Gerald Quon, an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Genome Center, has received a New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award will support the development of a computational framework for characterizing how genetic variants associated with the risk of psychiatric diseases like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder work at the at the cellular level.

Four members of the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences are recipients of 2021 Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. Two undergraduate students, a faculty member and a postdoctoral researcher were among those honored by UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May at the virtual awards ceremony.

A team of scientists from UC Davis and Rice University are starting small as they begin to figure out how to build an artificial brain from the bottom up.

Celina Juliano, an associate professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Jacob Robinson of Rice University’s Brown School of Engineering have won a $1 million Keck Foundation grant to advance the team’s synthetic neurobiology effort to define the connections between neurons and muscles that drive programmed behaviors in living animals.

When Madeline Bright was young, she was told she asked a lot of questions.

Today that same curiosity is leading her toward a career in medical research where she hopes to find life-saving answers.

Three UC Davis researchers, including Assistant Professor James Letts, will receive funding from the Early Career Research Program of the U.S. Department of Energy. They are among 83 researchers at U.S. universities and national laboratories funded by the program this year. The awards are of $150,000 for summer salary and research expenses each year and are intended to last for five years.

All three of the Science, Engineering and Math winners at this year’s Norma J. Lang Prize for Undergraduate Information Research are College of Biological Sciences students. Barry Nguyen, a biochemistry and molecular biology major, won first-place, and the second- and third-place winners, Katherine Hand and La Rissa Vasquez respectively, are neurobiology, physiology and behavior majors.

Two University of California, Davis, juniors are among the winners of the nation’s premier undergraduate award of its type in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering.

Two professors and an alumnus from the Center for Population Biology were among those elected to the National Academy of Sciences, as announced on Monday, April 26. “This is a thrill for the UC Davis community,” said Chancellor Gary May, who lauded the achievement of this year’s electees as one of the highest honors in the scientific community.

Jodi Nunnari, a distinguished professor and chair in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, is one of four UC Davis professors who have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock and others, the academy honors excellence and includes leaders from every field of human endeavor including scientists, artists, performers, poets and political leaders.

Animal Behavior Ph.D. candidate Amelia Munson won first place at the UC Davis Grad Slam final round on Thursday, April 8. Her winning presentation “Fact or Fiction: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger” earned her a $2,500 grand prize and the opportunity to advance to the University of California Grad Slam competition, which will be on May 7.

Her presentation examined how introducing environmental stressors on young fish in captivity impacted their ability to adapt to challenges and exhibit anti-predator behaviors as adults.

Lindsay Cameron, a neuroscience Ph.D. student, was among this year's 13 recipients of the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award. 

Michael Savageau, a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics in the College of Biological Sciences, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Engineering has been named the recipient of the 2021 Akira Okubo Prize.

The Academic Senate Committee on Public Service has recognized Novozymes Chair in Genomics Richard Michelmore, who is also the director of the Genome Center and distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, for his outstanding contributions and commitment to public service with the 2020-21 Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award.

Nitzan Shabek, an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Biology, has received a $837,000 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. The five-year award will support Shabek’s research into elucidating the sensing mechanism of an emerging and unique class of plant hormones. Additionally, as an integral part of the research activities, this project will create a unique teaching platform and outreach program to encourage young students to pursue knowledge in STEM.

College of Biological Science student, Naomi Murray ’21, who is majoring in evolution, ecology and biodiversity, has just been awarded the prestigious Marshall Scholarship. She will pursue two Master of Science degrees, one in climate change at University College London, the other in science communication at the University of Manchester to help her communicate about climate change.