Life crosses the borders of scientific disciplines, and a culture of collaboration here at UC Davis creates an abundance of opportunities on campus and beyond.

Interdisciplinary research allows us to ask the big questions in biology—questions that lead to discoveries that transform our world.

One example of this collaboration comes from researchers at the Center for Neuroscience. They’re investigating learning and memory to decode how our brains work. By approaching neuroscience from many different levels, they help broaden our perspectives to understand brain health and disease.

Along the way, these faculty are preparing our students with experiences that connect foundational science to real-world clinical research. This comprehensive approach will shape a new generation of leaders to help create therapies to combat many diseases, such as Alzheimer's and dementia.

We look forward to the big discoveries that will come through collaboration.

Go Ags!

Michele Igo was recently named the associate dean of undergraduate academic programs. Her educational research will help shape the way students learn biology. Igo replaced Susan Keen, who will continue lecturing and conducting her own educational research.

For outstanding work in the marine sciences, Bodega Marine Laboratory graduate students Carina Fish and Kate Hewett, have received NOAA’s Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship for their individual research projects on climate change and oxygen dynamics.

Phillip “Reef” Morse, ’67 BA and ’72 Ph.D. in Zoology, brings science to life for elementary through high school students with hands-on spectrometers training. The instruments are used to detect molecules with unpaired electrons, such as free radicals.  

Assisted by the STAIR Grant program, UC Davis plant biologists Anne Britt and Neelima Sinha are working to develop a new method for rapid and efficient genome editing in tomatoes.

Ann Hedrick researches the mating behaviors of the field cricket Gryllus integer, trying to determine which heritable traits attract a mate. For her research, Hedrick was recently elected as a fellow of the Animal Behavior Society. 

After the birth of her second child, Priya Shah found a new direction to take her virology research. She studies how flaviviruses, like Zika and dengue, hijack a host's biological processes to proliferate and spread.