Recent News Articles

• Academic Editor-in-Chief for PLoS Biology elected
  2/18/2008
  Jonathan Eisen, professor of evolution and ecology at the UC Davis Genome Center, was named the new Academic Editor-in-Chief for PLoS Biology.
  
  
• UC Davis Pushes Limits of Infectious Disease Research with new Waters Mass Spectrometry Laboratory
  12/5/2007
  New Waters Mass Spectrometry Facility opens within Dr. Julie Leary's laboratory, expanding infectious disease research capabilities at UC Davis.
  
  
• The Metabolomics Standards Initiative
  11/21/2007
  Oliver Fiehn, associate professor of molecular and cellular biology and a member of the UC Davis Genome Center, discusses his work as the chair of the Metabolomics Standard Initiative in the November issue of Genome Technology (subscription only). The journal Metabolomics recently featured papers describing this initiative.
  
  
• DNA helicase RecBCD's translocation velocity
  11/15/2007
  Stephen C. Kowalczykowski, professor of microbiology; Maria Spies, Ichiro Amitani, and Ronald J. Baskin have published a paper in Cell magazine explaining that the DNA helicase RecBCD's translocation velocity reduces when it reaches recombination hotspots known as Chi sites because RecBCD changes which one of its two motor subunits is in the lead.
  
  
• Evolution and Fly Genomics
  11/12/2007
  A paper published in the Nov. 8 issue of Nature describes the genomes of 12 species of the Drosophila fly. Four researchers from UC Davis, evolution and ecology professors David Begun and Chuck Langley, graduate student Carolyn McBride and postdoctoral scholar Sourav Chatterji are among about 100 coauthors on the paper. Begun and Langley’s groups have also published two other related papers recently, in the open-access journals PLoS Biology and PLoS Genetics.
  
  
• Mark L. Wheelis wins the College of Biological Sciences Teaching Award
  10/22/2007
  Mark Wheelis , senior lecturer, microbiology received the 2006-2007 College of Biological Sciences Teaching Award. Microbiology Chair Doug Nelson and Dean Ken Burtis presented the award at the 2007 CBS Fall Welcome reception.
  
  
• The future of California tiger salamanders
  10/16/2007
  Bradley Shaffer, professor of evolution and ecology and former UCD doctoral student Benjamin Fitzpatrick published important findings for the future of California tiger salamanders in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their research contradicts prevailing scientific thought about what happens when animal species interbreed.
  
  
• UC Davis Chancellor's Fellow Awarded
  10/16/2007
  Kim McAllister, associate professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior, was named a 2007 UC Davis Chancellor's Fellow.
  
  
• The truth about moray eels
  9/5/2007
  Rita Mehta, postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Evolution and Ecology Professor Peter Wainwright, reveals the creepy truth about moray eels. National Public Radio interviewed Rita about her research. See video of the eels pharyngeal jaw in action and listen to Rita Mehta's interview with NPR's Joe Palca.
  
  
• Mutual Feedbacks Maintain Both Genetic and Species Diversity
  8/17/2007
  Sharon Strauss, professor of evolution and ecology and former doctoral student Richard Lankau published research in the journal, Science. The research is one of the first studies to show that genetic diversity and species diversity depend on each other and are necessary to maintain diversity within a species.
  
  
• Sgs1 prevents aberrant crossing-over during meiosis
  7/27/2007
  Neil Hunter, associate professor of microbiology, and colleagues have published an article in the journal, Cell, about the gene Sgs1's role in preventing aberrant crossovers during meiotic DNA double-strand-break repair in yeast cells. Sgs1 is the budding yeast homolog of the human gene defective in patients with Bloom’s Syndrome, an inherited disease associated with chromosome instability and increased cancer risk that is most prevalent in Ashkenazi Jews. The findings from the Hunter group shed light on how lack of this protein results in chromosomal damage.
  
  
• American Society of Plant Biologists Award goes to William Lucas
  6/18/2007
  William Lucas, distinguished professor of plant biology, has been selected as Fellow of American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Award in 2007, the award's inaugural year.
  
  
• Rhythmic growth explained by coincidence between internal and external cues
  6/15/2007
  Julin Maloof and Stacey Harmer, assistant professors of plant biology, and colleagues have recently published an article in Nature describing how a plant's genes coordinate internal and environmental signals to regulate its daily growth cycle.
  
  
• New Book Unites Evolution and Genomics
  6/15/2007
  Jonathan Eisen, professor, UC Davis Genome Center, has coauthored a new textbook, Evolution, that unites the most recent developments in genomics and molecular biology with traditional evolutionary biology.
  
  
• Harada wins the Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award
  6/8/2007
  John Harada, Professor of Plant Biology, was awarded an Academic Senate 2007 Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award.
  
  
• Erwin Bautista Awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award
  5/15/2007
  Erwin Bautista, Lecturer in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, was awarded an Academic Federation 2007 Excellence in Teaching award.
  
  
• Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Appointed
  5/3/2007
  Barbara Horwitz, distinguished professor of neurobiology, physiology, and behavior, has been appointed Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for UC Davis.
  
  
• Langley Elected to Prestigious Academies
  5/1/2007
  Charles Langley, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April 2007.
  
  
• Kowalczykowski elected to the National Academy of Sciences
  5/1/2007
  Stephen Kowalczykowski, Distinguished Professor of Microbiology, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in May 2007
  
  
• Digital atlases of the brains published
  2/6/2007
  Edward (Ted) Jones, director of the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience, published digital atlases of the brains of humans, monkeys, dogs, cats, mice, birds and other animals online at brainmaps.org.