News Articles

Iliya Voytsyshyn, a fourth-year systems and synthetic biology major from Ukraine, entered UC Davis with plans to study cancer. That initial goal grew into a fascination with tools that fuse biology, systems design and gene editing to re-engineer cells.

The 2026 UC Davis Medal, the University of California, Davis’ highest honor, will be awarded to Robert D. and A. Kathleen Grey. The couple have dedicated their lives and careers to the university and the surrounding community for nearly six decades, playing an integral role in the university’s transformation into the world-class research institution it is today.

Gene editing has enormous potential to help feed the world’s growing population, but it’s currently difficult, time-consuming, and only works in some plant species. A big part of the problem is CRISPR/Cas9’s size: it’s too large to be delivered into plant cells.

There are many ways to communicate with prospective romantic partners: If you are a Japanese scarab beetle, it’s a matter of distinguishing left from right. New work from U.S. and Chinese scientists, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how these beetles use mirror-image pheromones to find a mate. The work could lead to better monitoring and control of significant agricultural pests.

While there are many achievements and accomplishments still ahead of us this year, some have happened already. Researchers in the Department of Plant Biology received a $5 million Gates Foundation grant to support the expansion of self-cloning crops from rice to other staple foods in areas where availability of high-yield seeds is either unreliable or expensive.

Long ago, on a faraway Aleutian island, a pair of rare beaked whales got stranded. One was saved by biologists and swam back out to sea. The other perished and its skeleton now hangs inland, thousands of miles from home.

Ask students in the College of Biological Sciences (CBS) who the associate dean of undergraduate programs is, and odds are many wouldn’t know. But the behind-the-scenes impact Michele Igo has made on their experience is profound. 

Abigail Morris first visited the Peruvian Amazon when she was 6 years old. Now, as a Ph.D. candidate in the Animal Behavior Graduate Group, she has returned to study how seasonal flooding affects the behavior, diet and population genetics of two species of monkey: monk sakis (Pithecia monachus) and large-headed capuchins (Sapajus apella macrocephalus).

Venkatesan Sundaresan, a Distinguished Professor of plant biology and plant sciences at the University of California, Davis, has been awarded a Gates Foundation grant to develop self-cloning crops for Indian farmers.

Coral reefs make up less than 1% of ocean habitat but are home to at least 25% of marine species. These incredibly biodiverse ecosystems are increasingly threatened by human actions, including anthropogenic climate change.