Press Release: 12/30/2025
Accelerating Discovery through Shared Core Facilities at UMass Chan
- December 29, 2025
The Research Infrastructure program has been a staple of the MLSC since the Center was authorized in 2008 and is designed to strengthen the Commonwealth’s life sciences ecosystem by enabling and advancing research and development activities. This funding mechanism supports not-for-profit institutions in acquiring scientific infrastructure and equipment that enable multidisciplinary research, enhance shared core facilities, and increase access to state-of-the-art technologies for Massachusetts-based investigators and industry scientists.
Since 2015, the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Chan Medical School has received two Research Infrastructure awards totaling $7.8 million in MLSC investment to establish and expand its Cryo-Electron Microscopy (Cryo-EM) Core Facility. MLSC funding supported the acquisition of two advanced cryo-electron microscopes, which have been critical resources for a wide range of structural biology research projects including visualizing virus binding sites, understanding signal transduction pathways associated with immune disorders, intergrating modulation of synaptic plasticity in the nervous system, and uncovering thermoregulatory mechanisms of temperature-dependent activation of brown fat stores.
Led by Dr. Chen Xu, an internationally recognized expert in cryo-electron microscopy, the Cryo-EM Core Facility is available to researchers across both academic and industry sectors. Since the MLSC’s initial investment to establish the Core, the facility has supported 171 academic research groups, both internal and external to UMass Chan Medical School. In addition, the Core has served as a critical resource for the industry, supporting 123 companies over the past decade, approximately 90 percent of which are located in Massachusetts.
One such Massachusetts-based company, Beam Therapeutics, has leveraged the Cryo-EM Core to support development of its precision genetic medicines, including research focused on Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), a potentially life-limiting genetic disorder that may cause disease in both lung and liver function. Beam is developing a base editing therapeutic designed to correct the underlying genetic mutation responsible for the disease. Access to the Cryo-EM Core has enhanced the company’s understanding of structure-function relationships and supported robust quality control in development pipelines.
The impact of facilities such as the UMass Chan Cryo-EM Core will be highlighted at MLSC’s upcoming Convening of the Cores on February 10, 2026, at The Engine in Cambridge, MA. This convening will bring together Core Facilities, researchers across academia and industry, and equipment vendors to advertise resources that are publicly available throughout the state and the capabilities of these resources. Click here to learn more and register to attend.