School of Medicine

Research Impact Report

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2024-2025 Major Funding

In FY 2025, high impact research projects at UC Davis School of Medicine included new and renewal obligated awards for projects, research programs and centers and health contracts. These projects span diverse fields, from cancer research and precision medicine to public health and emerging infectious diseases. The influx of funding enabled UC Davis researchers to deepen their investigations and accelerate the translation of lab discoveries into real-world medical solutions. 

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Awarded Projects

Selected new and renewed obligated awards of $1M+ during fiscal year 2025

  • Tara Niendam

    $5 million, Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission
    Project: Early Psychosis Training and Technical Assistance

    $2.17 million, Health Management Associates, Inc. (Michigan)
    Project: The Good Life Healthy Aging program

    $1.57 million, NIH National Institute of Mental Health
    Project: California Collaborative Network to Promote Data Driven Care and Improve Outcomes in Early Psychosis

  • Rachel Whitmer

    $5.2 million, National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute on Aging 
    Project: Epidemiology of Age-related Dementia, Mild Cognitive Impairment and Brain Pathology in a Multiethnic Cohort of Oldest-Old

    $3.25 million, NIH National Institute on Aging 
    Project: KHANDLE: Kaiser Healthy Aging and Diverse Life Experiences Study

  • Bradley Pollock

    $8.39 million, California Department of Public Health
    Project: California Epidemiologic Investigation Service (Cal-EIS) Fellowship Program

  • Stephen Henry

    $6.4 million, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute
    Project: In Person vs. Telehealth Opioid Use Disorder Treatment after Patients Leave the Emergency Department

  • Mehrdad Abedi

    $4.59 million, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
    Project: Superior Forward-Oriented b-Globin Vector for Treating Sickle Cell Disease

  • Joseph Anderson

    $4.48 million, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
    Project: Expression of Ube3a by the Hematopoietic System for the Treatment of Angelman Syndrome

  • Irva Hertz-Picciotto

    $1.8 million, Public Health Services (PHS) Health Resources and Services Administration
    Project: UC Davis Health Institute on Wildfires, Health, Equity, and Resilience

    $1.6 million, NIH National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences 
    Project: The CHARGE Study Phase II: A Multifactorial Approach to Autism Etiology

  • Angel Desai

    $3 million, Coalition For Epidemic Preparedness Innovations
    Project: Improving Virus Risk-ranking to Better Anticipate Disease X Emergence in Humans and Target Mitigation Measures

    $1.24 million, California Department of Public Health
    Level 2 Special Pathogen Treatment Center

  • Elisa Tong

    $2.8 million, UC Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program
    Project: UC Davis Tobacco Cessation Policy Research Center (UCD TCPRC)

  • Heather Riden

    $1.43 million, Agricultural Labor Relations Board
    Project: California Farmworker Outreach Development

    $1 million, California Labor and Workforce Development Agency
    Project: Statewide Agriculture and Farmworker Education (SAFE) Program

  • Pranav Shetty

    $2.7 million, Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium
    Project: Improving Modular Patient Admission Capacity Through Scalable Solutions (IMPACTS)

  • Charlene Green

    $2.4 million, Foundation for California Community Colleges
    Project: Greater Northern California Regional Healthcare (GNCRHH)

  • Kent Pinkerton

    $2.2 million, Department of Health and Human Services National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
    Project: Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety

  • Gabriela Loots

    $1.8 million, Department of Defense (DOD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program
    Project: Contribution of Bone Mass and Fracture to Bone Metastasis in Prostate Cancer

  • James Chenowith

    $1.7 million, California Office of Traffic Safety
    Project: Drug and Alcohol Use in Motor Vehicle Crash Victims - Year 2

  • Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz

    $1.6 million, Department of Justice (DOJ) National Institute of Justice
    Project: REFRAME: Research and Evaluation Framework for Reducing hArm and Measuring the Effectiveness of CVIPI Strategies

  • Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola

    $1.28 million, California Department of Health Care Services
    Project: Together for Wellness/Juntos por Nuestro Bienestar

  • Oanh Meyer

    $1.2 million, NIH National Institute on Aging
    Project: Vietnamese Insights into Cognitive Aging Program (VIP)

  • Serena Yang

    $1.2 million, UC Los Angeles
    Project: UCLA-UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN)

  • David Hessl

    $1.16 million, NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke
    Project: Trajectories and Markers of Neurodegeneration in Carriers of the Fragile X Premutation

  • Shuchi Gulati

    $1.16 million, DOD Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program
    Project: Functional and phenotypic metabolic transitions governing disease state in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

  • Brittany Dugger

    $1.1 million, NIH National Institute on Aging
    Project: The Neuropathologic Landscape of Alzheimer's Disease in Hispanic Descendents

  • Nicholas Anderson

    $1.1 million, UC Berkeley
    Project: Surgical Robotics and Health Informatics Training Program

  • Sarah Tomaszewski Farias

    $1 million, NIH National Institute on Aging
    Project: Brain pathologies, Reserve and Cognition in Aging and Dementia

  • Judy Van de Water

    $1 million, MARABio Systems Inc.
    Project: Work for contract between UC Davis Van de Water lab and MARABio

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Health Science Contracts

Health science contracts are agreements that govern collaborative research between the University and external organizations, whether those organizations are funding the research or are participating in the conduct of the research itself.

  • Siao Yi-Wang

    $5.25 million, Merck & Co., Inc.
    A Phase 2/3 Open-Label Study to Evaluate Neoadjuvant & Adjuvant V940 (mRNA-4157) in Combination with Pembrolizumab (MK-3475) versus SOC, and Pembrolizumab Monotherapy in Participants with Squamous Cell Carcinoma (LA cSCC) (INTerpath-007)

  • Nicholas Mitsiades

    $3.6 million, Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC
    A Phase 3, Randomized, Open-label Study of MK-5684 Versus Alternative Abiraterone Acetate or Enzalutamide in Participants with Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer (mCRPC) That Progressed On or After Prior Treatment with One Nextge

  • Stuart Cohen

    $2.69 million, Janssen Research & Development, LLC
    A Phase 3 Study to Assess Efficacy, Safety & Immunogenicity of Vaccination w/ ExPEC9V in Prevention of Invasive Extraintestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli Disease in Adults Aged 60 Yrs & Older w/ History of UTI in Past Two Years

  • Eric Mao

    $2 million, Abbvie Inc.
    A Phase 2a Multicenter, Randomized, Platform Study of Targeted Therapies for the Treatment of Adult Subjects with Moderate to Severe Crohn's Disease

  • Brooks Kuhn

    $1.2 million, Inhibrx, Inc.
    A Phase 2, Active-Control, Parallel Group Study to Assess INBRX-101 Compared to Plasma Derived ALPHA-Proteinase Inhibitor (A1PI) Augmentation Therapy in Adults with ALPHA-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (AATD) Emphysema.

  • Jonathan Riess

    $1.8 million, Glaxosmithkline PLC
    A Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety Profile of Dostarlimab in Combination with Belrestotug when Compared with Pembrolizumab and Placebo in Participants with Previously Untreated, Unresectable, Locally Advanced or Metastatic PD-L1 High NSCLC

  • Mehrdad Abedi

    $1.4 million, Cabaletta Bio, Inc.
    A Phase 1, Open-label, Safety and Dosing Study of Autologous Desmoglein 3 Chimeric Autoantibody Receptor T Cells (DSG3-CAART) in Subjects with Active, Anti-DSG3, Mucosal-dominant Pemphigus Vulgaris

  • Tianhong Li

    $1.2 million, Marengo Therapeutics, Inc.
    A Phase 1/2, First-in-Human, Open-Label, Dose Escalation and Expansion Study of STAR0602, a Selective T Cell Receptor (TCR)-targeting, Bifunctional Antibody-fusion Molecule, in Subjects with Unresectable, Locally Advanced, or Metastatic Solid Tumors

  • R. Lor Randall

    $1.1 million, Balmoral Medical, LLP
    A Prospective, Multicenter, Single-Arm, Open-Label Study to Evaluate the Safety and Effectiveness of the Transdermal Compress Device in Participants with Transfemoral Amputations

  • Aaron Rosenburg

    $1 million, Pfizer Inc.
    A Phase 3, Open-Label Study of Elranatamab Monotherapy Versus Elotuzumab, Pomalidomide, Dexamethasone (EPd) or Pomalidomide, Bortezomib, Dexamethasone (PVd) or Carfilzomib, Dexamethasone (Kd) in Participants with Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma Who Received Prior Anti-CD38 Directed Therapy

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Research Program and Center Grants

Research program and center grants are large, multi-project efforts. Listed below are obligated awards for fiscal year 2025 and do not reflect the overall funding for these programs.

  • Charles DeCarli

    $10 million, NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke
    Incidental White Matter Lesions on MRI Amongst a Diverse Population with Cognitive Complaints (INDEED)

    $3.2 million, NIH National Institute on Aging
    UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center

  • Theodore Wun

    $5.12 million, NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
    UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center

  • Primo Lara

    $3.6 million, National Cancer Institute
    Comprehensive Cancer Center Support Grant

  • Dennis Hartigan-O’Connor

    $3.6 million, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
    HIV FP cocktail vaccines designed for optimal follicular T and B cell induction and efficacy (Opti-FliP)

  • Alexander “Sandy” Borowsky

    $3.1 million, NIH National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
    California Partnership for Personalized Nutrition

  • Melissa Bauman

    $3.1 million, NIH National Institute of Mental Health
    UC Davis Conte Center: Neuroimmune Mechanisms of Psychiatric Disorders

  • Diana Miglioretti

    $2.47 million, NIH National Cancer Institute
    Advancing Equitable Risk-based Breast Cancer Screening and Surveillance in Community Practice

  • Alice Tarantal

    $1.3 million, NIH National Institutes of Health Office of the Director
    Center for Somatic Cell Genome Editing in Nonhuman Primates

  • Judith Van de Water

    $1.25 million, NIH National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
    MIND Institute Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC)

  • Laura Marcu

    $1.15 million, NIH National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
    The National Center for Interventional Biophotonic Technologies (NCIBT)

  • Kent Lloyd

    $1.1 million, NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs
    Mutant Mouse Resource and Research Center (MMRRC) at UC Davis