News

For seven years, Professor Michele Igo has taught BIS 2A, an undergraduate introductory course for students in the College of Biological Sciences. With as many as 500 students in each class, it is Igo’s task to provide new students with a foundation in modern biology.

Read more »

After the birth of her second child in February 2017, Priya Shah took some time off from her postdoctoral lab work in fundamental virology at UC San Francisco. Shah, who earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley, spent about eight weeks at home with her newborn son. Not only was it an important time for the burgeoning relationship between mother and child, it was an important time for Shah’s science. Between the busy tasks of childrearing, she found time to comb through papers recently published in her field.

Last spring, Petra Dahms’ Facebook profile picture carried the banner “I’M WITH SCIENCE.” The UC Davis graduate’s inspiration: “Cancer Biology,” one of her courses.

“Cancer Biology was one of my favorite classes and contributed to my decision to pursue a career in cancer research,” says Dahms, now working at Stanford University. “The class — and working with Dr. Barlow for the summer on a research project — were truly life changing for me.”

When it comes to undergraduate research excellence, UC Davis students are primed for the rigor and discipline necessary to succeed in the STEM world. But science doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Behind each undergraduate success is a mentor, a guiding hand in the classroom or lab.

Congrats to all of our recent Graduates and to those who participated in Commencement 2018! We are so proud of our students and faculty who accomplish so much!

Learn more »

The Mars Curiosity rover team announced today (June 7) finding organic matter – carbon-based compounds – in three billion year old mudstone sediments from Gale Crater. They also found seasonal changes in the amount of methane in the local atmosphere.

Three current students and seven recent alumni of the UC Davis College of Letters and Science have been selected to receive Graduate Research Fellowships (GRFP) from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The awards recognize and support outstanding graduate students in master's or doctoral programs in science or engineering.

Annabelle Yu, a 4th year PhD student in the Marco lab, was selected to travel to Uganda this year as part of a Trellis Fund Project from the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture. She will join the Mwino Group to focus on enhancing shelf-life of fruits and vegetables for off-season supply.

Read more »

TechAccel LLC, a Kansas City-based technology and venture development company, today announced it has initiated a protein engineering research project with The Siegel Lab in the Genome Center of the University of California, Davis. The project will determine if specific mutations in a wheat enzyme can produce plants capable of thriving in warmer temperatures.

HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has a secret life. Though anti-retroviral therapy can reduce its numbers, the virus can hide and avoid both treatments and the body’s immune response.

Researchers at UC Davis Health, together with colleagues at UC San Francisco and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have found that increased crotonylation, an epigenetic mechanism that governs gene expression, might be the key to making HIV come out of hiding and become susceptible to anti-HIV drugs. Their study is published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.