2 leading gene experts hired; `UMass ... really coming into its own'.

Byline: Elizabeth Cooney

WORCESTER - The University of Massachusetts Medical School has hired two leading RNA researchers, a reflection of its increasing scientific stature and growing ambitions.

Victor R. Ambros, who discovered molecules called microRNAs that are important in regulating genes, is leaving Dartmouth Medical School for UMass, and Melissa J. Moore, noted for her work with gene splicing and messenger RNA, is coming from Brandeis University, UMass announced yesterday.

"To me it's a validation of the superior RNA community that exists at the medical school," said Dr. Michael F. Collins, the school's interim chancellor. "Here you have two of the world's most prominent RNA researchers who say they want to come to UMass. I think it's just incredible momentum for us."

UMass Medical School has been at the center of plans by Gov. Deval L. Patrick to invest $1 billion in life sciences. In addition to a stem cell bank and a gene therapy initiative, an advanced therapeutics cluster would include an institute devoted to the gene-silencing mechanism know as RNA interference. UMass researcher Craig C. Mello won last year's Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology with Stanford's Andrew Z. Fire for their discovery of RNAi.

Dr. Ambros and Dr. Moore do not work specifically on RNAi. They focus on how RNA molecules direct what proteins are made and how genetic information is transmitted. Dr. Ambros said the prospect of an RNAi institute was appealing but not why he is coming to Worcester.

"UMass has a growing reputation in the Boston scientific community and beyond as a place that is really coming into its own," Dr. Ambros said. "When I visited UMass, I found the community is even more exciting and interactive and energetic than I had imagined."

Dr. Moore said she will be looking for ways to translate her basic scientific work into therapies to treat disease.

"I think UMass is just really at an exciting stage of its growth and there is a tremendous community already there for the kind of research I do in RNA and what Victor does as well," she said.

Dr. Ambros, 53, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in biology at MIT, where he also did postdoctoral work. While at MIT he worked with three Nobel winners: Dr. David Baltimore on the poliovirus genome, Dr. H. Robert Horvitz on the genetic regulation of organ development and Dr. Phillip A. Sharp, who was later honored for his work with split genes and RNA splicing.

When Dr. Ambros was on the faculty of Harvard, Dr. Mello was a graduate student in a joint lab with Dr. Ambros and another researcher. It was Dr. Mello who called Dr. Ambros about coming to UMass.

In January Dr. Ambros will move into lab space one floor up from Dr. Mello's lab.

"It'll be like old times," Dr. Mello said. "Victor turned out to be a very important mentor for me in my graduate work."

Dr. Ambros said he was drawn to the collaboration across different departments at UMass that have RNA as a common interest.

"There's really a great convergence of bright people and exciting problems" at UMass, he said. "When I heard Melissa Moore was planning to move there, that was sort of the clincher."

Dr. Moore, 45, is a Howard Hughes Investigator who earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry and biology from the College of William and Mary and a doctorate in biological chemistry from MIT. She has made major contributions to understanding how RNA is edited by the cell to make sure it is intact, according to Dr. Sharp of MIT, in whose lab she also worked as a postdoctoral researcher.

"They got the A Team," Dr. Sharp said about the two new UMass scientists.

Dr. Moore said she was first contacted by UMass professor and RNA scientist Phillip D. Zamore, another Dr. Sharp lab alum.

Dr. Mello said the medical school is not done recruiting. It plans to hire 15 more faculty members to focus on bringing therapies based on RNAi's gene silencing into the clinic.

"We're thrilled, of course, to get Victor and Melissa. I think it's just a beginning for us," Dr. Mello said. "One of the things we've done is build a lot of strength in RNA biology, but we need to take it up a notch ... with more of a clinical focus, trying to develop and apply therapeutics to human disease that are based on RNAi.

"It's time to begin bringing this into the clinic," he said.

ART: PHOTOS

CUTLINE: (1) Dr. Moore (2) Dr. Ambros