News

Christina Kim was recently named one of 15 Searle Scholars for 2022. The Searle Scholars Program supports recently appointed assistant professors or those in a tenure-track appointment to conduct high risk, high reward research in chemistry and the biomedical sciences. The funds awarded with the recognition will help to support Kim's research for the next three years.

A recent publication in Plant Physiology by Nagalakshmi et al. (2002) titled "High-efficiency multiplex biallelic heritable editing in Arabidopsis using an RNA virus" described the rapid adoption of genome editing technology for gene function studies in plants. Instead of the common use of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, the authors detail new optimization of a Tobacco rattle virus-based vector for the delivery of single-guide RNAs. This allows for efficient multiplexing of somatic and biallelic editing in a single generation. 

Each year, the Academic Senate and Academic Federation announce awards for research, teaching and mentoring, and public service. A total of 14 UC Davis Academic Senate and Academic Federation members were awarded for their excellence. Three of the 14 awards went to Genome Center members.

The African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP) has published a position paper in Nature highlighting the goals, priorities, and roadmap of the Africa-led effort to sequence the genomes of 105,000 species of plants, animals, fungi and protists that are endemic to the continent.

Joanna Chiu, of the Genome Center and Department of Entomology and Nematology, was named one of the recipients of the UC Davis Academic Senate's 2022 Distinguished Teaching Award. Chiu earned this award via her dedication to students at all levels, as well as the training programs she has led to increase diversity and inclusivity.

Read more about Joanna Chiu's award on Entomology & Nematology News.

Studies comparing animal genomes generally focus on the DNA sequence itself. A new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis shows how the three-dimensional scaffolding of chromosomes is related across several species of carnivores, offering a new approach of “comparative scaffotyping” that could be used to identify related genes across species and place them in context. The work, published the week of Feb.

Congratulations to David Coil who has been selected as the recipient of the 2022 Academic Federation Distinguished Service Award. This award recognizes meritorious contributions through service of Academic Federation members. This award recognizes David’s efforts in coordinating COVID-19 testing activities.

Pamela Ronald, of the Department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center, was named the 2022 Wolf Prize laureate in Agriculture. The Wolf Prize is awarded to notable scientists and artists from around the world for achievements in the interest of humankind. The award to Pamela Ronald is "for pioneering work on disease resistance to environmental stress tolerance in rice."

Read the full award notice here.

Dean and Professor Emeritus Ken Burtis is the recipient of the 2022 UC Davis Distinguished Emeriti Award. This award is given by the UC Davis Emeriti Association and honors outstanding scholarly work or service performed since retirement.  The award decision was based on Burtis' essential contributions since retirement to the successful Healthy Davis Together program.

Michele La Merrill was named one of the 12 Chancellor's Fellows this year. Chancellor's Fellows receive funding to conduct research in their respective fields and teach students to become critical thinkers. Michele La Merrill, of the Department of Environmental Toxicology and the Genome Center, investigates how environmental exposure to chemicals can impact people's risk for metabolic diseases.

Read the full press release here.

The Earth BioGenome Project, launched in 2018, is moving from planning and pilot projects to major production sequencing. The goal of the project is to complete reference genomes for all species of eurkaryotic life on Earth: animals, plants, fungi, algae and other organisms that package their DNA into a nucleus. The new phase of the project is marked with a special feature collection of articles in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

C. Titus Brown was named a 2021-2022 Public Scholarship Faculty Fellow by UC Davis. C. Titus Brown is a Genome Center faculty member and an associate professor in the Department of Population Health, School of Veterinary Medicine. The Public Scholarship program supports faculty members in developing publicly engaged research.

Megan Dennis is one of the recipients of a 2022 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. An NSF CAREER Award is NSF's most prestigious grant in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. With five years of support, Dennis' research will focus on transcriptional regulation of primate genes and research opportunities for high school and first-generation undergraduate students.  

Scientists are a step closer to breeding plants with genes from only one parent. New research led by plant biologists at the University of California, Davis, published Nov. 19 in Science Advances, shows the underlying mechanism behind eliminating half the genome and could make for easier and more rapid breeding of crop plants with desirable traits such as disease resistance.

Clarivate's 2021 list of Highly Cited Researchers recognizes scientists whose papers rank in the top 1% of citations in the field and in Web of Science. Three of the top ten highly-cited scientists at UC Davis are members of the Genome Center. We congratulate Siobhan Brady, Jonathan Eisen, and Oliver Fiehn for their contributions and dedication to their respective fields.