Research

As one of the world’s first fetal surgeons, Diana Farmer has long been focused on the smallest of patients.

She specializes in treating birth defects inside and outside of the womb, treating congenital anomalies and cancer and performing airway and intestinal surgeries. In the late 1990s, she became the first woman in the world to perform open fetal surgery.

Associate Professor Crystal Rogers is one of eight faculty members who comprise the newest class of UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellows, given to early career academics doing exemplary work in their fields. 

Drs. Boaz Arzi and Maria Soltero-Rivera of the Dentistry and Oral Surgery Service recently attended the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual conference where they presented on stem cell and other regenerative medicine therapies.

Dr. Soltero-Rivera presented the poster “Distinctive Characteristics of Extracellular Vesicles from Naïve and Cytokine-Stimulated Feline Adipose- and Placenta-Derived Stromal Cells” on her groundbreaking work with stem cells and regenerative medicine.

The School of Veterinary Medicine and College of Engineering Bird Flight Research Center is cited by UC Davis as one of the many ways that federal research funding is creating breakthroughs and impact.

With approximately 2,000 registered attendees, members of the veterinary and human health communities, scientists, media, policymakers, general public and others showed their concerns about avian flu by tuning into the February 19 UC Health Grand Rounds. The one-hour, online session featured three experts from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and one from UC Davis Health.

Pasteurization is the only widely recognized method of killing H5N1, the virus that causes bird flu, in milk. However, pasteurization can be expensive and fewer than 50% of large dairy farms pasteurize waste milk.

Waste milk includes colostrum, the first milk after calving; milk from cows treated with antibiotics or other drugs; or any other factor that can make milk unsuitable and unsellable for human consumption. On farms, raw waste milk poses a potential risk of spreading avian flu, which so far has been confirmed in dairy cattle in 16 states.  

Bats are widely recognized as the primary hosts of filoviruses, such as Ebola, yet the specific host species of ebolaviruses are not definitively known. In a study led by the University of California, Davis, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Einstein), scientists have developed a new tool to narrow down potential host species of filoviruses and better prioritize wildlife surveillance. The research is part of global efforts to prevent viral spillover between animals and humans.

Last week, the first human death as a result of infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1, or bird flu was reported. According to the Louisiana state health agency, “The patient contracted H5N1 after exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds.”

Whale researchers dropped a mic into the seas off southeast Alaska and recorded a humpback making a “whup”-like noise, translated roughly as a humpback hello. The next day, they lowered a speaker into the water and played the recorded “whup” back as a pod of whales passed by. One whale, a middle-aged female named Twain, responded in kind. For 20 minutes, Twain and the scientists “whupped” back and forth, 36 times in a row. Researchers even varied the timing of their calls and Twain matched their tempo.

When Sarah Lindley found a lump near her dog Bucky’s tooth, she didn’t think it was a problem. The lively husky mix, which she and her partner, Tom Yuzvinsky, consider part of the family, didn’t appear to be in pain. Still, she scheduled an appointment with her local veterinarian on the Central Coast.

“At first we thought something was stuck in his gums and he might lose a tooth,” Lindley said. “Then the biopsy came back as cancerous.”