Motto: "Biotechnology: The Tools to Forge a Better Tomorrow"
- Unit of the Office of Research, under the guidance of Associate Vice Chancellor Alan Bennett
- Founded in 1986
- Administrative home for the DEB & ADP graduate programs, NSF and NIH Biotechnology Training Grants
- Links Academia to Biotechnology Industries & Government agencies
- Education Source for Students, Teachers, and Community
- Outreach efforts for agricultural biotechnology, stem cell research, biotechnology education, etc.
- Summer Short Courses for cutting edge techniques
- "Train the Trainers" (NSF grant) for community college & high school teachers
- Advisory committees for many academic biotechnology programs
Director's Message
January 2005
"There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come."
- Victor Hugo
As we embark on a new year and a new directorship for the UC Davis Biotechnology Program, I would like to say that I
am filled with excitement. The Biotechnology Program has matured since it was created in 1986 to become a core unit of the
infrastructure of the UC Davis campus. Although the outreach efforts and the industry partnerships continue to be important
goals, the mainstays of this program are academic and administrative.
Biotechnology is no longer a fledging technology; it is a driving force in the region and the state, as well as the world.
The Program is doing well and continues to contribute to the great missions of research, education and outreach by the
university. With the guidance and support of the Biotechnology Program advisory committee, DEB, NIH Biotech Training Program &
ADP executive committees, the Office of Research and the campus administration, I feel confident that the Program will continue
to be a catalyst for new endeavors in education and training in biotechnology-related disciplines.
With the help of my colleagues, I intend to apply my vision, passion, discipline and conscience to this Program and continue
the legacy of innovation and visionary leadership. Let's work together to create a better tomorrow.
"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with
another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit."
- Albert Schweitzer
A group of faculty members serve as the Biotechnology Advisory Committee (BAC). Each member is involved in an area of basic
research, which utilizes modern biotechnologies.
OVCR Oversight
Continuing Members
- Karen McDonald (Chair) Professor of
Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, in the College of
Engineering. She is also the Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies
in the College of Engineering. In the College of Engineering. She is the co-director of the NIH Training Program in
Biomolecular Technology and a member of the DEB executive committee. Her research focus is the production of
pharmacologically important proteins from plant cell cultures and the development of a new protein expression
system.
- Bruce Hammock (Former Chair) – Distinquished Professor of
Entomology in the College of Agriculture
and Environmental Sciences and the Cancer Research Center in the School of Medicine, Director, NIEHS-UCD Superfund
Basic Research Program and the NIH Biotechnology Training Program. He is working on genetically-engineered viral
insecticides, the development of immunoassays for the detection of xenobiotics in the environment and the development of
predictive models for the biodegradation, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of epoxides. He is a member of the National
Academy of Science.
- Kit S. Lam – Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of
Hematology/Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine and Professor, Department of
Chemistry, in the Division of
Math and Physical Sciences in the
College of Letters and Science. Dr. Lam is a practicing medical oncologist and a
laboratory researcher. His laboratory is engaged in the development and application of combinatorial library methods for
basic research and drug discovery.
- Paul Luciw – Professor of
Medical Pathology, in the School of Medicine and Associate
Director - Research Programs, Center for Comparative Medicine. He uses molecular
genetic approaches to investigate the regulation of viral gene expression and to elucidate mechanisms of viral
pathogenesis.
- Richard Michelmore – Professor of Genetics in
Plant Sciences-Vegetable Crops, in the College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and Founding Director and the Novozymes
Chair in Genomics in the UC Davis Genome Center in the Division of Biological
Sciences. His research is focused on the comparative and functional genomics of disease resistance in plants, particularly
Arabidopsis, tomato and lettuce.
- Martina Newell McGloughlin – Director, UC Systemwide Biotechnology
Research and Education Program (UCBREP) and Adjunct Professor of
Plant Pathology, in the College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. She is the co-director of the NIH Training
Program in Biomolecular Technology. She is the immediate past director of the UC Davis Biotechnology Program. She is an
internationally recognized authority on biotechnology and its social implications. Her personal research experience has
been in the areas of disease resistance in plants, scale-up stability for industrial and pharmaceutical production in
microbes and microbiological mining.
- Fern Tablin – Professor of
Anatomy, Physiology and Cellular Biology, School of
Veterinary Medicine and Co-Director of the
Center for Biostabilization (a collaborative effort between membrane
biophysics and cell biology). Her research interests include: Role of the membrane phase transition in platelet activation;
Definition of the cellular and signaling events associated with passage through the transition; and the role of membrane
dynamics and microdomain in platelet activation. The research focus at the Center is the response of platelets, red blood
cells, and various types of nucleated eukaryotic cells to extreme cell stress, in particular freezing and
freeze-drying.
- Tilahun Yilma – Professor of Virology,
Veterinary Medicine:
Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, in the School of
Veterinary Medicine and Director, International Laboratory of Molecular Biology For Tropical Disease Agents (ILMB). He is
studying viral diseases of livestock and is developing diagnostic kits and vaccines for viral diseases using recombinant
DNA technologies. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research activities of the members of the BAC reflect the diversity of interests and expertise across the
university.
Copyright © 2005 by UC Davis
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