1966 and is a part of Cy ...

, it invented a fast-acting anti-Rabies drug called Rabies Human Monoclonal Antibody (RMAb). UMMS is extending its mission of public service through its Commonwealth Medicine initiative.

Faculty

Notable faculty members include: *

Victor Ambros Victor R. Ambros (born December 1, 1953) is an American developmental biologist who discovered the first known microRNA (miRNA). He is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He completed both his undergraduate and doct ...

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

laureate for the discovery of

microRNA Micro ribonucleic acid (microRNA, miRNA, μRNA) are small, single-stranded, non-coding RNA molecules containing 21–23 nucleotides. Found in plants, animals, and even some viruses, miRNAs are involved in RNA silencing and post-transcr ...

. * Job Dekker, developer of the

chromosome conformation capture Chromosome conformation capture techniques (often abbreviated to 3C technologies or 3C-based methods) are a set of molecular biology methods used to analyze the spatial organization of chromatin in a cell. These methods quantify the number of in ...

method. * Katherine A. Fitzgerald, molecular biologist and virologist, finalist for the 2011

Vilcek Prize The Vilcek Foundation is an American nonprofit organization. The foundation's programs include the Vilcek Foundation Prizes. The Foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The missio ...

Craig C. Mello Craig Cameron Mello (born October 18, 1960) is an American biologist and professor of molecular medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicin ...

laureate for the discovery of

. * Phillip D. Zamore, biochemist of small RNAs.

Affiliates and clinical partners

The hospital and clinical components of UMMS are part of UMass Memorial Health Care (UMMHC). UMass Memorial is a multibillion-dollar health-care system consisting of acute-care hospitals, ambulatory clinics and a network of

primary care Primary care is a model of health care that supports first-contact, accessible, continuous, comprehensive, and coordinated person-focused care. It aims to optimise population health and reduce disparities across the groups by ensuring equitable ...

physicians and specialists throughout

central Massachusetts Central Massachusetts is the geographically central region of Massachusetts. Though definitions vary, most include all of Worcester County and the northwest corner of Middlesex County. Worcester, the largest city in the area, and the seat of Wor ...

. With approximately 13,000 employees (including 1,500 physicians), UMMHC is the largest health-care provider in central Massachusetts. Its flagship hospital (UMass Memorial Medical Center) straddles two campuses along Route 9 in

and is designated by the

American College of Surgeons The American College of Surgeons (ACS) is a professional medical association for surgeons and surgical team members, founded in 1913. It claims more than 90,000 members in 144 countries. History The ACS was founded in 1913 as an outgrowth of ...

as a

Level I Trauma Center A trauma center, or trauma centre, is a hospital equipped and staffed to provide care for patients suffering from major trauma, major traumatic injuries such as Falling (accident), falls, motor vehicle collisions, or gunshot wounds. The term "tra ...

. Its largest publicly funded affiliate in the field of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

research is the

Quality Assurance Review Center The Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core (IROC) is a center for the evaluation of data produced by clinical trials funded by the National Cancer Institute, as part of the National Clinical Trials Network "to provide integrated radiation oncology ...

(QARC), located in

Lincoln, Rhode Island Lincoln is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 22,529 at the 2020 census. Lincoln is located in northeastern Rhode Island, north of Providence. Lincoln is part of the Providence metropolitan statistica ...

. Supported by the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

(NCI) and the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

(NIH), QARC receives radiotherapy data from around 1,000 hospitals in the United States. UMMHC also maintains three community hospitals: *Clinton Hospital in

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has also been used as a given nam ...

*HealthAlliance Hospital in Fitchburg and

Leominster Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England; it is located at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of almos ...

*Marlborough Hospital in

Marlborough Marlborough or the Marlborough may refer to: Places Australia * Marlborough, Queensland * Principality of Marlborough, a short-lived micronation in 1993 * Marlborough Highway, Tasmania; Malborough was an historic name for the place at the sou ...

Campus

Albert Sherman Center

The Albert Sherman Center, a 512,000 square foot biomedical research and education facility, was unveiled to the public on January 30, 2013, in a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Gov.

Deval Patrick Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was the first African Americans, African-American Governor of Massachusetts and the first Democratic Pa ...

Lamar Soutter Library

Named in honor of Lamar Soutter (founding dean of the School of Medicine), the Lamar Soutter Library at UMMS contains more than 288,000 volumes and is the state's leading source of biomedical information for inter‑library loan. The only public medical library in the state, it is the regional medical library for New England and one of eight regional libraries comprising the National Library of Medicine.

Aaron Lazare Medical Research Building

To support the more than 260 investigators working on advancements in the treatment of disease and injury, the

Aaron Lazare Aaron Lazare (February 14, 1936 – July 14, 2015) was the Chancellor and Dean of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, in Worcester, Massachusetts, from May 15, 1991 until March 15, 2007. He died on July 14, 2015, due to complications ...

Medical Research Building (a research facility) opened in October 2001. The 10-story structure, named for the chancellor emeritus, expanded upon the medical school's existing of campus buildings and in the adjacent Massachusetts Biotechnology Research Park.

Extended campus

The UMMS extended campus includes the Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, labs and offices in the Massachusetts Biotechnology Research Park in Worcester; sites in Shrewsbury and Auburn; the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center in Waltham and the New England Newborn Screening Program and Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories in Jamaica Plain and Mattapan.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Massachusetts Medical School, University Of Universities and colleges established in 1962 Medical schools in Massachusetts Chan Medical School

University of Massachusetts Medical School The UMass Chan Medical School is a public medical school in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is part of the University of Massachusetts system. It consists of three schools: the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Morningside Graduate School of Biom ...

Buildings and structures in Worcester, Massachusetts Hospitals in Worcester, Massachusetts