Biotechnology Program Advisory Committee

The governing committee of the Biotechnology Program is the Biotechnology Advisory Committee (BAC). Each member is involved in an area of research utilizing modern biotechnologies. The research activities of the members of the BAC reflect the diversity of interests and expertise across the university.

Continuing Members

• Karen McDonald (Chair) - Professor of Chemical Engineering, in the College of Engineering. She is also the Faculty Director for the UC Davis ADVANCE Program.  She is the co-director of the NIH Training Program in Biomolecular Technology and a member of the DEB executive committee. Her research focus is the production of pharmacologically important proteins from plant cell cultures and the development of a new protein expression system.

• Titus Brown – Associate Professor in the College of Biological Sciences, Genome Center, Department of Population Health and Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine and Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute.  Research interests include -omic data analysis, gene expression, and gene regulatory networks and specialties/focus areas include cellular physiology, domestic animal physiology and molecular physiology.

• Joanna Chiu – Associate Professor in the College of Biological Sciences, the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Entomology and Nematology.  Prof. Chiu's research interests include molecular genetics of animal behavior and physiology, circadian rhythms, posttranslational modifications of clock proteins and protein network analysis.

• Marc Facciotti – Professor in the College of Engineering (Biomedical Engineering) and the Genome Center.  Research interests include systems biology, synthetic biology, structure, dynamics and function of gene regulatory networks, and protein engineering. 

• Annaliese Franz – Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, in the Division of Math and Physical Sciences in the College of Letters and Science.  Research interests include organic synthesis, catalysis and biofuels.

• Bruce Hammock (Former Chair) – Distinguished Professor of Entomology in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and the Cancer Research Center in the School of Medicine, Director, NIEHS-UCD Superfund Basic Research Program and the NIH Biotechnology Training Program. He is working on genetically-engineered viral insecticides, the development of immunoassays for the detection of xenobiotics in the environment and the development of predictive models for the biodegradation, mutagenicity, and carcinogenicity of epoxides. He is a member of the National Academy of Science.

• Tina Jeoh Zicari – Associate Professor in the College of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.  Her research interests include bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and chemical and the microencapsulation of bioactives.

• Kit S. Lam – Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine and Professor, Department of Chemistry, in the Division of Math and Physical Sciences in the College of Letters and Science. Dr. Lam is a practicing medical oncologist and a laboratory researcher. His laboratory is engaged in the development and application of combinatorial library methods for basic research and drug discovery.

• Kent Leach – Professor in the College of Engineering (Biomedical Engineering and Orthopaedic Surgery) and the Genome Center.  His research interests focus on cell-instructive biomaterials, understanding the local biophysical microenvironment, drug and gene delivery, and the application of in vivo imaging tools to monitor tissue formation. 

• Pam Lein – Professor, the College of Biological Sciences, Department of Molecular Biosciences, School of Veterinary Medicine; Chair, UC Davis Pharmacology and Toxicology Graduate Group.  Her research interests include instructive biomaterials, understanding the local biophysical microenvironment, drug and gene delivery, and the application of in vivo imaging tools to monitor tissue formation. 

• Richard Michelmore – Professor of Genetics in Plant Sciences, in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and Founding Director and the Novozymes Chair in Genomics in the UC Davis Genome Center in the Division of Biological Sciences. His research is focused on the comparative and functional genomics of disease resistance in plants, particularly Arabidopsis, tomato, and lettuce.

• David Mills – Professor, and the Peter J. Shields Endowed Chair in the  Department of Food Science & Technology in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.  Research interests include the interaction between foods, microbes and the intestine and the microbial ecology of food production.

• Philipp Zerbe – Assistant Professor, the College of Biological Sciences, His specialties/focus areas include plant metabolism, functional genomics and metabolomics, and molecular biology and protein biochemistry.

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