News and Highlights
Bruce Hammock Elected Fellow of National Academy of Innovators
Dec 16 2014
Bruce Hammock, Director of the UC Davis Superfund Research Program, as well as a distinguished professor of entomology at UC Davis who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been selected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), which honors academic invention and encourages translations of inventions to benefit society. Congratulations on a well-deserved accolade!
(Entomology and Nematology News)
(Dateline, UC Davis News and Information)
Postdoctoral Researcher Sing Lee of Hammock Lab Receives Coveted NIH K99 Award
Dec 8 2014
Chemist Kin Sing Stephen "Sing" Lee, a postdoctoral researcher and Superfund Trainee in the Bruce Hammock lab in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, has won a coveted National Institutes of Health K99 Award, often called the "NIH Pathway to Independence Award" or the "Career Transition Award/Research Transition Award." The award will enable Lee to shift rapidly into a permanent tenure-track or equivalent faculty position. The title of his project is "Identifying the Receptors of Environmentally Sensitive Epoxy-Eicosanoids with AMS". Congratulations Sing! Keep up the great and highly relevant work!
Posters, panels, and oral presentations: UCD had heaps to share at the SRP Annual Meeting
Nov 12-14 2014
The Annual meeting of SRP investigators was convened in San Jose, CA from Nov 12-14 and hosted by UC Berkeley. UC Davis' SRP focuses on identifying and utilizing biomarkers in determining exposure to harmful chemicals. Participants from the UCD SRP presented in a myriad of platforms including oral presentations by Postdoctoral Trainee Candace Spier Bever and Senior Investigator Michele La Merrill, Co-Director and Senior Investigator Michael Denison served as a panelist and a slue of other investigators, both Trainees and Lead Scientists, presented a total of 18 posters. Of the poster presentations, Graduate Student Trainee, Sarah Carratt was bestowed a best poster presentation award for her contribution. Congratulations Sarah for presenting an outstanding poster and thank you to all investigators for sharing your exciting research findings!
Superfund Scientists Teach Elementary Students about Watershed Pollution
May 17 2014
On April 25th, a group of scientists from the UC Davis Superfund Research Program (SRP) and the UC Davis Aquatic Health Program braved the rainy weather to participate in Marguerite Montgomery Elementary School (MME)'s Science Fair. The grey sky and constant drizzle, however, was an unexpected boon that helped the scientists to explain the topic of this year’s exhibit: watershed pollution. The team of scientists led a ten-minute interactive workshop for 2nd and 3rd graders about watersheds and potential pollution sources (such as litter, pet feces, agricultural run-off, car pollution, etc.). Locally, this is very important since Davis is located in one of many watersheds that washes out into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which consequently is a substantial part of the statewide water system. Pollution in this watershed may have drastic consequences to human and environmental health. After understanding how pollution from the landscape could be washed into rivers and then the ocean when it rained, students learned how these substances could harm marine wildlife. The scientists used stuffed animals – a copepod, fish, and killer whale – as members of a food chain. Students quickly caught on to the problem: not only does the killer whale get the largest dose of toxin, but humans are also part of that marine food chain.
When asked how to prevent this pollution from harming animals (and humans!), students had some creative answers: “use a policeman to stop people from polluting,” “become an ‘environmentalogist,’” and, finally, “clean it up before it can go into the river!” It sounds like they have the right idea.
SRP PI Bruce Hammock receives the Brodie Award for Outstanding Research in Drug Metabolism
May 1 2014
Distinguished Professor Bruce Hammock, who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UCD Comprehensive Cancer Center, is the recipient of the biennial Bernard B. Brodie Award in Drug Metabolism, sponsored by American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPECT). The award ceremony was held at the Experimental Biology Conference in San Diego on April 26.
The award recognizes Hammock’s outstanding original research contributions to the understanding of human drug metabolism and transport and the continued impact of his research in the area of drug discovery and development. In selecting Hammock, ASPET acknowledged Hammock’s collaborative studies in drug metabolism and metabolomics. The society also noted his tradition of sharing reagents for research to enable investigators in both the private and public sectors to make substantial advances for the development of potentially useful therapeutic compounds to treat stroke, atherosclerosis, heart failure, renal failure, inflammation and neuropathic pain.
UC Davis SRP Business Announced in Class of Startups by Davis Roots
April 29 2014
UC Davis SRP Researchers, Ian Kennedy and Sudhee Lakshmana founded a food-tech startup that was selected by Davis Roots, a non-profit start-up business accelerator, to be part of their mentoring program. Kennedy and Lakshmana participated in Davis Roots' inaugural Demo Day to discuss their company, SonanuTech that has spun out of the UC Davis SRP. They expanded their biosensor technology to enable rapid and ultrasensitive pathogen detection for cheese manufacturers. Congratulations on taking research-derived technology from the lab to the field!
Seminar Series Promotes the Exchange of Scientific Information
April 22 2014
On Monday, April 21st, the Superfund Research Programs at UC Davis (UCD) and the University of Arizona (UA) collaborated to showcase cell-based tools for environmental assessment in the seminar series titled: “New Research on Toxicity Screening Methods.” Dr. Scott Boitano (UA) described how he conducts Real Time Cell Analysis (RTCA) using the XCELLigence system, while Dr. Michael Denison explained his technology called the Chemically-Activated Luciferase Expression (CALUX) Bioassay. Both technologies are radically new means in which scientists can measure human cell responses after exposure to varying levels of environmental toxins.
Spreading the word about toxin exposure: Superfund research highlighted at the annual UC Davis Picnic Day
April 18 2014
On April 12th, 2014, UC Davis celebrated its 100th Picnic Day, a celebration of its agricultural roots and of its premier research facilities and projects. The UC Davis Superfund Research Program (SRP) again took advantage of this tremendous opportunity to engage with the public and developed an exhibit to inform the public about their research and their mission. Graduate students Sean Kodani and Erika Fritsch, as well as Research Translation Core Leader Dr. Candace Bever and intern Allison Dycaico, led an exhibit which focused on how organisms accumulate toxins through the food chain via the ecological processes known as bioaccumulation and biomagnification. This year, the UCD SRP invited the Oregon State University (OSU) SRP to participate, which included Training Core Leader, Dr. Craig Marcus, and trainees Andrea Knecht and Erin Madeen. Alongside the UCD SRP exhibit about biomagnification and daily toxin exposure, the OSU SRP presented posters about their research on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in smoked meat prepared by Native Americans and the effect of PAHs on development in zebrafish.