Last year, the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and School of Veterinary Medicine jointly launched the Canine Tumor Genome Atlas, the first genomic data bank of its kind outside of one developed by the National Cancer Institute. Eventually, it may store hundreds of gene samples from companion dogs diagnosed with osteosarcomas, oral melanomas and gliomas. These three cancers share similarities between canines and humans, so this work stands to benefit research for both populations. This is an example of the sort of collaborative work that will power UC Davis to new heights in research. It acknowledges that our shared expertise can result in outcomes larger than the sum of their parts.

Expanding such collaboration was a major theme this for us this year. In this publication, we announce the awardees of our second round of funding for the Reaching Across the Causeway Awards. These awards specifically support joint efforts of School of Medicine and School of Veterinary Medicine researchers. This year, the Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Clinical and Translational Sciences Center joined in to support this award and we have subsequently expanded the funding from four to six projects. The awarded projects are innovative and exciting – read on for more details about them.

Related to this work, the Sacramento campus will host this year’s Reaching Across the Causeway Research Day, which highlights School of Medicine and School of Veterinary Medicine research and opportunities to grow productive research interactions.

Another interdisciplinary expansion effort was the development of the Convergence Research Pilot Awards. These awards fund interdisciplinary collaborations between the School of Medicine and other UC Davis schools and colleges. The program was announced at this spring’s Convergence Research Celebration on the Davis campus. Our initial call for this award resulted in a large number of competitive applications and we are in the process of reviewing them now.

Very soon, we will know the year’s total for extramural support and can disseminate the tangible results of this year’s research efforts. But we will also continue to look forward to new ideas and initiatives that push UC Davis forward. Thank you for your hard work, dedication, and the passion you bring to our community.

Kim E. Barrett

Vice Dean for Research

Distinguished Professor of Physiology and Membrane Biology

UC Davis School of Medicine

Congratulations to the winner of this quarter’s School of Medicine Research Image Competition! Anna La Torre, assistant professor of cell biology and human anatomy, submitted the winning image. It is a microscopy image depicting neurons differentiating from progenitor cells in a cell culture.



Dr. La Torre received a gift basket filled with UC Davis goodies. The sponsors of the gift baskets are listed below. She is also automatically eligible to win the annual prize of $1500, which will be awarded in the fall.

Remember that this competition is quarterly and images for the next quarter are being accepted now through September 15! If you did not win this time, you may re-submit your image once more at any future competition. Submit your image here.

The winning entry; image by Anna La Torre.

Anna La Torre

If you are interested in sponsoring a future gift basket for this event, contact somor@ucdavis.edu

The winners of the 2^nd annual Reaching Across the Causeway award have been announced. This award funds distinctively collaborative efforts involving researchers in the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. The award of up to $50,000 per team provides one year of support to multi-school research teams to fund planning, preparation and submission of research grants. This year, the Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) joined the schools to fund an additional two projects, increasing our awardees from four to six.

At least one School of Medicine department and one School of Veterinary Medicine department are represented by co-PIs on each team. The awardees are:

• “Wnt/PCP signaling contribution to glioblastoma malignancy.” The PI is biochemist, cell biologist and cancer biologist Kermit Carraway from the School of Medicine Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine. His co-PI is James Angelastro of the School of Veterinary Medicine Department of Molecular Biosciences.
• “Characterization of Canine Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) Leading to Treatment.” Pathologist Resmi Ravindran, a project scientist in the School of Medicine Department of Pathology and Laboratory Sciences, is the PI. The School of Veterinary Medicine co-PI on this project is William Culp, professor of surgical and radiological sciences.
• “Preventing Invasive Candidiasis by Restoring Gut Epithelial Hypoxia.” PI Hannah Savage is an assistant professor of pathology, microbiology & immunology in the School of Veterinary Medicine). Her co-PI is Assistant Professor Derek Bays from the School of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine.
• “Advancing Optogenetic Therapy for Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome (SARDS).” PI Sara Thomasy a professor dually appointed in the Department of Surgical and Radiological Sciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science in the School of Medicine. Her co-PI in the School of Medicine is Ala Moshiri, professor of ophthalmology and vision science.
• The project funded by the Comprehensive Cancer Center is Jinhwan Kim’s project “Advancing NK Cell Cancer Therapy through Nanotechnology and Non-Invasive Imaging.” Kim is an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and surgery. Co-PI on this project is Jessica Lawrence, professor of surgical and radiological sciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine.
• The project funded by the CTSC is “Improving the Non-invasive Diagnosis and Monitoring of Copper Associated Hepatopathy in Dogs and Humans.” PI is Tarini Ullal, staff faculty veterinarian of small animal internal medicine. Ullal’s co-PI from the School of Medicine is Valentina Medici, professor of gastroenterology and hepatology

The 2024 SOM-SVM Research Day: Reaching Across the Causeway will celebrate the research that highlights the strength of collaborations between UC Davis Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. Learn about current joint research projects from last year’s winners of the Reaching Across the Causeway Award. Find out about exciting opportunities for collaboration. Participate in breakout sessions on cancer, genetic/genomic, infectious diseases, environmental, vision and musculoskeletal research from the perspectives of both schools. Featured speakers scheduled to participate are Vice Chancellor for Research Simon Atkinson; Chief Innovation and Economic Officer George Baxter; Assistant Professor Krystle Reagan, co-director of the Veterinary Center for Clinical Trials; and Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research Ted Wun, director of the Clinical and Translational Science Center.

When: Tuesday September 24, 2024, 8:30am-6pm

Where: Education Building, Sacramento Campus

Preliminary Agenda and Registration: Eventbrite



Discount! MOSAC Summer Admissions Discounted for UC Davis Employees

The SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity (MOSAC) is offering a 20% discount on admission for UC Davis employees now through Labor Day. One of the featured exhibits at MOSAC is the immersive Health Connections installation. UC Davis faculty and staff assisted with the creation of Health Connections, among other contributors. There are interactive stations that focus on areas of UC Davis expertise such as stem cells, brain health and the gut microbiome. Other features of this exhibit include models of UC Davis’ groundbreaking PET Explorer and robotic surgery instruments. Art from members of the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience is also currently on display.

Discounted tickets are not available in advance. Claim your discount in person by showing proof of UC Davis employment at the admissions desk. Memberships to MOSAC are not included in the discount, but your admission counts toward the cost of membership if you sign up on site.

MOSAC is located at 400 Jibboom Street, Sacramento, CA 95811.

Aubyn Stahmer, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, is being nominated as director of the UC Davis MIND Institute. She is expected to begin her new role on September 1, 2024. Stahmer is a child clinical psychologist and behavior analysis specializing in early identification and intervention for children autism and other developmental disabilities.

BBC news has featured the CuRE Trial, the groundbreaking project headed by Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery Diana Farmer and Professor Aijun Wang, who has dual appointments with the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Surgery. CuRE is a frontier treatment for spina bifida that treats the disorder in utero with placental stem cells.

Researchers at UC Davis Health have been awarded a $5.6 million grant through the Coast-to-Coast Consortium to advance their pioneering work with the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) All of Us Research Program. The program provides an unprecedented opportunity to include diverse populations in large-scale genomic research. Alexander Borowsky, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, leads the research at UC Davis.

Andreas Bäumler, Distinguished Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, is the senior author of “Epithelial hypoxia maintains colonization resistance against Candida albicans,” published in Cell Host Microbe. This study looked at how antibiotic treatment promotes the outgrowth of intestinal Candida albicans. The first coauthors of the study are Hannah Savage, Derek Bays and Connor Tiffany. The other co-authors are Mariela Gonzalez, Eli Bejarano, Thaynara Carvalho, Zheng Luo, Hugo Masson, Henry Nguyen, Renato Santos, Krystle Reagan and George Thompson of UC Davis.

Comprehensive Cancer Center director Primo Lara and oncologist Shuchi Gulati contributed to a study reporting on results of the multicenter EVEREST Phase 3 trial. “Adjuvant Everolimus in Patients with Completely Resected, Very High-risk Renal Cell Carcinoma of Clear Cell Histology: Results from the Phase 3 Placebo-controlled SWOG S0931 (EVEREST) Trial” was published in European Urology. EVEREST Phase 3 is a clinical trial on the effectiveness of a treatment for patients with renal cell cancer at intermediate-high or very high risk of recurrence.

Evaluation Unit

What does the Evaluation Unit do? The School of Medicine Office of Research Evaluation Unit provides program evaluation support for UC Davis Health centers, training programs, and research projects. The team’s evaluation services include designing and implementing evaluation plans, writing evaluation sections for grants, developing logic models, and disseminating evaluation findings.

In addition to evaluation training, the team has a wide range of experience in social science research approaches (qualitative and quantitative). Team members have advanced degrees in sociology, public health, community psychology, and organizational psychology with expertise in working with diverse populations in a variety of settings.

Supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion: The evaluation team supports the core strategies of the School of Medicine and the School of Medicine Office of Research by prioritizing equity, partnerships, and communication in their work. Among their varied portfolio, the unit has several projects focused on furthering diversity, equity, and inclusion. A few of these recent projects include:



• Anti-Racism and Cultural Humility: The qualitative evaluation examined how training on anti-racism and cultural humility impacted individuals, work teams, and the institution two years post-training. (PI: Jann Murray Garcia, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing).
• Licensed Physicians from Mexico Pilot Project: A qualitative evaluation that explores the impact of bringing in licensed physicians from Mexico to provide care in health clinics in underserved areas in the California. (PI: Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, Center for Reducing Health Disparities).
• Redwood SEED: This mixed methods evaluation examines the experiences of students at UC Davis who are in an innovative program that serves students with developmental and intellectual disabilities in higher education. (PI: Leonard Abbeduto, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences/MIND Institute); and,
• Lighthouse for Older Adults: The mixed methods evaluation assessed the success of an implementation, which provided technology to older adults with diverse language and health needs, living in affordable, senior housing. (PI: Lindeman, UC Berkeley CITRIS and the Banatao Institute).

How can the Evaluation Unit help you? The Evaluation Unit provides monthly consultations to support the research and evaluation needs of faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, and students. If you need assistance with center or program evaluation, planning and writing an evaluation section of a grant, or any other evaluation-related needs, please reach out to the evaluation team.

Evaluation Unit

The UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is engaged in a wide range of groundbreaking research across several key areas of mental health. Investigations span basic, translational, and clinical research, touching on everything from early psychosis and autism to aging and sleep disorders. This year, the department welcomed Aliza Wingo, an internationally recognized leader in the field of psychiatric genetics. Her innovative research has significantly contributed to our understanding of the genetic basis of mental health disorders.



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