somor-news-nov25

School of Medicine research was celebrated at the 2025 SOM Research Celebration on October 28. Held every fall, this event showcases current medical research and provides opportunities for research faculty and staff to network with each other in a relaxing environment. Awards are also announced during the celebration.

This year’s speakers included Bruce Hall, UC Davis Health Chief Clinical Officer, and researchers Megan Dennis, Brittany Dugger, Peter James, Na’amah Razon, Pranav Shetty, Stephen Henry and Aimee Moulin.

The recipients of the inaugural Research Rock Star awards were announced during the 2025 School of Medicine Research Celebration on October 28. Inspired by the Diamond Doc awards that honor clinical excellence, these awards celebrate excellence in the research mission across various domains, recognizing individuals who have demonstrated outstanding contributions and leadership in their respective fields.

These awards reflect the culture of excellence and innovation within School of Medicine research. By honoring exceptional individuals from various fields, we seek to motivate the upcoming generation of researchers and to acknowledge those who expand the frontiers of scientific discovery.

The winner in each category received $1000 and a commemorative trophy.

Award Categories

• Trainee Award: Recognizing exceptional research contributions from students, residents, fellows and postdoctoral researchers.
• Mentor Award: Celebrating exemplary mentorship that fosters the growth of future researchers.
• Basic Science Award: For groundbreaking work in fundamental research.
• Clinical/Translational Research Award: Recognizing impactful research bridging the gap between laboratory science and clinical applications.
• Population/Community Research Award: Celebrating innovative research addressing population health or community health needs.
• Research Staff Award: Honoring administrative and technical professionals who support and advance research excellence.

The winner of the Trainee Award is Kevin Chung, a postdoctoral scholar working under the supervision of radiology professor Guobao Wang and Simon Cherry, distinguished professor emeritus in the Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering. He was nominated by Wang and Cherry for his trailblazing work in quantitative molecular imaging, making paradigm-shifting contributions to total-body positron emission tomography.

The winner of the Mentor Award is Aijun Wang, Chancellor's Fellow and Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering. Wang received twenty-two individual nominations from undergraduate and graduate students, research staff and fellow faculty. The common theme of the nominations was that Wang’s excellent and inclusive mentorship has a profound impact on rising scientists. Wang is also Co-Director of the Surgical Bioengineering Laboratory and Vice Chair for Translational Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Department of Surgery.

The winner of the Basic Science Award is Associate Professor Megan Dennis from the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine. Dennis was nominated by Professor Anna La Torre in the Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy, who noted that Dennis’ landmark research has appeared in numerous highly competitive journals and includes her leadership in the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) consortium that helped deliver the first complete human genome sequence.

The winner of the Clinical/Translational Research Award is Professor Craig McDonald, chair of the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and professor of pediatrics and physical medicine and rehabilitation. He was nominated by physical medicine and rehabilitation associate professor Eric Henricson for his work advancing the diagnostics, outcome measures and therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and related neuromuscular diseases.

The winner of the Population/Community Research Award is Professor Elisa Tong, a generalist from the Department of Internal Medicine. Tong was nominated by Associate Adjunct Professor Melanie Dove from the Department of Public Health Sciences. She was nominated for her work as director of the Tobacco Cessation Policy Research Center, where she leads innovative Population/Community research that has been highly impactful in mitigating tobacco as the leading preventable cause of death and disease. 

The winner of the Research Staff Award is Phu Huynh, nominated by Abhijit Chaudhari, professor of radiology and director of the Radiology and Imaging Research Center. Huynh is a Nuclear Medicine Technologist Supervisor who oversees all studies utilizing the world's first total-body PET/CT scanner. Chaudhari notes that his work ensures that innovative investigations using the total-body PET/CT scanner are executed to the highest standard of technical rigor and efficiency.

The grand prize winner of the Research Image Competition was selected and announced during the Research Celebration. The grand prize winner is chosen from among the four images that won the quarterly image research competition that is held throughout the year.

This year’s grand prize winner is Richard Levenson, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine (pictured above with Kim E. Barrett). Levenson received $1500 for his laboratory. Levenson’s image is of loose collagen fibers from a breast tissue specimen mounted on a slide and stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin staining (H&E). It was made by polychromatic polscope microscopy (PPM). This microscope uses a special method of combining two beams of white light. Unlike older microscopes that rely on a simpler kind of light interference, this technique creates colorful images even when the sample only slightly changes the light passing through it. Traditional microscopes need much stronger changes in light to produce visible colors, but the PPM can show a full range of colors even with very small changes. Levenson shares the credit for this image with the developer of the PPM, Michael Shribak of the Marine Biological Laboratory.

The research image competition is always open, and a prize is awarded every quarter. Read the competition requirements and submit an image at this link.

The deadline to submit an image for this quarter is December 15.

2026 Sponsors Needed

If you are interested in sponsoring the research image competition, please contact us at somor@ucdavis.edu.

Open Access Books Fund Discontinued

Budget pressures have forced the library to discontinue the Open Access Books Fund, with the hope of resuming funding should philanthropic or other support for the program become available in the future. UC’s open access publishing agreements for journal articles are unaffected by this change.

Meanwhile, the University of California libraries have launched two pilot programs to provide funding support (through UC’s California Digital Library) to UC-affiliated authors who choose to publish their monographs open access with UC Press and Duke University Press. 

If you have questions about this change or about details of the two systemwide pilot programs, reach out to Michael Ladisch, the library’s scholarly communication officer, at mladisch@ucdavis.edu.

Qizhi Gong	Amir Zeki

The School of Medicine COVID Seed Grants awards funding for investigations of clinical and pathophysiological aspects of COVID. The awarded projects are collaborative and innovative, with high-impact potential.

This year’s awardees are Qizhi Gong from the Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy and Amir Zeki from the Department of Internal Medicine.

Professor Gong’s awarded project is “Olfactory-Brain Barrier Dysfunction in COVID-19 and Its Impact on Alzheimer's Disease Progression.” This study explores how COVID-19 may damage the barrier between the Olfactory-Brain Barrier, allowing immune cells to enter the brain and potentially contribute to long-term brain problems like those seen in Long-COVID and Alzheimer’s disease.

Professor Zeki’s awarded project is “A Novel Combination Therapy for the Treatment of COVID.” This study proposes testing a combination of two promising inhaled drugs—PAV-104 and statins—to see if they work better together than alone or compared to existing treatments, with the goal of improving care now and preparing for future pandemics.

School of Medicine Bridge Funding

The new period for School of Medicine Bridge Funding is now open. This program provides one-time funding to School of Medicine Principal Investigators who have lost, or are about to lose, their primary extramural funding.

Submission Details

• Deadline for Applications: January 9, 2026

• All proposals must be sent electronically as ONE single PDF file to UC Davis Internally Coordinated Programs powered by InfoReady at this link.

For more details on application submission, selection requirements and review criteria, go here.

School of Medicine Cultivating Team Science Award

The Cultivating Team Science Award provides two years of support for two multi-department teams to fund planning, preparation and submission of large team-based applications. At least two UC Davis School of Medicine departments must be represented on the team with the contact PI home department belonging to School of Medicine. 

Deadline for submissions: February 6, 2026

All proposals must be sent electronically as ONE single PDF file to UC Davis Internally Coordinated Programs powered by InfoReady at this link.

School of Medicine Impact Symposia Award

The application for the 2026 School of Medicine Impact Symposia Award initiative is now open. This award aims to assist departments within the School of Medicine to host high quality symposia that advance our research mission. Up to three departments will be awarded matching grants in the amount of $15,000 each, based on the scope and significance of the proposed symposium. The award funds are intended to cover various expenses associated with symposium organization, including but not limited to venue rental, speaker travel expenses and/or honoraria, promotional materials, and logistical arrangements. 

Deadline for Applications: January 9, 2026, at 5:00 p.m.

Read the RFA for award requirements and application instructions. Submit completed application at InfoReady.

School of Medicine Office of Research

Research Operations Team

• Nguyet Kong, Director of Research Operations
• Ida Shunk, Communications Specialist
• Oyunbold Jones, Financial Analyst
• Lucy Cai, Research Analyst
• Tasska Johnson, Senior Administrative Officer

In 2024, the Research Operations team took on an unusual project. The team was tasked with assisting the PIs of the HEAL-HER (Heart, BrEast and BrAin Heath Equity Research) Program with the coordination of a major symposium, the two-day April Krueger Women’s Health Symposium (AKWHS). The HEAL-HER PIs (Professors Luis Carvajal-Carmona, Diana Miglioretti, Amparo Villablanca and Rachel Whitmer) are among a number of researchers throughout the state who received funding for women’s health research from a cy pres award. The annual symposium brings together researchers from six institutions (UC Davis, UCSF, UCLA, UC San Diego, USC and Scripps Health) to share progress on the research projects funded by the award. The hosting duties rotate among the institutions and 2025 was UC Davis’ year.

Event coordination is not an unusual task for the Research Operations team. In fact, the unit is responsible for coordinating events for the School of Medicine Office of Research (such as the Research Celebration). What was different about AKWHS was the scale and scope of the project. The team was responsible for venue coordination, registration, concierge guest and VIP service and workflow management for a high visibility project. In order to meet this moment, the unit simply scaled up the strengths it routinely demonstrates in strategic planning, logistical excellence and commitment to celebrating scholarly work.

The team is dedicated to the effort to increase visibility of biomedical research at UC Davis, which is an ongoing project of the School of Medicine at large. Celebratory and high impact events are one facet of this effort. The team also collaborates with School of Medicine leadership, UC Davis Health Public Affairs and academic department leadership to advance the visibility of research opportunities and the university research enterprise. The team promotes research events, amplifies research news stories and recognizes the successful grants, publications and national accolades of School of Medicine researchers and their collaborators.

This year, that effort took on special meaning. AKWHS was held at newly opened Aggie Square, a collaborative project that represents the future of research innovation, amid the developing uncertainty about the future of national research funding. The need to connect researchers to each other and the community to research has taken on fresh urgency. It is increasingly important to ensure that UC Davis School of Medicine research is not only visible, but visibly celebrated.

Heike Wulff, professor of pharmacology, and Vladimir Yarov-Yarovoy, professor of pharmacology and membrane biology and anesthesiology and pain medicine, have published an article in the September 12 Pharmacology Review, along with three postdoc scholars in the department of pharmacology. This article reviews recent progress in developing drugs and therapies for diseases like epilepsy, depression and chronic pain. These treatments act on voltage-gated ion channels, and include newer approaches like gene therapy and antisense treatments. 

Distinguished Professor of Medicine Richard Kravitz has published a review on research regarding prescription drug marketing, appearing in the October edition of Annual Review of Public Health. The research shows that prescription drug ads influence people to ask for specific prescriptions and lead doctors to prescribe them, which raises healthcare costs. Experts suggest stronger oversight, including better funding for the FDA, temporary bans on ads for new or risky drugs, and restrictions on ads for specialized medications that should only be prescribed by experts.

The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) has honored UC Davis neuroscientist Maitreyee Wairagkar with the prestigious Peter and Patricia Gruber International Research Award in Neuroscience. This award recognizes neuroscientists with outstanding research and educational pursuit in an international setting. Wairagkar, a project scientist at the UC Davis Neuroprosthetics Lab, received the award for her groundbreaking work on an intracortical “brain-to-voice” brain-computer interface (BCI).

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