Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program at UC Davis

Dr. Iván Olaya gave the UC Davis Molecular and Cellular Biology seminar yesterday, Chromosome asynapsis and unrepaired DNA double-strand breaks fail to elicit a strong meiotic prophase checkpoint response in zebrafish. In presenting his dissertation research, he told a detailed story about his meticulous work to investigate the mechanisms that regulate repair of double-strand breaks in zebrafish DNA. 

Professor Manuel Navedo has been named the 2025 recipient of the Robert M. Berne Distinguished Lectureship of the American Physiological Society. This award, presented annually by the Cardiovascular Section, recognizes Navedo's groundbreaking research on novel channel-signaling pathways in the circulatory system.

The College of Biological Sciences wrote a iovely profile of the 2023-2024 PREP@UCD cohort! Check it out when you have a chance!

As of 9 April, the sites linked below still are accepting applications. For some, the website says that the deadline has passed. The directors say to apply anyway. Others close in mid or late April. Either way, do not procrastinate.

Count 'em, four.

We are proud and happy (i.e., giddy and thrilled) to announce (i.e., shout to the world) that four PREP@UCD scholars from the 2023-2024 cohort received fellowships from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. And one affiliate who joined partway through the 2022-2023 program year received an Honorable Mention. 

Every year for the past 20-ish years, the T32 Training Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology hosts an annual retreat at Fallen Leaf Lake to foster cohesiveness and community.  In October 2023, we joined the UC Davis T32 graduate students and faculty on their retreat.  

A brisk 3.5-hour drive to Fallen Leaf Lake, a smallish lake near Lake Tahoe, took us to a cabin-style conference center (and resort where Stanford alumni spend their summers) that has stood for more than a century. Over this retreat weekend, I took in the wooded scenery and intriguing science.

Professor Joanna Chiu, PREP director and and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, has received the 2024 Distinction in Student Mentoring Award from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA).

Theanne Griffith, Assistant Professor of Physiology and Membrane Biology at UC Davis, has been named a 2024 Sloan Fellow! Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually to early-career scientists to reward their creativity, innovation, and research, and to recognize their accomplishments as the next generation of leaders in STEM. She joins PREP mentors and previous Sloan Fellows Elva Diaz and Megan Dennis in receiving this honor.

Celina Juliano, a PREP@UC Davis trainer who uses the aquatic invertebrate Hydra vulgaris as a model organism in her developmental biology research, has been named as one of the 2024 UC Davis Chancellor's Fellows! This honor is awarded annually to 10-20 early career faculty to recognize their exemplary research.

During my time as a PREP scholar at UC Davis, I have had the opportunity to meet amazing scientists who've visited Davis to give seminars. This fall, these included two speakers from the Storer Lectureship in the Life Sciences series.

In November, the PREP@UCD scholars made our annual pilgrimage to ABRCMS for a few days of science, networking, professional development, and reconnecting with alumni, friends, and colleagues. Since 2018, ABRCMS has been an important part of our fall program, and this year was no exception. 

It's become an annual tradition.

It's official!

Dan Starr, former director of PREP@UC Davis, has ascended to an administrative position in the College of Biological Sciences Dean's office. You can read all about it and enjoy photos of Dan in his natural habitat.

Congratulations, Dan!

The PREP scholars once again did fantastically well in their research presentations. We are so very proud of them (yes, we know that we are repeating ourselves, but it's true) and wish them all the best as they embark on their next academic adventures.

We were joined online by many members of the 2023-2024 PREP@UCD cohort. Check back after 1 July for their bios!

Photo credits: Many thanks to Crystal Rogers for the great photo in the stairwell and to Dan Starr for the "action shots"

Professor Joanna Chiu, director of PREP@UC Davis, today received the UC Davis Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research. Joanna's contributions to mentoring include formative work with three PREP scholars:

Maribel Anguiano (2020 cohort, a doctoral candidate in Neuroscience -- as of yesterday!), and Kiya Jackson (2022 cohort, bound for UCLA) and Cameron Vasquez (2023 cohort), both of whom did undergraduate research in Joanna's lab.