Education (Colleges & Universities)
Here's a look at documents from public, private and community colleges in the U.S.
Education (Colleges & Universities)
Featured Stories
Washington University St. Louis George Warren Brown School: Family Resilience Can Help Protect Children From Climate Change
ST. LOUIS, Missouri, Sept. 25 -- The Washington University St. Louis George Warren Brown School issued the following news:
* * *
Family resilience can help protect children from climate change
Neil Schoenherr
9/24/2026
As climate change brings more extreme weather events, strengthening families before disasters strike can help protect children's health and well-being, says Mary McKay, professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and expert on child mental health.
Climate change can bring more than environmental disruption. Extreme weather, drought and heat can contribute ... Show Full Article ST. LOUIS, Missouri, Sept. 25 -- The Washington University St. Louis George Warren Brown School issued the following news: * * * Family resilience can help protect children from climate change Neil Schoenherr 9/24/2026 As climate change brings more extreme weather events, strengthening families before disasters strike can help protect children's health and well-being, says Mary McKay, professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and expert on child mental health. Climate change can bring more than environmental disruption. Extreme weather, drought and heat can contributeto food insecurity, financial hardship, displacement and social instability -- circumstances that can be especially difficult for children.
A recent paper co-authored by McKay, "Strengthening Child and Family Resilience in the Context of Climate Change: A Call to Action," published in the journal Global Social Welfare, calls for greater attention to strengthening family resilience as part of the response to climate change.
McKay and her co-authors, including WashU doctoral students Josephine Nabayinda and Claire Najjuuko, argue that preparing families before crises occur can help reduce their effects on children.
Climate change disrupts children's support systems
Children depend on adults, schools and communities for safety, stability and emotional well-being, McKay said. Climate-related disruptions can affect all of those systems at once.
"Climate change disrupts these systems simultaneously and sets the conditions for food insecurity, displacement, economic hardship and social instability, thereby increasing children's vulnerability to poor mental health outcomes," she said.
A severe weather event, for example, can damage a home, disrupt school attendance, separate children from friends and community networks and interrupt daily routines.
Because children have fewer resources and coping skills than adults to navigate these disruptions, strengthening the adults and systems around them can provide an important layer of protection, she said.
Preparation can build resilience
Families can prepare for climate-related disruptions by talking with children about what might happen, developing contingency plans and having resources available to cushion the impact.
"The better prepared the adults are to talk with their children about these likely circumstances, to have contingency plans as needed and to have some resources in reserve to buffer the effects, the less children will be affected," McKay said.
The goal is to make climate-related disruptions more manageable rather than allowing them to destabilize an entire household.
"Environmental shifts become circumstances to be planned for, rather then emergencies that upend the family and thus affect the child's physical and emotional well-being."
Policies can strengthen families before disaster strikes
McKay points to several ways policymakers and community leaders can help, including providing timely emergency assistance for basic needs, restoring schools and other institutions serving children as quickly as possible after disasters and supporting caregivers in helping children maintain safety and routines.
Advance preparation is critical, particularly for families with fewer resources.
"Leaders should create and test disaster preparation programs targeting families most likely to be impacted by climate-related changes, like flooding, before these events occur to assist with adaptation and protection. For example, financial strengthening interventions could assist families in accumulating resources and organizing their support networks in advance in order to withstand these 'shocks,'" McKay said.
Building resilience before a disaster occurs can help families adapt when climate-related disruptions inevitably come -- and help protect the children who depend on them.
* * *
Original text here: https://brownschool.washu.edu/2026/09/family-resilience-can-help-protect-children-from-climate-change/
* * *
Family resilience can help protect children from climate change
Neil Schoenherr
9/24/2026
As climate change brings more extreme weather events, strengthening families before disasters strike can help protect children's health and well-being, says Mary McKay, professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and expert on child mental health.
Climate change can bring more than environmental disruption. Extreme weather, drought and heat can contribute ... Show Full Article ST. LOUIS, Missouri, Sept. 25 -- The Washington University St. Louis George Warren Brown School issued the following news: * * * Family resilience can help protect children from climate change Neil Schoenherr 9/24/2026 As climate change brings more extreme weather events, strengthening families before disasters strike can help protect children's health and well-being, says Mary McKay, professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and expert on child mental health. Climate change can bring more than environmental disruption. Extreme weather, drought and heat can contributeto food insecurity, financial hardship, displacement and social instability -- circumstances that can be especially difficult for children.
A recent paper co-authored by McKay, "Strengthening Child and Family Resilience in the Context of Climate Change: A Call to Action," published in the journal Global Social Welfare, calls for greater attention to strengthening family resilience as part of the response to climate change.
McKay and her co-authors, including WashU doctoral students Josephine Nabayinda and Claire Najjuuko, argue that preparing families before crises occur can help reduce their effects on children.
Climate change disrupts children's support systems
Children depend on adults, schools and communities for safety, stability and emotional well-being, McKay said. Climate-related disruptions can affect all of those systems at once.
"Climate change disrupts these systems simultaneously and sets the conditions for food insecurity, displacement, economic hardship and social instability, thereby increasing children's vulnerability to poor mental health outcomes," she said.
A severe weather event, for example, can damage a home, disrupt school attendance, separate children from friends and community networks and interrupt daily routines.
Because children have fewer resources and coping skills than adults to navigate these disruptions, strengthening the adults and systems around them can provide an important layer of protection, she said.
Preparation can build resilience
Families can prepare for climate-related disruptions by talking with children about what might happen, developing contingency plans and having resources available to cushion the impact.
"The better prepared the adults are to talk with their children about these likely circumstances, to have contingency plans as needed and to have some resources in reserve to buffer the effects, the less children will be affected," McKay said.
The goal is to make climate-related disruptions more manageable rather than allowing them to destabilize an entire household.
"Environmental shifts become circumstances to be planned for, rather then emergencies that upend the family and thus affect the child's physical and emotional well-being."
Policies can strengthen families before disaster strikes
McKay points to several ways policymakers and community leaders can help, including providing timely emergency assistance for basic needs, restoring schools and other institutions serving children as quickly as possible after disasters and supporting caregivers in helping children maintain safety and routines.
Advance preparation is critical, particularly for families with fewer resources.
"Leaders should create and test disaster preparation programs targeting families most likely to be impacted by climate-related changes, like flooding, before these events occur to assist with adaptation and protection. For example, financial strengthening interventions could assist families in accumulating resources and organizing their support networks in advance in order to withstand these 'shocks,'" McKay said.
Building resilience before a disaster occurs can help families adapt when climate-related disruptions inevitably come -- and help protect the children who depend on them.
* * *
Original text here: https://brownschool.washu.edu/2026/09/family-resilience-can-help-protect-children-from-climate-change/
Virginia Tech: Hurricane Helene Deposited Nearly One-fifth of Annual Microplastics at One North Carolina Site
BLACKSBURG, Virginia, Sept. 25 (TNSjou) -- Virginia Tech issued the following news:
* * *
Hurricane Helene deposited nearly one-fifth of annual microplastics at one North Carolina site
Microplastics are often linked to urban areas near roads and development, but a new study shows that wind and rain carry them from the atmosphere into remote headwaters -- a process intensified by major storms such as Hurricane Helene.
By Kelly Izlar
24 Sep 2026
Rainfall from Hurricane Helene produced a short-term spike in microplastics at three sites in Western North Carolina, with microplastic deposition ... Show Full Article BLACKSBURG, Virginia, Sept. 25 (TNSjou) -- Virginia Tech issued the following news: * * * Hurricane Helene deposited nearly one-fifth of annual microplastics at one North Carolina site Microplastics are often linked to urban areas near roads and development, but a new study shows that wind and rain carry them from the atmosphere into remote headwaters -- a process intensified by major storms such as Hurricane Helene. By Kelly Izlar 24 Sep 2026 Rainfall from Hurricane Helene produced a short-term spike in microplastics at three sites in Western North Carolina, with microplastic depositionthree to 22 times higher than before the storm.
The storm accounted for 18.8 percent of the annual microplastic deposition at Highlands Biological Station at Western Carolina University, 4.2 percent at Iron Duff in Haywood County, and 4.6 percent at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in Macon County.
"The microplastic footprint Helene left behind was pretty substantial," said Austin Gray, a Virginia Tech biologist. "Microplastics are depositing all over terrestrial and aquatic areas, especially after a storm event, and that changes what we consider an impacted zone since the particles deposited could have originated from areas far away."
This was the first U.S.-based study to assess microplastic deposition before, during, and after a hurricane. The research -- conducted by team from Virginia Tech, Western Carolina University, Highlands Biological Station, and the University of North Carolina -- was published recently in Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management.
Pre-storm
Before Helene, researchers were measuring microplastics in the headwaters of the Richland Creek Watershed and the Cullasaja River Basin. They wanted to know how many microplastic particles were transported through the streams -- and how much is floating around in the atmosphere and deposited in these remote locations by rain or wind.
To answer these questions, they measured microplastic accumulation at three different locations, distinguishing between particles that settled in dry periods and those that settled in rainy periods.
The samplers were actively collecting through the storm that struck the southern Appalachian Mountains on Sept. 25, 2024, bringing 20 to 30 inches of rain and causing catastrophic flooding.
The findings show that during Hurricane Helene, microplastic deposition was three to 22 times higher than before the storm.
Post-storm
Data collection continued in the weeks after the storm, offering new insights into how microplastics circulate through the environment and the effects of a major storm and its aftermath.
Microplastics are usually associated with urban watersheds near roads and development. The headwaters targeted in this study are rural, forested, and generally seen as pristine or less impacted by microplastic pollution.
"There's been very little investigation into microplastics within small headwaters, particularly low-order stream networks, but these small streams account for more than 70 percent of the total stream length in the continental U.S.," Gray said. "And if it's happening in the headwaters, then it's going to flow downstream."
But how are microplastics getting into headwaters? A recent study in Nature estimated that more than 600 quadrillion microplastic particles are in the atmosphere -- that's 600 followed by 15 zeros. Working with Virginia Tech's Hosein Foroutan in civil engineering, Gray and his collaborators estimated that the storm released 385 quadrillion additional microplastic particles into the atmosphere above normal levels.
After Helene, the researchers also saw an uptick in microplastics deposited on dry days.
"We speculate that it was because microplastics deposited by the storm stuck to the surface of the leaves. Later, wind may have blown those particles back off the leaves, causing more microplastics to be deposited on subsequent dry days," said Nathaniel Barrett, a Virginia Tech graduate student in biological sciences who works in Gray's Aquatic Toxicology and Ecology Lab. "That's something that we're trying to investigate in future research."
Other outstanding questions include the full extent of the storm's microplastic footprint, what risks microplastics pose to human health and biodiversity, and how to better track the movement of microplastics through the environment.
"This is just one study," Gray said. "And it's the only one of its kind conducted in the United States. But imagine what this looks like as we confront storm events of growing intensity and frequency with coordinated sampling efforts and funding support to better understand these dynamics. This is something that could be even more impactful in the Southeast, where there's a lot of vulnerable biodiversity."
Additional researchers include:
* Jason Love, Western Carolina University
* James Campbell, Western Carolina University
* Jerry Miller, Western Carolina University
* Radmila Petric, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
* Robert Youker, Western Carolina University
* Xinyue Huang, Virginia Tech
* * *
Original text here: https://news.vt.edu/articles/2026/09/science-helene-microplastics.html
* * *
Hurricane Helene deposited nearly one-fifth of annual microplastics at one North Carolina site
Microplastics are often linked to urban areas near roads and development, but a new study shows that wind and rain carry them from the atmosphere into remote headwaters -- a process intensified by major storms such as Hurricane Helene.
By Kelly Izlar
24 Sep 2026
Rainfall from Hurricane Helene produced a short-term spike in microplastics at three sites in Western North Carolina, with microplastic deposition ... Show Full Article BLACKSBURG, Virginia, Sept. 25 (TNSjou) -- Virginia Tech issued the following news: * * * Hurricane Helene deposited nearly one-fifth of annual microplastics at one North Carolina site Microplastics are often linked to urban areas near roads and development, but a new study shows that wind and rain carry them from the atmosphere into remote headwaters -- a process intensified by major storms such as Hurricane Helene. By Kelly Izlar 24 Sep 2026 Rainfall from Hurricane Helene produced a short-term spike in microplastics at three sites in Western North Carolina, with microplastic depositionthree to 22 times higher than before the storm.
The storm accounted for 18.8 percent of the annual microplastic deposition at Highlands Biological Station at Western Carolina University, 4.2 percent at Iron Duff in Haywood County, and 4.6 percent at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in Macon County.
"The microplastic footprint Helene left behind was pretty substantial," said Austin Gray, a Virginia Tech biologist. "Microplastics are depositing all over terrestrial and aquatic areas, especially after a storm event, and that changes what we consider an impacted zone since the particles deposited could have originated from areas far away."
This was the first U.S.-based study to assess microplastic deposition before, during, and after a hurricane. The research -- conducted by team from Virginia Tech, Western Carolina University, Highlands Biological Station, and the University of North Carolina -- was published recently in Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management.
Pre-storm
Before Helene, researchers were measuring microplastics in the headwaters of the Richland Creek Watershed and the Cullasaja River Basin. They wanted to know how many microplastic particles were transported through the streams -- and how much is floating around in the atmosphere and deposited in these remote locations by rain or wind.
To answer these questions, they measured microplastic accumulation at three different locations, distinguishing between particles that settled in dry periods and those that settled in rainy periods.
The samplers were actively collecting through the storm that struck the southern Appalachian Mountains on Sept. 25, 2024, bringing 20 to 30 inches of rain and causing catastrophic flooding.
The findings show that during Hurricane Helene, microplastic deposition was three to 22 times higher than before the storm.
Post-storm
Data collection continued in the weeks after the storm, offering new insights into how microplastics circulate through the environment and the effects of a major storm and its aftermath.
Microplastics are usually associated with urban watersheds near roads and development. The headwaters targeted in this study are rural, forested, and generally seen as pristine or less impacted by microplastic pollution.
"There's been very little investigation into microplastics within small headwaters, particularly low-order stream networks, but these small streams account for more than 70 percent of the total stream length in the continental U.S.," Gray said. "And if it's happening in the headwaters, then it's going to flow downstream."
But how are microplastics getting into headwaters? A recent study in Nature estimated that more than 600 quadrillion microplastic particles are in the atmosphere -- that's 600 followed by 15 zeros. Working with Virginia Tech's Hosein Foroutan in civil engineering, Gray and his collaborators estimated that the storm released 385 quadrillion additional microplastic particles into the atmosphere above normal levels.
After Helene, the researchers also saw an uptick in microplastics deposited on dry days.
"We speculate that it was because microplastics deposited by the storm stuck to the surface of the leaves. Later, wind may have blown those particles back off the leaves, causing more microplastics to be deposited on subsequent dry days," said Nathaniel Barrett, a Virginia Tech graduate student in biological sciences who works in Gray's Aquatic Toxicology and Ecology Lab. "That's something that we're trying to investigate in future research."
Other outstanding questions include the full extent of the storm's microplastic footprint, what risks microplastics pose to human health and biodiversity, and how to better track the movement of microplastics through the environment.
"This is just one study," Gray said. "And it's the only one of its kind conducted in the United States. But imagine what this looks like as we confront storm events of growing intensity and frequency with coordinated sampling efforts and funding support to better understand these dynamics. This is something that could be even more impactful in the Southeast, where there's a lot of vulnerable biodiversity."
Additional researchers include:
* Jason Love, Western Carolina University
* James Campbell, Western Carolina University
* Jerry Miller, Western Carolina University
* Radmila Petric, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
* Robert Youker, Western Carolina University
* Xinyue Huang, Virginia Tech
* * *
Original text here: https://news.vt.edu/articles/2026/09/science-helene-microplastics.html
University of Nottingham innovation to drive NHS rollout of ultra-rapid brain tumour genetic testing
BIRMINGHAM, England, Sept. 25 -- The University of Nottingham issued the following news release:
* * *
University of Nottingham innovation to drive NHS rollout of ultra-rapid brain tumour genetic testing
*
A groundbreaking ultra-rapid method of genetically diagnosing brain tumours, developed by researchers at the University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, is set to benefit patients for the first time, thanks to plans to roll out the innovation at a number of NHS sites across the UK.
The pioneering approach, which can cut the time it takes to classify tumours from 26 ... Show Full Article BIRMINGHAM, England, Sept. 25 -- The University of Nottingham issued the following news release: * * * University of Nottingham innovation to drive NHS rollout of ultra-rapid brain tumour genetic testing * A groundbreaking ultra-rapid method of genetically diagnosing brain tumours, developed by researchers at the University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, is set to benefit patients for the first time, thanks to plans to roll out the innovation at a number of NHS sites across the UK. The pioneering approach, which can cut the time it takes to classify tumours from 26days to as little as two hours, is being piloted as part of a two-year pilot programme funded by the NHS Genomics Unit.
The PS2.1 million initiative, Equitable Access to Rapid Genomic Diagnosis in Brain Tumours: A National Genomic Network of Excellence, aims to make cutting-edge genomic diagnosis more accessible for patients and brings together leading genomic medicine services, universities and NHS organisations from across England to explore how the technology can be embedded into routine clinical care.
The University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust will provide the scientific leadership for the network, building on their internationally recognised research published in Neuro-Oncology last year.
Brain tumours affect more than 12,000 people in the UK each year. Determining the exact type of tumour requires complex genetic testing, which is often sent to specialist laboratories and can take several weeks to complete. These delays can leave patients and their families facing an anxious wait for answers and may postpone important treatment decisions.
The Nottingham-developed technology addresses this challenge by dramatically accelerating the testing process.
Professor Matt Loose, from the University of Nottingham's School of Life Sciences and scientific lead for the project, developed a method that uses Oxford Nanopore sequencing technology to rapidly target and analyse specific regions of DNA. Combined with ROBIN, a software platform that enables comprehensive tumour classification, the approach provides clinicians with vital genetic information far more quickly than current methods.
This new method allows us to focus on the specific regions of DNA needed to answer important clinical questions, such as what type of tumour a patient has and how it could be treated. By rapidly analysing the most relevant genetic information, we can generate comprehensive tumour classifications in a fraction of the time currently required. "The goal of this new network is to ensure that this scientific research can be translated into clinical practice, and we couldn't be more excited about this roll-out." Professor Matt Loose, from the University of Nottingham's School of Life Sciences and scientific lead for the project
In the first instance, the technology will be available through a network of NHS centres across England, including the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, helping to ensure more patients can benefit from faster, more precise diagnoses.
Stuart Smith, Consultant Neurosurgeon at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham, said: "I am very proud to have been part of this exceptional team creating this rapid genomic testing which will save valuable waiting time for patients who potentially are being told they don't have time on their side.
"The ability to have detailed information about the tumour at the point when decisions are being made in the operating theatre is game-changing. In some cases that can help us judge how far we should safely go while protecting healthy brain tissue.
"This gives us a glimpse of how brain tumour surgery could change in the future - with genomic information available during the operation itself, helping us make more informed decisions for each individual patient."
The pilot programme will evaluate how successfully the test can be delivered in routine NHS settings, with the long-term ambition of expanding it to neuropathology centres across England. If successful, the innovation could improve care for thousands of brain tumour patients each year by reducing waiting times for diagnosis and enabling earlier treatment decisions.
The award marks a significant milestone in translating world-leading research from the University of Nottingham into real-world clinical impact, reinforcing the university's position at the forefront of genomic medicine and cancer diagnostics.
The project is being delivered through the Central and South Genomic Medicine Service, hosted by Birmingham Women's and Children NHS Foundation Trust, and the East Genomic Medicine Service, hosted by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The clinical leadership for the Network of Excellence comes from the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham, with scientific leadership from the University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals Trust. Teams across these establishments, as well as the South East and North Thames Genomic Medicine Services, have all had a significant role in shaping the Network of Excellence.
Testing will be available at King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust.
#Story credits
More information is available from Professor Matt Loose from the School of Life Sciences at Matt.loose@nottingham.ac.uk
Charlotte Wall - Media Relations Manager - Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Email: charlotte.wall@nottingham.ac.uk
Phone: 0115 748 4417
Location:
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked among the world's top 100 universities (QS World University Rankings 2027), the University of Nottingham delivers an exceptional research-led education and an outstanding student experience. From the pioneering vision of our founder, Sir Jesse Boot, to groundbreaking achievements such as the development of MRI technology and becoming the first UK university to establish international campuses, we have a proud history of shaping the way people live, work and understand the world. We continue to build on that legacy, empowering our students, staff and partners to change what's next and create positive impact locally and globally.
The strength of our research places us among the UK's leading universities, ranked 7th for research power in REF 2021. The discovery of MRI and ibuprofen was just the beginning. Today, our world-leading research is developing breakthrough ideas that shape the future of healthcare, technology and society.
Recognised as the UK's third most targeted university by leading employers (The Graduate Market in 2026, High Fliers Research), we are proud to produce graduates who are consistently in demand for their skills, confidence and industry-ready experience.
As a major employer and industry partner, locally and globally, the University of Nottingham invests in the city of Nottingham and in future generations of talent. Alongside Nottingham Trent University, we lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, a pioneering collaboration to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing across the city and region. Together with our students, staff, alumni and partners, we're creating knowledge, opportunity and solutions that help change what's next.
***
Original text here: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/nhs-roll-out-brain-tumour-genetic-test
* * *
University of Nottingham innovation to drive NHS rollout of ultra-rapid brain tumour genetic testing
*
A groundbreaking ultra-rapid method of genetically diagnosing brain tumours, developed by researchers at the University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, is set to benefit patients for the first time, thanks to plans to roll out the innovation at a number of NHS sites across the UK.
The pioneering approach, which can cut the time it takes to classify tumours from 26 ... Show Full Article BIRMINGHAM, England, Sept. 25 -- The University of Nottingham issued the following news release: * * * University of Nottingham innovation to drive NHS rollout of ultra-rapid brain tumour genetic testing * A groundbreaking ultra-rapid method of genetically diagnosing brain tumours, developed by researchers at the University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, is set to benefit patients for the first time, thanks to plans to roll out the innovation at a number of NHS sites across the UK. The pioneering approach, which can cut the time it takes to classify tumours from 26days to as little as two hours, is being piloted as part of a two-year pilot programme funded by the NHS Genomics Unit.
The PS2.1 million initiative, Equitable Access to Rapid Genomic Diagnosis in Brain Tumours: A National Genomic Network of Excellence, aims to make cutting-edge genomic diagnosis more accessible for patients and brings together leading genomic medicine services, universities and NHS organisations from across England to explore how the technology can be embedded into routine clinical care.
The University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust will provide the scientific leadership for the network, building on their internationally recognised research published in Neuro-Oncology last year.
Brain tumours affect more than 12,000 people in the UK each year. Determining the exact type of tumour requires complex genetic testing, which is often sent to specialist laboratories and can take several weeks to complete. These delays can leave patients and their families facing an anxious wait for answers and may postpone important treatment decisions.
The Nottingham-developed technology addresses this challenge by dramatically accelerating the testing process.
Professor Matt Loose, from the University of Nottingham's School of Life Sciences and scientific lead for the project, developed a method that uses Oxford Nanopore sequencing technology to rapidly target and analyse specific regions of DNA. Combined with ROBIN, a software platform that enables comprehensive tumour classification, the approach provides clinicians with vital genetic information far more quickly than current methods.
This new method allows us to focus on the specific regions of DNA needed to answer important clinical questions, such as what type of tumour a patient has and how it could be treated. By rapidly analysing the most relevant genetic information, we can generate comprehensive tumour classifications in a fraction of the time currently required. "The goal of this new network is to ensure that this scientific research can be translated into clinical practice, and we couldn't be more excited about this roll-out." Professor Matt Loose, from the University of Nottingham's School of Life Sciences and scientific lead for the project
In the first instance, the technology will be available through a network of NHS centres across England, including the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, helping to ensure more patients can benefit from faster, more precise diagnoses.
Stuart Smith, Consultant Neurosurgeon at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham, said: "I am very proud to have been part of this exceptional team creating this rapid genomic testing which will save valuable waiting time for patients who potentially are being told they don't have time on their side.
"The ability to have detailed information about the tumour at the point when decisions are being made in the operating theatre is game-changing. In some cases that can help us judge how far we should safely go while protecting healthy brain tissue.
"This gives us a glimpse of how brain tumour surgery could change in the future - with genomic information available during the operation itself, helping us make more informed decisions for each individual patient."
The pilot programme will evaluate how successfully the test can be delivered in routine NHS settings, with the long-term ambition of expanding it to neuropathology centres across England. If successful, the innovation could improve care for thousands of brain tumour patients each year by reducing waiting times for diagnosis and enabling earlier treatment decisions.
The award marks a significant milestone in translating world-leading research from the University of Nottingham into real-world clinical impact, reinforcing the university's position at the forefront of genomic medicine and cancer diagnostics.
The project is being delivered through the Central and South Genomic Medicine Service, hosted by Birmingham Women's and Children NHS Foundation Trust, and the East Genomic Medicine Service, hosted by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The clinical leadership for the Network of Excellence comes from the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham, with scientific leadership from the University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals Trust. Teams across these establishments, as well as the South East and North Thames Genomic Medicine Services, have all had a significant role in shaping the Network of Excellence.
Testing will be available at King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust.
#Story credits
More information is available from Professor Matt Loose from the School of Life Sciences at Matt.loose@nottingham.ac.uk
Charlotte Wall - Media Relations Manager - Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Email: charlotte.wall@nottingham.ac.uk
Phone: 0115 748 4417
Location:
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked among the world's top 100 universities (QS World University Rankings 2027), the University of Nottingham delivers an exceptional research-led education and an outstanding student experience. From the pioneering vision of our founder, Sir Jesse Boot, to groundbreaking achievements such as the development of MRI technology and becoming the first UK university to establish international campuses, we have a proud history of shaping the way people live, work and understand the world. We continue to build on that legacy, empowering our students, staff and partners to change what's next and create positive impact locally and globally.
The strength of our research places us among the UK's leading universities, ranked 7th for research power in REF 2021. The discovery of MRI and ibuprofen was just the beginning. Today, our world-leading research is developing breakthrough ideas that shape the future of healthcare, technology and society.
Recognised as the UK's third most targeted university by leading employers (The Graduate Market in 2026, High Fliers Research), we are proud to produce graduates who are consistently in demand for their skills, confidence and industry-ready experience.
As a major employer and industry partner, locally and globally, the University of Nottingham invests in the city of Nottingham and in future generations of talent. Alongside Nottingham Trent University, we lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, a pioneering collaboration to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing across the city and region. Together with our students, staff, alumni and partners, we're creating knowledge, opportunity and solutions that help change what's next.
***
Original text here: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/nhs-roll-out-brain-tumour-genetic-test
SUNY Chancellor King Celebrates Student Success, Highlights Expansion of Nation-Leading ASAP|ACE College Completion Initiatives Across NYS
ALBANY, New York, Sept. 25 -- The State University of New York issued the following news release:
* * *
SUNY Chancellor King Celebrates Student Success, Highlights Expansion of Nation-Leading ASAP|ACE College Completion Initiatives Across NYS
September 24, 2026
Chancellor King Kicked Off Capital Region Event and was Joined by College Leaders, Students, Faculty, and Staff from the State University of New York at Albany, Columbia-Greene Community College, Hudson Valley Community College, and SUNY Schenectady
ASAP and ACE Help Students Gain and Maintain Academic Momentum So They Can Graduate ... Show Full Article ALBANY, New York, Sept. 25 -- The State University of New York issued the following news release: * * * SUNY Chancellor King Celebrates Student Success, Highlights Expansion of Nation-Leading ASAP|ACE College Completion Initiatives Across NYS September 24, 2026 Chancellor King Kicked Off Capital Region Event and was Joined by College Leaders, Students, Faculty, and Staff from the State University of New York at Albany, Columbia-Greene Community College, Hudson Valley Community College, and SUNY Schenectady ASAP and ACE Help Students Gain and Maintain Academic Momentum So They Can Graduateon Time
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Troy, NY -- State University of New York Board Chancellor John B. King Jr. today highlighted the expansion of SUNY's Advancing Success in Associate Pathways (ASAP) and Advancing Completion through Engagement (ACE), the nation's leading college retention and completion models. During the months of September and October, campuses are holding regional events to celebrate the program and the students who are benefiting. Chancellor King and SUNY Board of Trustees Chairman Merryl H. Tisch participated in the Capital Region event, joining campus leaders, students, faculty, and staff from three of 44 participating ASAP|ACE campuses: the State University of New York at Albany, Columbia-Greene Community College, Hudson Valley Community College, and SUNY Schenectady.
During the event at HVCC, Chancellor King discussed how ASAP|ACE helps students gain and maintain academic momentum so they can graduate on time. Through an additional $8 million allocated in the 2026-27 Enacted State Budget, ASAP (for students pursuing associate degrees) and ACE (for students pursuing bachelor's degrees) have expanded to serve 10,000 students at 44 SUNY campuses beginning in the fall 2026 semester.
"SUNY is committed to student success, and ASAP|ACE is a vital part of SUNY's efforts to ensure our students thrive at every stage of their academic journey," said SUNY Chancellor King. "The expansion of this nationally proven model has given more students access to the resources they need to complete their degrees on time and move forward on a path to upward mobility. We are thrilled that campuses like the State University of New York at Albany, Columbia-Greene Community College, Hudson Valley Community College, and SUNY Schenectady have grown their programs to further support student success.
ASAP and ACE provide students access to a wide variety of resources and support to help them overcome barriers that can prevent them from obtaining a degree, including comprehensive personalized advisement, academic support, career development activities, as well as funding to cover textbooks, groceries, transportation, and other costs of attendance.
Compared to similar students, ASAP|ACE participants are attempting and earning more credits and are more likely to remain enrolled or complete a degree in the semesters following their entry into the program. ASAP students are earning up to 1.4 more credits than matched comparison students in their first semester, with retention rates increasing over time and reaching 12.3 percentage points higher than matched comparison students by the fourth semester. ACE students are earning up to 1.7 more credits than matched comparison students by their third semester, with retention rates reaching 8.6 percentage points higher than matched comparison students by the fourth semester. These positive outcomes are consistent across semesters and student groups, underscoring the program's early impact on academic momentum and timely degree completion.
In the Capital Region, ASAP|ACE benefited 300 students during the first year of the program in Fall 2024, which has grown to 1,105 students in the Fall 2026 semester. At Hudson Valley Community College, ASAP expanded in the Fall 2026 semester to serve 450 students, while the State University of New York at Albany expanded to serve 355 students, and SUNY Schenectady expanded ASAP to serve 300 students. Columbia-Greene Community College is launching ASAP with 90 students with plans to reach 150 students by Spring 2027. To learn more about SUNY ASAP|ACE, visit: https://www.suny.edu/asap-ace/.
State University of New York at Albany President Havidan Rodriguez said, "At the University at Albany, we believe talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn't evenly distributed. ACE changes that by meeting students where they are, with advisement, resources, and a community that helps them stay on track and finish strong. We're grateful to SUNY and our elected leaders for investing in a program that is empowering so many of our students to find success."
Angelus David is a Business Administration graduate from the State University of New York at Albany and was one of the first students to graduate from the ACE program on campus. A transfer student from Hudson Valley Community College's ASAP program, he successfully completed his degree this summer. He said, "The dedicated support system, financial incentives, and special access to course scheduling provided by the ASAP and ACE programs were truly life changing. Thanks to the incredible guidance from HVCC and UAlbany and an entire network of dedicated advisors, these programs played a massive role in helping me graduate with a 4.0 GPA. ASAP gave me the exact help I needed as soon as possible, and ACE literally and figuratively helped me 'ace' my education. I highly recommend that every student take advantage of these phenomenal programs. You will definitely thank yourself later!"
Columbia-Greene Community College President Victoria Walsh said, "The ASAP program has been instrumental in providing a stable pathway for our students to receive their degree. Here at Columbia-Greene, our new academic programs in education and health sciences, paired with the structure of the ASAP program, will open doors for students to step into careers where our communities, particularly those that are rural, need them most."
Hudson Valley Community College President Michael Brophy said, "SUNY's ASAP program at Hudson Valley Community College has had a positive impact on the lives and futures of hundreds of our students, and we are thrilled to be able to offer even more students the opportunity to take advantage of the resources it provides. ASAP is not only instrumental in helping students build and maintain academic momentum during their time with us--it also opens the door to greater transfer opportunities to four-year colleges and universities within the SUNY system through the ACE program. This collaborative approach between SUNY campuses allows students to map their academic journey with the support they need to succeed through every step of the process."
SUNY Schenectady President Nicole Reaves said, "Students in our ASAP Program are flourishing as they benefit from individualized advising, financial assistance, and the consistent support they need to remain enrolled and graduate on time. We were proud to be one of the first SUNY community colleges included in SUNY's ASAP Pilot Program. We launched our first cohort in Spring 2024 with 52 students and ASAP rapidly grew from there. We now have 300 students supported through our ASAP office this fall. We are seeing in real time how students stay connected and on track in their degree completion through ASAP. In fact, second-semester retention has increased from 76 percent to 88 percent over the past two and a half years, and SUNY Schenectady has exceeded the SUNY ASAP average for retention in three of its four cohorts. ASAP provides the foundation, community, and support that students need to succeed as they achieve their goals. The growth and success of ASAP at SUNY Schenectady demonstrates what is possible when every student is surrounded by the resources, relationships, and encouragement they need to thrive."
Matthew Perez is in his second year at SUNY Schenectady, earning his A.A.S. degree in Computer Networking Systems and Cybersecurity major. He has been a participant in ASAP since his first semester (Fall 2025) and has found a strong foundation in ASAP both with other students and ASAP staff. He shared, "Being able to make new friends through ASAP has been amazing. I have met a lot of like-minded people who are focusing on their academics and I've had new experiences. ASAP Academic Advisor Maura Davis has helped me with my course schedule and she helped me when I was struggling to figure out planning my daily schedule with homework and tests and everything. Last February, I had heart surgery and I came back to school two weeks later. ASAP really helped me get back on my feet academically." A father of two young children, Matthew is on track to graduate in May 2027 and plans to work for New York State and earn his bachelor's degree."
State Senator Jake Ashby said, "I was glad to support these common-sense investments in the state budget to help students get the most out of their education and provide the additional resources to springboard them to rewarding careers. I'm pleased this program is making a difference right here in our district at Hudson Valley Community College."
State Senator Patricia Fahy said, "New York is home to the nation's leading public college retention and completion models, and SUNY sets the standard by investing in their students' future, holistic success that includes unique support inside and outside the classroom. The success of the SUNY ASAP and SUNY ACE programs underscores SUNY's commitment to putting its students first and affording them every opportunity possible to succeed. I am proud to represent a district here in the Capital Region with extraordinary SUNY schools, faculty, and students, and I thank Governor Hochul, Chancellor John B. King Jr., and the SUNY Board of Trustees for their partnership in championing the continued growth of higher education and student success in New York. When it comes to public higher education, New York State continues to set the national standard."
State Assemblymember John T. McDonald III, RPh, said "I am pleased to see this investment expanding access to these proven supports across SUNY, including right here in the Capital Region. Hudson Valley Community College, SUNY Albany, and SUNY Schenectady are now able to serve more than 1,100 students through ASAP and ACE, giving more students the tools and support they need to earn their degrees and build a stronger future for themselves, their families, and our communities."
State Assemblymember Gabriella A. Romero said, "I am thrilled to see the continued expansion of the ASAP/ACE programs across SUNY campuses and the positive impact it is having on students throughout New York State. For many students, the cost of textbooks, transportation, food, and other necessities can create barriers that make it more difficult to stay on track toward a degree. ASAP/ACE provide students with the academic guidance, financial resources, and personalized support they need to overcome those barriers. Expanding these programs to reach 10,000 students is an important investment in our students and their future, and I look forward to seeing even more SUNY students benefit from these opportunities."
State Assemblymember Angelo Santabarbara, said, "As a SUNY graduate, I was proud to support additional funding in this year's State Budget to expand ASAP and ACE. Getting into college is only the first step. Students also need the support to stay on track and earn their degree. These programs help remove everyday barriers--from the cost of books, food and transportation to academic support and career development. We're seeing that investment at work at SUNY Schenectady right here at home as the program grows to serve 300 students this fall, giving more students the support they need to reach their goals and build a successful future. That's the kind of investment in our students that I'll keep fighting for."
Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy said, "College can be a great path to a better job and a better future, but we know students are dealing with a lot outside the classroom, too. The cost of books, transportation, food, and other everyday expenses can make it harder to stay in school. Programs like ASAP and ACE give students the extra support they need to keep moving forward and earn their degrees. It's great to see these programs expanding across the Capital Region and reaching more students at UAlbany, Hudson Valley Community College and SUNY Schenectady. I want to thank Chancellor King for his leadership and for making programs like these a priority across SUNY. Investing in our students today means building a stronger workforce and a stronger Capital Region tomorrow."
In June, SUNY announced the expansion of ASAP|ACE to serve 10,000 students at 44 SUNY campuses starting in the Fall 2026 semester. ASAP was expanded to six more community colleges, including SUNY Adirondack, Columbia-Greene Community College, Fulton-Montgomery Community College, SUNY Niagara, North Country Community College, and SUNY Sullivan County Community College. ACE was expanded to four more State-operated campuses, including Alfred State College, SUNY Brockport, SUNY Cortland, and SUNY Geneseo.
Additionally, 16 partner campuses with existing programs expanded their capacity to serve additional students. Six community college campuses with ASAP programs in place, including Hudson Valley Community College, Nassau Community College, Rockland Community College, SUNY Schenectady Community College, Suffolk County Community College, and Westchester Community College, and 10 State-operated campuses with ACE programs in place, including the State University of New York at Albany, Buffalo State University, SUNY Delhi, Farmingdale State College, SUNY Fredonia, SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Oswego, SUNY Potsdam, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, and SUNY Old Westbury, expanded their capacity to serve additional students.
The expansion of ASAP|ACE is a result of the Enacted 2026-27 State Budget and is part of SUNY's 2026 State of the University Agenda, which describes how the programs have transformed the lives of students throughout the SUNY System. The expansion also advances SUNY's Academic Momentum Campaign, which provides SUNY campuses with financial support and technical assistance to strengthen student retention and completion rates. While SUNY's current completion rates exceed the national averages for public institutions awarding on time bachelor's and associate degrees, SUNY seeks to help all students who start their degrees have the supports they need to finish. Chancellor King's 2026 State of the University Agenda includes additional initiatives to continue strengthening academic momentum so more students make it to, and through the SUNY campus of their choice.
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About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY's 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country's oldest school of maritime, the state's only college of optometry, 12 Educational Opportunity Centers, over 30 ATTAIN digital literacy labs, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.7 million students across its portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and annually one in three New Yorkers who earn a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.
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Original text here: https://www.suny.edu/suny-news/press-releases/9-26/9-24-26-2/asap-ace.html
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SUNY Chancellor King Celebrates Student Success, Highlights Expansion of Nation-Leading ASAP|ACE College Completion Initiatives Across NYS
September 24, 2026
Chancellor King Kicked Off Capital Region Event and was Joined by College Leaders, Students, Faculty, and Staff from the State University of New York at Albany, Columbia-Greene Community College, Hudson Valley Community College, and SUNY Schenectady
ASAP and ACE Help Students Gain and Maintain Academic Momentum So They Can Graduate ... Show Full Article ALBANY, New York, Sept. 25 -- The State University of New York issued the following news release: * * * SUNY Chancellor King Celebrates Student Success, Highlights Expansion of Nation-Leading ASAP|ACE College Completion Initiatives Across NYS September 24, 2026 Chancellor King Kicked Off Capital Region Event and was Joined by College Leaders, Students, Faculty, and Staff from the State University of New York at Albany, Columbia-Greene Community College, Hudson Valley Community College, and SUNY Schenectady ASAP and ACE Help Students Gain and Maintain Academic Momentum So They Can Graduateon Time
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Troy, NY -- State University of New York Board Chancellor John B. King Jr. today highlighted the expansion of SUNY's Advancing Success in Associate Pathways (ASAP) and Advancing Completion through Engagement (ACE), the nation's leading college retention and completion models. During the months of September and October, campuses are holding regional events to celebrate the program and the students who are benefiting. Chancellor King and SUNY Board of Trustees Chairman Merryl H. Tisch participated in the Capital Region event, joining campus leaders, students, faculty, and staff from three of 44 participating ASAP|ACE campuses: the State University of New York at Albany, Columbia-Greene Community College, Hudson Valley Community College, and SUNY Schenectady.
During the event at HVCC, Chancellor King discussed how ASAP|ACE helps students gain and maintain academic momentum so they can graduate on time. Through an additional $8 million allocated in the 2026-27 Enacted State Budget, ASAP (for students pursuing associate degrees) and ACE (for students pursuing bachelor's degrees) have expanded to serve 10,000 students at 44 SUNY campuses beginning in the fall 2026 semester.
"SUNY is committed to student success, and ASAP|ACE is a vital part of SUNY's efforts to ensure our students thrive at every stage of their academic journey," said SUNY Chancellor King. "The expansion of this nationally proven model has given more students access to the resources they need to complete their degrees on time and move forward on a path to upward mobility. We are thrilled that campuses like the State University of New York at Albany, Columbia-Greene Community College, Hudson Valley Community College, and SUNY Schenectady have grown their programs to further support student success.
ASAP and ACE provide students access to a wide variety of resources and support to help them overcome barriers that can prevent them from obtaining a degree, including comprehensive personalized advisement, academic support, career development activities, as well as funding to cover textbooks, groceries, transportation, and other costs of attendance.
Compared to similar students, ASAP|ACE participants are attempting and earning more credits and are more likely to remain enrolled or complete a degree in the semesters following their entry into the program. ASAP students are earning up to 1.4 more credits than matched comparison students in their first semester, with retention rates increasing over time and reaching 12.3 percentage points higher than matched comparison students by the fourth semester. ACE students are earning up to 1.7 more credits than matched comparison students by their third semester, with retention rates reaching 8.6 percentage points higher than matched comparison students by the fourth semester. These positive outcomes are consistent across semesters and student groups, underscoring the program's early impact on academic momentum and timely degree completion.
In the Capital Region, ASAP|ACE benefited 300 students during the first year of the program in Fall 2024, which has grown to 1,105 students in the Fall 2026 semester. At Hudson Valley Community College, ASAP expanded in the Fall 2026 semester to serve 450 students, while the State University of New York at Albany expanded to serve 355 students, and SUNY Schenectady expanded ASAP to serve 300 students. Columbia-Greene Community College is launching ASAP with 90 students with plans to reach 150 students by Spring 2027. To learn more about SUNY ASAP|ACE, visit: https://www.suny.edu/asap-ace/.
State University of New York at Albany President Havidan Rodriguez said, "At the University at Albany, we believe talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn't evenly distributed. ACE changes that by meeting students where they are, with advisement, resources, and a community that helps them stay on track and finish strong. We're grateful to SUNY and our elected leaders for investing in a program that is empowering so many of our students to find success."
Angelus David is a Business Administration graduate from the State University of New York at Albany and was one of the first students to graduate from the ACE program on campus. A transfer student from Hudson Valley Community College's ASAP program, he successfully completed his degree this summer. He said, "The dedicated support system, financial incentives, and special access to course scheduling provided by the ASAP and ACE programs were truly life changing. Thanks to the incredible guidance from HVCC and UAlbany and an entire network of dedicated advisors, these programs played a massive role in helping me graduate with a 4.0 GPA. ASAP gave me the exact help I needed as soon as possible, and ACE literally and figuratively helped me 'ace' my education. I highly recommend that every student take advantage of these phenomenal programs. You will definitely thank yourself later!"
Columbia-Greene Community College President Victoria Walsh said, "The ASAP program has been instrumental in providing a stable pathway for our students to receive their degree. Here at Columbia-Greene, our new academic programs in education and health sciences, paired with the structure of the ASAP program, will open doors for students to step into careers where our communities, particularly those that are rural, need them most."
Hudson Valley Community College President Michael Brophy said, "SUNY's ASAP program at Hudson Valley Community College has had a positive impact on the lives and futures of hundreds of our students, and we are thrilled to be able to offer even more students the opportunity to take advantage of the resources it provides. ASAP is not only instrumental in helping students build and maintain academic momentum during their time with us--it also opens the door to greater transfer opportunities to four-year colleges and universities within the SUNY system through the ACE program. This collaborative approach between SUNY campuses allows students to map their academic journey with the support they need to succeed through every step of the process."
SUNY Schenectady President Nicole Reaves said, "Students in our ASAP Program are flourishing as they benefit from individualized advising, financial assistance, and the consistent support they need to remain enrolled and graduate on time. We were proud to be one of the first SUNY community colleges included in SUNY's ASAP Pilot Program. We launched our first cohort in Spring 2024 with 52 students and ASAP rapidly grew from there. We now have 300 students supported through our ASAP office this fall. We are seeing in real time how students stay connected and on track in their degree completion through ASAP. In fact, second-semester retention has increased from 76 percent to 88 percent over the past two and a half years, and SUNY Schenectady has exceeded the SUNY ASAP average for retention in three of its four cohorts. ASAP provides the foundation, community, and support that students need to succeed as they achieve their goals. The growth and success of ASAP at SUNY Schenectady demonstrates what is possible when every student is surrounded by the resources, relationships, and encouragement they need to thrive."
Matthew Perez is in his second year at SUNY Schenectady, earning his A.A.S. degree in Computer Networking Systems and Cybersecurity major. He has been a participant in ASAP since his first semester (Fall 2025) and has found a strong foundation in ASAP both with other students and ASAP staff. He shared, "Being able to make new friends through ASAP has been amazing. I have met a lot of like-minded people who are focusing on their academics and I've had new experiences. ASAP Academic Advisor Maura Davis has helped me with my course schedule and she helped me when I was struggling to figure out planning my daily schedule with homework and tests and everything. Last February, I had heart surgery and I came back to school two weeks later. ASAP really helped me get back on my feet academically." A father of two young children, Matthew is on track to graduate in May 2027 and plans to work for New York State and earn his bachelor's degree."
State Senator Jake Ashby said, "I was glad to support these common-sense investments in the state budget to help students get the most out of their education and provide the additional resources to springboard them to rewarding careers. I'm pleased this program is making a difference right here in our district at Hudson Valley Community College."
State Senator Patricia Fahy said, "New York is home to the nation's leading public college retention and completion models, and SUNY sets the standard by investing in their students' future, holistic success that includes unique support inside and outside the classroom. The success of the SUNY ASAP and SUNY ACE programs underscores SUNY's commitment to putting its students first and affording them every opportunity possible to succeed. I am proud to represent a district here in the Capital Region with extraordinary SUNY schools, faculty, and students, and I thank Governor Hochul, Chancellor John B. King Jr., and the SUNY Board of Trustees for their partnership in championing the continued growth of higher education and student success in New York. When it comes to public higher education, New York State continues to set the national standard."
State Assemblymember John T. McDonald III, RPh, said "I am pleased to see this investment expanding access to these proven supports across SUNY, including right here in the Capital Region. Hudson Valley Community College, SUNY Albany, and SUNY Schenectady are now able to serve more than 1,100 students through ASAP and ACE, giving more students the tools and support they need to earn their degrees and build a stronger future for themselves, their families, and our communities."
State Assemblymember Gabriella A. Romero said, "I am thrilled to see the continued expansion of the ASAP/ACE programs across SUNY campuses and the positive impact it is having on students throughout New York State. For many students, the cost of textbooks, transportation, food, and other necessities can create barriers that make it more difficult to stay on track toward a degree. ASAP/ACE provide students with the academic guidance, financial resources, and personalized support they need to overcome those barriers. Expanding these programs to reach 10,000 students is an important investment in our students and their future, and I look forward to seeing even more SUNY students benefit from these opportunities."
State Assemblymember Angelo Santabarbara, said, "As a SUNY graduate, I was proud to support additional funding in this year's State Budget to expand ASAP and ACE. Getting into college is only the first step. Students also need the support to stay on track and earn their degree. These programs help remove everyday barriers--from the cost of books, food and transportation to academic support and career development. We're seeing that investment at work at SUNY Schenectady right here at home as the program grows to serve 300 students this fall, giving more students the support they need to reach their goals and build a successful future. That's the kind of investment in our students that I'll keep fighting for."
Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy said, "College can be a great path to a better job and a better future, but we know students are dealing with a lot outside the classroom, too. The cost of books, transportation, food, and other everyday expenses can make it harder to stay in school. Programs like ASAP and ACE give students the extra support they need to keep moving forward and earn their degrees. It's great to see these programs expanding across the Capital Region and reaching more students at UAlbany, Hudson Valley Community College and SUNY Schenectady. I want to thank Chancellor King for his leadership and for making programs like these a priority across SUNY. Investing in our students today means building a stronger workforce and a stronger Capital Region tomorrow."
In June, SUNY announced the expansion of ASAP|ACE to serve 10,000 students at 44 SUNY campuses starting in the Fall 2026 semester. ASAP was expanded to six more community colleges, including SUNY Adirondack, Columbia-Greene Community College, Fulton-Montgomery Community College, SUNY Niagara, North Country Community College, and SUNY Sullivan County Community College. ACE was expanded to four more State-operated campuses, including Alfred State College, SUNY Brockport, SUNY Cortland, and SUNY Geneseo.
Additionally, 16 partner campuses with existing programs expanded their capacity to serve additional students. Six community college campuses with ASAP programs in place, including Hudson Valley Community College, Nassau Community College, Rockland Community College, SUNY Schenectady Community College, Suffolk County Community College, and Westchester Community College, and 10 State-operated campuses with ACE programs in place, including the State University of New York at Albany, Buffalo State University, SUNY Delhi, Farmingdale State College, SUNY Fredonia, SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Oswego, SUNY Potsdam, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, and SUNY Old Westbury, expanded their capacity to serve additional students.
The expansion of ASAP|ACE is a result of the Enacted 2026-27 State Budget and is part of SUNY's 2026 State of the University Agenda, which describes how the programs have transformed the lives of students throughout the SUNY System. The expansion also advances SUNY's Academic Momentum Campaign, which provides SUNY campuses with financial support and technical assistance to strengthen student retention and completion rates. While SUNY's current completion rates exceed the national averages for public institutions awarding on time bachelor's and associate degrees, SUNY seeks to help all students who start their degrees have the supports they need to finish. Chancellor King's 2026 State of the University Agenda includes additional initiatives to continue strengthening academic momentum so more students make it to, and through the SUNY campus of their choice.
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About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY's 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country's oldest school of maritime, the state's only college of optometry, 12 Educational Opportunity Centers, over 30 ATTAIN digital literacy labs, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.7 million students across its portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and annually one in three New Yorkers who earn a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.
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Original text here: https://www.suny.edu/suny-news/press-releases/9-26/9-24-26-2/asap-ace.html
Ramona: Duke's Family Biomedical Business
DURHAM, North Carolina, Sept. 25 -- Duke University Pratt School of Engineering issued the following news:
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Ramona: Duke's Family Biomedical Business
By Ken Kingery
9/24/26
How a group of family and found family are quickly growing an advanced microscope startup company with the support of Duke and the Durham community.
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Late in 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gregor Horstmeyer and Mark Harfouche had an internet problem.
The pair had recently moved into a bare-bones bungalow rental in the Burch Avenue neighborhood of Durham along with Gregor's childhood friend and ... Show Full Article DURHAM, North Carolina, Sept. 25 -- Duke University Pratt School of Engineering issued the following news: * * * Ramona: Duke's Family Biomedical Business By Ken Kingery 9/24/26 How a group of family and found family are quickly growing an advanced microscope startup company with the support of Duke and the Durham community. - Late in 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gregor Horstmeyer and Mark Harfouche had an internet problem. The pair had recently moved into a bare-bones bungalow rental in the Burch Avenue neighborhood of Durham along with Gregor's childhood friend andneighbor, Paul Reamey, to focus on their fledgling biomedical microscope startup. Amidst the quiet, heavily tree-lined streets of the historic neighborhood, passersby would have been forgiven for thinking a fraternity group had moved in.
Many of the bedroom windows were blacked out to perform experiments with their prototype microscope systems. The dining room table was covered with computers, monitors, papers and everything else one would expect for workstations in a tech startup. Only one bedroom remained for sleeping.
The only thing preventing the small home from (barely) adequately serving as a research and development space was the extremely slow internet connection. Given the amount of data their test runs were generating, the lowest connection package the host provided just wouldn't cut it.
Their solution: ask the neighbors if they could string up ethernet cables between their homes.
The resulting "yes" was never in doubt. Living next door was Gregor's older brother, Roarke Horstmeyer, and his wife, Margaret Aery. Together, the two households comprised the core group working to build a startup company called Ramona.
"It was basically our version of a startup launching in a garage," Gregor recalls. He would know, as Gregor, Roarke and their third brother, Derek, grew up in Palo Alto, ground-zero of garage startups and the silicon tech boom. "Actually, Durham today feels to us what Palo Alto felt like when we were kids, before it became more of a monoculture of big tech companies."
That feeling is why the group decided to form a pandemic pod together in Durham, North Carolina, near Roarke's then-new laboratory at Duke University. That feeling is also why all four members of Ramona's leadership team decided to stay more than six years later.
They don't all still live together, of course. That would be a pitch for a 90s sitcom, given that they're now all married with six daughters between them. But they all still live in that same historic neighborhood within a short walk of one another, and they still see each other on a daily basis.
It isn't just because they're family. It's because they're all still pursuing their rapidly growing, Durham-style family business.
A Microscope of Microscopes
Ramona was technically founded in 2016, when Roarke and Mark applied for their first funding grant to develop the underlying technology. But the company's foundations date back much further to Mark's second day on campus at Caltech in 2011, when he met fellow doctoral student Roarke at a mixer.
Roarke was in his third year of graduate school, but the two hit it off immediately. Both were interested in physics and electrical engineering; Roarke being more interested in biomedical applications and Mark more focused on semiconductors and light generation and detection.
"There were very few Fridays we didn't spend time together, talking about our work and ways to extend it beyond academic exercises," says Mark, who has been taking computers apart and putting them back together since he was a kid. "We knew we wanted to work in optics, and in that field, the end goal is never just optics. It's either defense or health. We decided to work toward health because it resonated more with us."
Around the same time in the early 2010s, the technology enabling high-quality miniaturized cameras to be incorporated into modern smartphones was rapidly evolving. Along with those advances, the duo was inspired by a classic 1990s movie that transformed many practices in Hollywood cinematics: The Matrix.
Everyone knows the movie's most iconic shot--Neo moving in "bullet time" to dodge a flurry of projectiles as his body flails with inhuman speed. That sequence was created by combining some 200 individual camera angles. If people could engineer that sort of optical synchrony on a movie set, why not on a microscope deck?
"The genesis of Ramona was our desire to leverage the economies of scale in the smartphone industry to make new types of high-performance microscopes," says Roarke.
After several months of work, they took the first picture with their pieced-together microscope, and it turned out better than they'd hoped. Sure, there was a hole in one section and another was upside down -- but they could still find Waldo.
By the following day, they had sorted out their software issues and demonstrated a successful proof-of-principle device capturing an extremely high-resolution image of a page of the classic children's puzzle book. By combining 24 smartphone cameras into a single platform and stitching their images together, they created a single camera capable of taking gigapixel images over an area about the size of a piece of paper.
"Roarke and I have different backgrounds and perspectives on how to work this problem, and how they fit together helped get us off the ground," Mark says. "I'm always trying to push the fundamental limits, which helps find the root cause of problems, while Roarke is always pushing to get a demo in front of a researcher or doctor as fast as possible. The push and pull between the two has been really important."
By the time Mark earned his doctorate from Caltech in the fall of 2017, Roarke had already graduated and accepted a faculty position in Duke's Department of Biomedical Engineering. They had also already secured Ramona's first grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore potential uses of their new microscope platform.
That project explored the capability of Ramona's 96-camera platform to track and record the movements of freely swimming zebrafish. Due to their relatively simple brains and transparent skin, zebrafish are a widely used model for studying animal behavior. Researchers can literally see which neurons light up when the animals move, making it easier to measure and quantify how different pharmaceuticals and other chemical compounds affect the animals' daily lives.
"While we got to develop our microscope technology, the zebrafish research community got the opportunity to form standards and processes for measuring certain behaviors or recording statistics that they never could before," Roarke explains.
As Ramona's technologies continued to evolve and demonstrate utility for researchers in many biomedical spaces, the company continued applying for bigger, more complex grants. A big opportunity came soon after Mark's graduation in the form of a Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the NIH.
With Roarke beginning to set up his new lab at Duke and Mark focused on developing Ramona's platform, they needed help getting their forms and applications in order. It just so happened that Roarke is married to an incredibly talented, logistically minded professional producer.
And Then There Were Four
Margaret and Roarke first met as freshman lifeguards watching the waters of Duke's pool at Brody gym. They started dating as juniors and could often be found at longtime Durham outpost The Federal sharing burgers and Rogue Dead Guy Ales.
As the two moved from Washington, DC to Boston to Berlin to Los Angeles while Roarke pursued his education, Margaret was steadily making her mark on the production side of TV, film and radio.
She worked as a web producer for the long running show "Antiques Roadshow." She was a production coordinator and associate story producer for Alton Brown's Food Network gameshow "Cutthroat Kitchen." And she was a producer for an independent film studio called Das Bombe Productions.
The further her career progressed, the more she found herself working on the production and logistics side of the entertainment industry. And as Ramona began gaining steam, everyone involved saw an opportunity for her to bring her skillset to the growing company.
"Before I officially joined Ramona, I found I was best at putting the structure in place to allow creative people to do what they do best," Margaret says. "As I was helping Mark and Roarke set up their company and complete the administrative work behind their grants, I realized that it was essentially the same job, except the creative side is now the science and technology side."
Meanwhile, Roarke's brother Gregor was working as a senior engineer for Eckersley O'Callaghan, one of the few companies in the world focused on the chemistry and engineering of glass. For nearly a decade, he worked on a variety of projects for Apple ranging from the display glass used in iPhones to their main campus's Steve Jobs Theater, which features seismically stable curved glass walls that are 22 feet tall.
By the time that enormous project wrapped up in 2019, Ramona was already a growing company with Roarke, Mark, Margaret and several other employees hard at work on their critical SBIR grant. Gregor was ready for a new challenge, and his interest and expertise in glass was a great fit for Ramona's needs.
"Optics is a huge use of glass, and designing miniaturized glass elements to be highly performative is a really interesting engineering problem to me," Gregor says. "I started helping on the engineering side, learning more about their technology and applications, and toward the end of 2019 I decided I wanted to go into a full-time role."
Gregor began splitting time between his wife and home in California and Ramona in Durham. Two months later, Covid hit while he was in Durham. Before he knew it, he was living out of a suitcase for six months at his in-law's house in Florida.
But for Ramona to continue making strides, he needed to work on the technology with his own two hands, and Mark was living alone in Durham. Having visited Roarke and Margaret often over the years, Gregor knew Mark well enough to know they'd have no issues working incredibly closely together for several months.
Before 2020 was over, the decision was made for the group to pod up, which brings the story back to boarded-up windows and ethernet cords stretched between two houses near downtown Durham.
A Growing Family Tech Business
Fast forward six years, and Ramona is growing and thriving--as is the family leading it.
The makeshift pandemic office and lab space eventually graduated to a more professional brick and mortar just off Duke's campus. Those offices even overlooked The Federal gastropub, where Roarke and Margaret went on many dates as undergraduates. Today, the company recently moved into one of the newest office spaces around; The Roxboro at Venable Center, featuring over 100,000 square feet of lab and office space in a modern glass facade in the heart of downtown Durham.
"Our new offices include a big biolab space that will allow us to push the technology, improve new kinds of measurements and potentially develop new assays," Roarke said. "We're trying to codify and define these previously subjective measurements to allow researchers to push their work in new directions."
Even before the move into the modern lab space, Ramona's technology has been built out well beyond its first demonstration. While Roarke pushes the fundamental boundaries of what camera arrays can accomplish, such as creating 3D measurements and focusing on individual cells, the company has expanded its platform.
Ramona's original prototype focused on free-swimming zebrafish in one big area. The team, however, quickly learned from its customers that monitoring many biological specimens, typically grown in multi-well plates, was an even more pressing pain point for their research.
Well plates are essentially collections of small Petri dishes that each house a single experiment. It could be cellular cultures exposed to potential antibiotics, small bunches of human tissue approximating the function of organs ("organoids") to test potential pharmaceuticals, or individual animal models responding to external stimuli. Whatever the specific application, researchers often prepare hundreds, if not thousands, of individual wells across multiple plates, each with different variables to see how the test subjects respond.
By running all of these mini experiments in parallel, researchers can speed up their results. But tracking, monitoring and recording them all at once is challenging. Ramona's platform, however, is capable of doing so autonomously and in exquisite detail across every well in an entire plate at once, allowing researchers to scale the same process across many plates much more quickly.
Ramona now has over 70 systems deployed in laboratories across the world from east Asia to Europe to Australia. Their small core team of four has grown to nearly 30, including sales, marketing and field application scientists traveling the world to demonstrate and install their microscope platforms.
All of their work recently culminated in a Series A funding round securing another $25 million in investments.
"We're very happy to have this opportunity to continue to improve our technology to help the biomedical community uncover new findings, especially as labs transition to collecting more and more data for AI software-assisted discovery," Roarke said. "It's an exciting time to be making microscopes!"
A Growing Tech Business Family
While Ramona's technology and business have grown over the years, so has its family.
When the company was first launched, Roarke and Margaret weren't even married, let alone contemplating kids. They now have their hands full with three girls under the age of six. Similarly, Gregor and his wife are the proud parents of two young girls under the age of five. And "Uncle Mark" and his wife recently welcomed their first child--you guessed it, a beautiful baby girl.
"We joke that it's kind of a Ramona blessing--or curse," says Margaret. "Everyone who has had a child after joining the company--even if they've already had boys--has had a girl. I think we're nearly up to a dozen."
With all the stress that comes with raising families amidst the rising expectations of a multimillion-dollar company, one might expect pain points in making it all work. But the transitions have been seamless--perhaps even natural.
Because Roarke focuses primarily on science and technology and Margaret focuses on business and operations, their day-to-day responsibilities rarely overlap. That has made it easy for them to make a "no Ramona talk at the dinner table" rule stick over the years, even if Mark and Gregor occasionally broke it. Now, when the four are together, it's much easier to stay away from talking business. Six girls under the age of six will do that.
"Kids force the issue for you," Margaret said. "Just try having a conversation about the future of a company without one of them screaming that they have to go to the bathroom." For all the potential pitfalls of mixing this much business and family, everyone agrees that it's one of their greatest strengths.
"We're all passionately trying to solve problems as Ramona grows, and we all have different ideas for how to do that," says Mark. "And that isn't bad, it's just complementary. We all recognize the value of each other's perspectives, and that closeness is often what helps inspire new angles to tackle whatever situation we're dealing with."
"The closeness can be a double-edged sword, but having a layer of professionalism removed sometimes makes things move faster," Margaret agrees. "It allows us to really dig into problems quickly without feeling like we need to tiptoe around each other."
The setup might not work for everyone, but it's clearly working for them and their three families. They all live within walking distance of one another as well as Ramona's former offices. Gregor's and Roarke's other brother and his family have since moved to the area, as has Mark's mother-in-law to help with their newborn daughter.
"In terms of a place to be a kid and to have kids, Durham is just amazing," Gregor says. "We love the community here and the ability to be so close to each other, our work, schools, great food--you name it."
In a way, the business has blossomed as it was always destined to. In its earliest days, the company was called Optical Wavefront Labs. But there was another company with virtually the same name and logo. They had to make a change.
The group thought back to the company's earliest days. Before they came together in Durham, the Horstmeyer family home in Palo Alto hosted many of their early conversations about the business and served as the company's base before it had a space of its own. Gregor and Roarke's father, Bob, was one of its earliest advisers and investors and also served on its board. Later, a connection he made at a neighborhood block party led to the company's first institutional investment. Together, the home and that early support gave the young company room to take shape and grow.
With that in mind, the decision was easy: The family company was born on Ramona Street.
* * *
Original text here: https://pratt.duke.edu/news/ramona-optics-dukes-family-biomedical-business/
* * *
Ramona: Duke's Family Biomedical Business
By Ken Kingery
9/24/26
How a group of family and found family are quickly growing an advanced microscope startup company with the support of Duke and the Durham community.
-
Late in 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gregor Horstmeyer and Mark Harfouche had an internet problem.
The pair had recently moved into a bare-bones bungalow rental in the Burch Avenue neighborhood of Durham along with Gregor's childhood friend and ... Show Full Article DURHAM, North Carolina, Sept. 25 -- Duke University Pratt School of Engineering issued the following news: * * * Ramona: Duke's Family Biomedical Business By Ken Kingery 9/24/26 How a group of family and found family are quickly growing an advanced microscope startup company with the support of Duke and the Durham community. - Late in 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gregor Horstmeyer and Mark Harfouche had an internet problem. The pair had recently moved into a bare-bones bungalow rental in the Burch Avenue neighborhood of Durham along with Gregor's childhood friend andneighbor, Paul Reamey, to focus on their fledgling biomedical microscope startup. Amidst the quiet, heavily tree-lined streets of the historic neighborhood, passersby would have been forgiven for thinking a fraternity group had moved in.
Many of the bedroom windows were blacked out to perform experiments with their prototype microscope systems. The dining room table was covered with computers, monitors, papers and everything else one would expect for workstations in a tech startup. Only one bedroom remained for sleeping.
The only thing preventing the small home from (barely) adequately serving as a research and development space was the extremely slow internet connection. Given the amount of data their test runs were generating, the lowest connection package the host provided just wouldn't cut it.
Their solution: ask the neighbors if they could string up ethernet cables between their homes.
The resulting "yes" was never in doubt. Living next door was Gregor's older brother, Roarke Horstmeyer, and his wife, Margaret Aery. Together, the two households comprised the core group working to build a startup company called Ramona.
"It was basically our version of a startup launching in a garage," Gregor recalls. He would know, as Gregor, Roarke and their third brother, Derek, grew up in Palo Alto, ground-zero of garage startups and the silicon tech boom. "Actually, Durham today feels to us what Palo Alto felt like when we were kids, before it became more of a monoculture of big tech companies."
That feeling is why the group decided to form a pandemic pod together in Durham, North Carolina, near Roarke's then-new laboratory at Duke University. That feeling is also why all four members of Ramona's leadership team decided to stay more than six years later.
They don't all still live together, of course. That would be a pitch for a 90s sitcom, given that they're now all married with six daughters between them. But they all still live in that same historic neighborhood within a short walk of one another, and they still see each other on a daily basis.
It isn't just because they're family. It's because they're all still pursuing their rapidly growing, Durham-style family business.
A Microscope of Microscopes
Ramona was technically founded in 2016, when Roarke and Mark applied for their first funding grant to develop the underlying technology. But the company's foundations date back much further to Mark's second day on campus at Caltech in 2011, when he met fellow doctoral student Roarke at a mixer.
Roarke was in his third year of graduate school, but the two hit it off immediately. Both were interested in physics and electrical engineering; Roarke being more interested in biomedical applications and Mark more focused on semiconductors and light generation and detection.
"There were very few Fridays we didn't spend time together, talking about our work and ways to extend it beyond academic exercises," says Mark, who has been taking computers apart and putting them back together since he was a kid. "We knew we wanted to work in optics, and in that field, the end goal is never just optics. It's either defense or health. We decided to work toward health because it resonated more with us."
Around the same time in the early 2010s, the technology enabling high-quality miniaturized cameras to be incorporated into modern smartphones was rapidly evolving. Along with those advances, the duo was inspired by a classic 1990s movie that transformed many practices in Hollywood cinematics: The Matrix.
Everyone knows the movie's most iconic shot--Neo moving in "bullet time" to dodge a flurry of projectiles as his body flails with inhuman speed. That sequence was created by combining some 200 individual camera angles. If people could engineer that sort of optical synchrony on a movie set, why not on a microscope deck?
"The genesis of Ramona was our desire to leverage the economies of scale in the smartphone industry to make new types of high-performance microscopes," says Roarke.
After several months of work, they took the first picture with their pieced-together microscope, and it turned out better than they'd hoped. Sure, there was a hole in one section and another was upside down -- but they could still find Waldo.
By the following day, they had sorted out their software issues and demonstrated a successful proof-of-principle device capturing an extremely high-resolution image of a page of the classic children's puzzle book. By combining 24 smartphone cameras into a single platform and stitching their images together, they created a single camera capable of taking gigapixel images over an area about the size of a piece of paper.
"Roarke and I have different backgrounds and perspectives on how to work this problem, and how they fit together helped get us off the ground," Mark says. "I'm always trying to push the fundamental limits, which helps find the root cause of problems, while Roarke is always pushing to get a demo in front of a researcher or doctor as fast as possible. The push and pull between the two has been really important."
By the time Mark earned his doctorate from Caltech in the fall of 2017, Roarke had already graduated and accepted a faculty position in Duke's Department of Biomedical Engineering. They had also already secured Ramona's first grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore potential uses of their new microscope platform.
That project explored the capability of Ramona's 96-camera platform to track and record the movements of freely swimming zebrafish. Due to their relatively simple brains and transparent skin, zebrafish are a widely used model for studying animal behavior. Researchers can literally see which neurons light up when the animals move, making it easier to measure and quantify how different pharmaceuticals and other chemical compounds affect the animals' daily lives.
"While we got to develop our microscope technology, the zebrafish research community got the opportunity to form standards and processes for measuring certain behaviors or recording statistics that they never could before," Roarke explains.
As Ramona's technologies continued to evolve and demonstrate utility for researchers in many biomedical spaces, the company continued applying for bigger, more complex grants. A big opportunity came soon after Mark's graduation in the form of a Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the NIH.
With Roarke beginning to set up his new lab at Duke and Mark focused on developing Ramona's platform, they needed help getting their forms and applications in order. It just so happened that Roarke is married to an incredibly talented, logistically minded professional producer.
And Then There Were Four
Margaret and Roarke first met as freshman lifeguards watching the waters of Duke's pool at Brody gym. They started dating as juniors and could often be found at longtime Durham outpost The Federal sharing burgers and Rogue Dead Guy Ales.
As the two moved from Washington, DC to Boston to Berlin to Los Angeles while Roarke pursued his education, Margaret was steadily making her mark on the production side of TV, film and radio.
She worked as a web producer for the long running show "Antiques Roadshow." She was a production coordinator and associate story producer for Alton Brown's Food Network gameshow "Cutthroat Kitchen." And she was a producer for an independent film studio called Das Bombe Productions.
The further her career progressed, the more she found herself working on the production and logistics side of the entertainment industry. And as Ramona began gaining steam, everyone involved saw an opportunity for her to bring her skillset to the growing company.
"Before I officially joined Ramona, I found I was best at putting the structure in place to allow creative people to do what they do best," Margaret says. "As I was helping Mark and Roarke set up their company and complete the administrative work behind their grants, I realized that it was essentially the same job, except the creative side is now the science and technology side."
Meanwhile, Roarke's brother Gregor was working as a senior engineer for Eckersley O'Callaghan, one of the few companies in the world focused on the chemistry and engineering of glass. For nearly a decade, he worked on a variety of projects for Apple ranging from the display glass used in iPhones to their main campus's Steve Jobs Theater, which features seismically stable curved glass walls that are 22 feet tall.
By the time that enormous project wrapped up in 2019, Ramona was already a growing company with Roarke, Mark, Margaret and several other employees hard at work on their critical SBIR grant. Gregor was ready for a new challenge, and his interest and expertise in glass was a great fit for Ramona's needs.
"Optics is a huge use of glass, and designing miniaturized glass elements to be highly performative is a really interesting engineering problem to me," Gregor says. "I started helping on the engineering side, learning more about their technology and applications, and toward the end of 2019 I decided I wanted to go into a full-time role."
Gregor began splitting time between his wife and home in California and Ramona in Durham. Two months later, Covid hit while he was in Durham. Before he knew it, he was living out of a suitcase for six months at his in-law's house in Florida.
But for Ramona to continue making strides, he needed to work on the technology with his own two hands, and Mark was living alone in Durham. Having visited Roarke and Margaret often over the years, Gregor knew Mark well enough to know they'd have no issues working incredibly closely together for several months.
Before 2020 was over, the decision was made for the group to pod up, which brings the story back to boarded-up windows and ethernet cords stretched between two houses near downtown Durham.
A Growing Family Tech Business
Fast forward six years, and Ramona is growing and thriving--as is the family leading it.
The makeshift pandemic office and lab space eventually graduated to a more professional brick and mortar just off Duke's campus. Those offices even overlooked The Federal gastropub, where Roarke and Margaret went on many dates as undergraduates. Today, the company recently moved into one of the newest office spaces around; The Roxboro at Venable Center, featuring over 100,000 square feet of lab and office space in a modern glass facade in the heart of downtown Durham.
"Our new offices include a big biolab space that will allow us to push the technology, improve new kinds of measurements and potentially develop new assays," Roarke said. "We're trying to codify and define these previously subjective measurements to allow researchers to push their work in new directions."
Even before the move into the modern lab space, Ramona's technology has been built out well beyond its first demonstration. While Roarke pushes the fundamental boundaries of what camera arrays can accomplish, such as creating 3D measurements and focusing on individual cells, the company has expanded its platform.
Ramona's original prototype focused on free-swimming zebrafish in one big area. The team, however, quickly learned from its customers that monitoring many biological specimens, typically grown in multi-well plates, was an even more pressing pain point for their research.
Well plates are essentially collections of small Petri dishes that each house a single experiment. It could be cellular cultures exposed to potential antibiotics, small bunches of human tissue approximating the function of organs ("organoids") to test potential pharmaceuticals, or individual animal models responding to external stimuli. Whatever the specific application, researchers often prepare hundreds, if not thousands, of individual wells across multiple plates, each with different variables to see how the test subjects respond.
By running all of these mini experiments in parallel, researchers can speed up their results. But tracking, monitoring and recording them all at once is challenging. Ramona's platform, however, is capable of doing so autonomously and in exquisite detail across every well in an entire plate at once, allowing researchers to scale the same process across many plates much more quickly.
Ramona now has over 70 systems deployed in laboratories across the world from east Asia to Europe to Australia. Their small core team of four has grown to nearly 30, including sales, marketing and field application scientists traveling the world to demonstrate and install their microscope platforms.
All of their work recently culminated in a Series A funding round securing another $25 million in investments.
"We're very happy to have this opportunity to continue to improve our technology to help the biomedical community uncover new findings, especially as labs transition to collecting more and more data for AI software-assisted discovery," Roarke said. "It's an exciting time to be making microscopes!"
A Growing Tech Business Family
While Ramona's technology and business have grown over the years, so has its family.
When the company was first launched, Roarke and Margaret weren't even married, let alone contemplating kids. They now have their hands full with three girls under the age of six. Similarly, Gregor and his wife are the proud parents of two young girls under the age of five. And "Uncle Mark" and his wife recently welcomed their first child--you guessed it, a beautiful baby girl.
"We joke that it's kind of a Ramona blessing--or curse," says Margaret. "Everyone who has had a child after joining the company--even if they've already had boys--has had a girl. I think we're nearly up to a dozen."
With all the stress that comes with raising families amidst the rising expectations of a multimillion-dollar company, one might expect pain points in making it all work. But the transitions have been seamless--perhaps even natural.
Because Roarke focuses primarily on science and technology and Margaret focuses on business and operations, their day-to-day responsibilities rarely overlap. That has made it easy for them to make a "no Ramona talk at the dinner table" rule stick over the years, even if Mark and Gregor occasionally broke it. Now, when the four are together, it's much easier to stay away from talking business. Six girls under the age of six will do that.
"Kids force the issue for you," Margaret said. "Just try having a conversation about the future of a company without one of them screaming that they have to go to the bathroom." For all the potential pitfalls of mixing this much business and family, everyone agrees that it's one of their greatest strengths.
"We're all passionately trying to solve problems as Ramona grows, and we all have different ideas for how to do that," says Mark. "And that isn't bad, it's just complementary. We all recognize the value of each other's perspectives, and that closeness is often what helps inspire new angles to tackle whatever situation we're dealing with."
"The closeness can be a double-edged sword, but having a layer of professionalism removed sometimes makes things move faster," Margaret agrees. "It allows us to really dig into problems quickly without feeling like we need to tiptoe around each other."
The setup might not work for everyone, but it's clearly working for them and their three families. They all live within walking distance of one another as well as Ramona's former offices. Gregor's and Roarke's other brother and his family have since moved to the area, as has Mark's mother-in-law to help with their newborn daughter.
"In terms of a place to be a kid and to have kids, Durham is just amazing," Gregor says. "We love the community here and the ability to be so close to each other, our work, schools, great food--you name it."
In a way, the business has blossomed as it was always destined to. In its earliest days, the company was called Optical Wavefront Labs. But there was another company with virtually the same name and logo. They had to make a change.
The group thought back to the company's earliest days. Before they came together in Durham, the Horstmeyer family home in Palo Alto hosted many of their early conversations about the business and served as the company's base before it had a space of its own. Gregor and Roarke's father, Bob, was one of its earliest advisers and investors and also served on its board. Later, a connection he made at a neighborhood block party led to the company's first institutional investment. Together, the home and that early support gave the young company room to take shape and grow.
With that in mind, the decision was easy: The family company was born on Ramona Street.
* * *
Original text here: https://pratt.duke.edu/news/ramona-optics-dukes-family-biomedical-business/
Michael Monroe, '72 M.S., and Gail Palmer Include Columbia Journalism School in Their Estate Plans to Establish the Arthur F. Monroe, Michael J. Monroe and Gail Palmer Endowed Full Professorship
NEW YORK, Sept. 25 -- Columbia University Columbia Journalism School issued the following news:
* * *
Michael Monroe, '72 M.S., and Gail Palmer Include Columbia Journalism School in Their Estate Plans to Establish the Arthur F. Monroe, Michael J. Monroe and Gail Palmer Endowed Full Professorship
Inspired by the education that shaped his career and his father's, Monroe shares the importance of supporting a free press.
September 24, 2026
Michael Monroe, '72 M.S., and his wife, Gail Palmer, have included Columbia Journalism School in their estate plans, creating a gift that will establish an ... Show Full Article NEW YORK, Sept. 25 -- Columbia University Columbia Journalism School issued the following news: * * * Michael Monroe, '72 M.S., and Gail Palmer Include Columbia Journalism School in Their Estate Plans to Establish the Arthur F. Monroe, Michael J. Monroe and Gail Palmer Endowed Full Professorship Inspired by the education that shaped his career and his father's, Monroe shares the importance of supporting a free press. September 24, 2026 Michael Monroe, '72 M.S., and his wife, Gail Palmer, have included Columbia Journalism School in their estate plans, creating a gift that will establish anendowed full professorship in investigative and accountability reporting.
Named for the couple and Michael's father, Arthur F. Monroe, '37 M.S., the Arthur F. Monroe, Michael J. Monroe and Gail Palmer Endowed Full Professorship will honor a family connection to the School spanning two generations.
Below, Michael reflects on his family's connection to the School and the couple's hopes for their gift.
What first inspired you to give to CJS and to include the School in your will?
Including Columbia in our estate planning is a simple choice for us. There is no better way to support the continued well-being of our democracy than to help maintain an institution so vitally focused on it. The important role the J-School played in both my career and my father's career also heavily influenced our decision. Neither of us would have been as successful as we were without that grounding.
What impact do you hope to see in the future through your gift?
Given how journalism and society have developed since my time at J-School, I am particularly concerned with the need to support investigative reporting. I hope that funding a full professorship concentrating on that area of expertise will help achieve that goal.
How did your father influence your decision to pursue a degree at CJS?
I loved and respected my dad. From a young age, I was fascinated by his career at United Press and Time magazine, and the stories he told about his friendships from Columbia, particularly with Dick Baker and David Brown. He covered Cuba for UP during the Batista regime. He told me that he always knew how difficult the political situation was by how many machine guns were posted on the roof of the Presidential Palace. My respect for my father led me into journalism, and he was immensely proud when I was accepted at Columbia.
What is your favorite memory or experience from your time at CJS? Was there a professor who had a lasting impact on you?
I took the electronic curriculum at the Journalism School, as I had already worked professionally in print at The Record in New Jersey. I thoroughly enjoyed going out in the field to do radio interviews and putting together audio stories that depended on painting word pictures. I felt it was a more interesting, creative form of writing than simply supporting video. I also relished working on my thesis, "The Murrow Men," which enabled me to interview many of the CBS correspondents who worked with Ed Murrow. My coup was getting to interview Eric Sevareid, who was notorious for declining interviews. I camped out in his Washington office and became friendly with his secretary, who was instrumental in getting him to speak with me. Fred Friendly and Dick Baker, my dad's classmate and a lifelong friend, were my advisors, and both were incredibly supportive. Fred, of course, with my thesis.
If you could share one message with someone considering an estate gift to CJS, what would that be?
Ensuring the financial health and well-being of an institution created specifically to train journalists in all aspects of the profession is a vital way to support our democracy and way of life. A healthy and robust fourth estate is absolutely essential.
If you are interested in including Columbia Journalism School in your will, please reach out to Katja Hafendoerfer, Senior Director of Development: kz37@columbia.edu.
* * *
Original text here: https://journalism.columbia.edu/news/monroe-gift
* * *
Michael Monroe, '72 M.S., and Gail Palmer Include Columbia Journalism School in Their Estate Plans to Establish the Arthur F. Monroe, Michael J. Monroe and Gail Palmer Endowed Full Professorship
Inspired by the education that shaped his career and his father's, Monroe shares the importance of supporting a free press.
September 24, 2026
Michael Monroe, '72 M.S., and his wife, Gail Palmer, have included Columbia Journalism School in their estate plans, creating a gift that will establish an ... Show Full Article NEW YORK, Sept. 25 -- Columbia University Columbia Journalism School issued the following news: * * * Michael Monroe, '72 M.S., and Gail Palmer Include Columbia Journalism School in Their Estate Plans to Establish the Arthur F. Monroe, Michael J. Monroe and Gail Palmer Endowed Full Professorship Inspired by the education that shaped his career and his father's, Monroe shares the importance of supporting a free press. September 24, 2026 Michael Monroe, '72 M.S., and his wife, Gail Palmer, have included Columbia Journalism School in their estate plans, creating a gift that will establish anendowed full professorship in investigative and accountability reporting.
Named for the couple and Michael's father, Arthur F. Monroe, '37 M.S., the Arthur F. Monroe, Michael J. Monroe and Gail Palmer Endowed Full Professorship will honor a family connection to the School spanning two generations.
Below, Michael reflects on his family's connection to the School and the couple's hopes for their gift.
What first inspired you to give to CJS and to include the School in your will?
Including Columbia in our estate planning is a simple choice for us. There is no better way to support the continued well-being of our democracy than to help maintain an institution so vitally focused on it. The important role the J-School played in both my career and my father's career also heavily influenced our decision. Neither of us would have been as successful as we were without that grounding.
What impact do you hope to see in the future through your gift?
Given how journalism and society have developed since my time at J-School, I am particularly concerned with the need to support investigative reporting. I hope that funding a full professorship concentrating on that area of expertise will help achieve that goal.
How did your father influence your decision to pursue a degree at CJS?
I loved and respected my dad. From a young age, I was fascinated by his career at United Press and Time magazine, and the stories he told about his friendships from Columbia, particularly with Dick Baker and David Brown. He covered Cuba for UP during the Batista regime. He told me that he always knew how difficult the political situation was by how many machine guns were posted on the roof of the Presidential Palace. My respect for my father led me into journalism, and he was immensely proud when I was accepted at Columbia.
What is your favorite memory or experience from your time at CJS? Was there a professor who had a lasting impact on you?
I took the electronic curriculum at the Journalism School, as I had already worked professionally in print at The Record in New Jersey. I thoroughly enjoyed going out in the field to do radio interviews and putting together audio stories that depended on painting word pictures. I felt it was a more interesting, creative form of writing than simply supporting video. I also relished working on my thesis, "The Murrow Men," which enabled me to interview many of the CBS correspondents who worked with Ed Murrow. My coup was getting to interview Eric Sevareid, who was notorious for declining interviews. I camped out in his Washington office and became friendly with his secretary, who was instrumental in getting him to speak with me. Fred Friendly and Dick Baker, my dad's classmate and a lifelong friend, were my advisors, and both were incredibly supportive. Fred, of course, with my thesis.
If you could share one message with someone considering an estate gift to CJS, what would that be?
Ensuring the financial health and well-being of an institution created specifically to train journalists in all aspects of the profession is a vital way to support our democracy and way of life. A healthy and robust fourth estate is absolutely essential.
If you are interested in including Columbia Journalism School in your will, please reach out to Katja Hafendoerfer, Senior Director of Development: kz37@columbia.edu.
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Original text here: https://journalism.columbia.edu/news/monroe-gift
Lafayette College: Rare Book Dealer and Author Rebecca Romney to Deliver Schlueter Lecture
EASTON, Pennsylvania, Sept. 25 -- Lafayette College issued the following news:
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September 23, 2026
Rare book dealer and author Rebecca Romney to deliver Schlueter Lecture
During her Oct. 15 presentation, Romney will explore how history is made by the narratives we tell about the past
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Rebecca Romney, a rare book dealer and author, will present the 2026 Paul and June Schlueter Lecture on the Art and History of the Book, Oct. 15 at 4:30 p.m. in the Gendebien Room of Skillman Library.
In her talk, "How History is Made," Romney will explore how history is made by the narratives we tell ... Show Full Article EASTON, Pennsylvania, Sept. 25 -- Lafayette College issued the following news: * * * September 23, 2026 Rare book dealer and author Rebecca Romney to deliver Schlueter Lecture During her Oct. 15 presentation, Romney will explore how history is made by the narratives we tell about the past - Rebecca Romney, a rare book dealer and author, will present the 2026 Paul and June Schlueter Lecture on the Art and History of the Book, Oct. 15 at 4:30 p.m. in the Gendebien Room of Skillman Library. In her talk, "How History is Made," Romney will explore how history is made by the narratives we tellabout the past. The lecture will focus on how the stories we are able to tell depend upon the material evidence that is saved for later generations to interpret, and will reveal why a diverse range of perspectives is critical to the preservation of our shared cultural memory.
Romney is the author of three books, including Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend. Since 2011, Romney has appeared on the History Channel's television show Pawn Stars as the rare book specialist. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Variety, The Paris Review, and more.
"As a bookseller and book collector in a male-dominated field, Rebecca Romney brings an important perspective to the study of the history of the book: Collecting can serve as a way to both preserve and erase historical narratives," says Ana Ramirez Luhrs, co-director of Special Collections and College Archives.
The Schlueter Lecture series, held annually in fall, is sponsored by Lafayette College Libraries. June Schlueter, former professor of English, provost, and dean of the faculty, has sponsored the lecture series with her husband, the late Paul Schlueter, since 2007, providing opportunities to study books as objects and artifacts.
The lecture is free and open to the public. A Q&A, book signing, and reception will follow the lecture.
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Original text here: https://news.lafayette.edu/2026/09/23/rare-book-dealer-and-author-rebecca-romney-to-deliver-schlueter-lecture/
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September 23, 2026
Rare book dealer and author Rebecca Romney to deliver Schlueter Lecture
During her Oct. 15 presentation, Romney will explore how history is made by the narratives we tell about the past
-
Rebecca Romney, a rare book dealer and author, will present the 2026 Paul and June Schlueter Lecture on the Art and History of the Book, Oct. 15 at 4:30 p.m. in the Gendebien Room of Skillman Library.
In her talk, "How History is Made," Romney will explore how history is made by the narratives we tell ... Show Full Article EASTON, Pennsylvania, Sept. 25 -- Lafayette College issued the following news: * * * September 23, 2026 Rare book dealer and author Rebecca Romney to deliver Schlueter Lecture During her Oct. 15 presentation, Romney will explore how history is made by the narratives we tell about the past - Rebecca Romney, a rare book dealer and author, will present the 2026 Paul and June Schlueter Lecture on the Art and History of the Book, Oct. 15 at 4:30 p.m. in the Gendebien Room of Skillman Library. In her talk, "How History is Made," Romney will explore how history is made by the narratives we tellabout the past. The lecture will focus on how the stories we are able to tell depend upon the material evidence that is saved for later generations to interpret, and will reveal why a diverse range of perspectives is critical to the preservation of our shared cultural memory.
Romney is the author of three books, including Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend. Since 2011, Romney has appeared on the History Channel's television show Pawn Stars as the rare book specialist. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Variety, The Paris Review, and more.
"As a bookseller and book collector in a male-dominated field, Rebecca Romney brings an important perspective to the study of the history of the book: Collecting can serve as a way to both preserve and erase historical narratives," says Ana Ramirez Luhrs, co-director of Special Collections and College Archives.
The Schlueter Lecture series, held annually in fall, is sponsored by Lafayette College Libraries. June Schlueter, former professor of English, provost, and dean of the faculty, has sponsored the lecture series with her husband, the late Paul Schlueter, since 2007, providing opportunities to study books as objects and artifacts.
The lecture is free and open to the public. A Q&A, book signing, and reception will follow the lecture.
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Original text here: https://news.lafayette.edu/2026/09/23/rare-book-dealer-and-author-rebecca-romney-to-deliver-schlueter-lecture/