Campus Advisory Committee | UC Davis MIND Institute

Professor of Internal Medicine 
Director of the Center for Reducing Health Disparities (CRHD)

Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Clinical Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis. He is the Founding Director of the Center for Reducing Health Disparities at UC Davis Health and the Director of the Community Engagement Program of the UC Davis Clinical Translational Science Center (CTSC).

Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology
C. Bryan Cameron Presidential Chair in Neuroscience
Director, UC Davis Imaging Research Center, the Behavioral Health Center for Excellence
Early Psychosis Clinical and Research Programs

The work in Cameron Carter's laboratory focuses on neural mechanisms of attention, memory and cognitive control, and on the pathophysiological processes underlying clinical disorders that involve the cognitive, emotional and social processes governed by the neural circuitry supporting these systems in the brain.

Our research integrates behavioral, computational, and functional neuroimaging (fMRI, PET, EEG) along with neuromodulation using pharmacology and brain stimulation (tDCS). We are particularly interested in the relative contribution of the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate to executive processes and the interaction of this circuitry with related brain circuitry involved in motivation, attention and learning and memory.

A second avenue of research focuses on the pathophysiology of disturbances in cognition in mental disorders such as schizophrenia and OCD, with the goal of developing biomarkers for early identification and precision medicine and more effective therapies which can improve patients' ability to recover from their illness. We are also involved in the development of new treatments for cognitive disability in schizophrenia and other brain disorders. This work includes translational research focused on the role of altered neuroimmune mechanisms in developmental disruptions of brain connectivity that underlie risk for psychosis and other serious mental illness. This work is supported by an NIMH Conte Center (conte.ucdavis.edu).

A key element of the philosophy of the lab is that good clinical research can only proceed if it is being constantly informed by ongoing theoretical and methodological progress in basic neuroscience, and that the experiments of nature provided by clinical brain disorders may provide us with powerful additional insights into the neural basis of normal cognitive and emotional processing.

Director, Center for Molecular & Genomic Imaging

Abhijit Chaudhari's research interest is development and validation of techniques for medical image acquisition, reconstruction and analysis (MRI, PET/CT, SPECT, Optical). Application of anato-molecular imaging in musculoskeletal medicine, neurology and oncology.

Professor and Director, UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
Victor and Genevieve Orsi Chair in Alzheimer's Research

Charles DeCarli, M.D. is a Professor of Neurology and the Victor and Genevieve Orsi Chair in Alzheimer's Research. He directs the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the Imaging of Dementia and Aging (IDeA) laboratory. His research interests focus on the use of neuroimaging techniques to examine the biological underpinnings of brain structure and function during aging and in the presence of diseases such as cerebrovascular and Alzheimer’s disease. Serves as leader of the Investigator Development Core of the Latino Aging Research Resource Center (LARRC) a federally funded Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR).

Distinguished Professor, Department of Surgery
Director, UC Davis Mouse Biology Program

Kent Lloyd's research focuses on understanding the genetic basis for both rare and common diseases.  He studies gene function in health and disease using in vivo models created using multiple strategies, including gene targeting and genome editing.

Director and Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neurology

George R. Mangun is the Director of the Center for Mind and Brain, and Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neurology at the University of California, Davis. He was the founding director of the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain in 2002, has served as (interim) Chair of Psychology, and was Dean of Social Sciences in the College of Letters & Science from 2008-2015. He leads the NIH-supported Laboratory for the Neural Mechanisms of Attention, and serves as Director of the Kavli Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience, supported by NIMH, NIDA and the Kavli Foundation. Professor Mangun has consulted on numerous university, U.S. government and international scientific panels and advisory boards, including for the National Institutes of Health, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Research Council, the Department of Defense, the European Research Council (European Union), the Academy of Finland, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research of the Basque Government (Spain), and the Max Planck Society (Germany). He is coauthor of the leading textbook, Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind (W.W. Norton, 2019); now in its fifth edition, the book has been translated into French, Italian, Portuguese and Chinese. Professor Mangun was the Editor of Cognitive Brain Research, a Senior Editor for Brain Research, and served as a Senior and Associate Editor for the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience; he is currently the Treasurer and Interim President of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society.

Director; Distinguished Professor
Genome Center, Department of Plant Sciences, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology

Richard Michelmore's research interest is genetics and genomics of disease resistance in plants.

Professor, Neurology
Director and Core Scientist, California National Primate Research Center

John Morrison’s research program focuses primarily on the neurobiology of aging and neurodegenerative disorders, particularly as they relate to cellular and synaptic organization of the cerebral cortex. His lab is developing a comprehensive model of synaptic health in the cerebral cortex and how molecular and structural deviations from this profile induced by age and endocrine disruption impact cognitive performance. He is also investigating the degree to which age-related alterations in structural and molecular attributes of the synapse that lead to cognitive decline leave the brain vulnerable to Alzheimer’s Disease. 

Director of the Stem Cell Program at UC Davis School of Medicine
Director of the Institute for Regenerative Cures

Jan A. Nolta, Ph.D., is the Director of the Stem Cell Program at UC Davis School of Medicine, and directs the Institute for Regenerative Cures. She also serves as the Scientific Director of the large UC Davis Good Manufacturing Practice Facility, and as Scientific Director of the Statewide California Umbilical Cord Blood Collection Program. In 2013 she was ranked as one of the “Global Top 50 Most Influential People in the Field of Stem Cells.”  

The UC Davis stem cell program has over 150 faculty members collaborating to work toward regenerative medicine-related cures for a spectrum of diseases and injuries. The current research in Dr. Nolta’s laboratory is focused on developing therapies that will use gene-modified bone marrow - derived mesenchymal stem/ stromal cells to deliver factors for treating Huntington’s disease and vascular disorders. The group that she oversees in the UC Davis Shared Translational Laboratory is helping UC Davis teams develop numerous clinical trials of gene and cell therapy, with eleven adult stem cell therapies already in the clinic, and another twenty in the pipeline.  

A scientist with more than 25 years’ experience with human stem cells and clinical trial development, she has published over 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts in the stem cell field and has authored 30 book chapters. She has served on over 200 review panels for the National Institutes of Health and other grant-funding agencies, is Editor for the Journal “Stem Cells” and was editor of the Book "Genetic Engineering of Mesenchymal Stem Cells". She received a prestigious five –year Transformative Grant Award from the NIH office of the Director to study exosome- and nanotubule-mediated transfer of microRNA from cell to cell, an area important in both stem cell and cancer research. She has also been funded as Co-PI on three large disease team grants that have the goal of developing and delivering novel Phase 1 clinical trials. In these teams she works with physician/scientists who will deliver the treatments to patients who have few other options. Her passion is team training and working with large groups of scientists, patient advocates and MDs to develop novel therapies.

Chief, Division of Hematology and Oncology
Director/PI UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center
Associate Dean for Research
Professor of Medicine

Theodore Wun's main research interests are in sickle cell disease and cancer-associated venous thrombosis. Contributions of his research group have included more fully describing the epidemiology of cancer-associated thrombosis and complications of sickle cell disease. He has also led or participated in clinical trials aimed at improving outcomes for people with these disorders.