UCDavisDelivers

14 Research Breakthroughs Improving Lives, Our Economy and Our Future

Since the university’s inception in 1908, faculty and students at UC Davis have pushed the boundaries of knowledge to deliver discoveries that not only enrich lives but also drive economic growth, prosperity and security in California and throughout our nation.

Our research shapes industries, creates well-paying jobs and prepares the next generation of leaders and innovators.

We deliver breakthroughs that advance healthcare, our food supply, energy solutions, education and more.

From local communities to global conversations, we thrive on tackling the most pressing needs and finding solutions for a better tomorrow.

The following examples capture how research at UC Davis continues to impact daily lives and shape our future.

Growing California’s Wine Industry

For 90 years, the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis has been a pivotal force behind California’s success in winemaking.

After the repeal of prohibition, the department focused on making grape growing and winemaking affordable. That work expanded and included research on what influences wine taste, implementing new technologies, and developing varieties and clones suitable for California’s climate. Work on chardonnay alone proved to be an economic boon to the industry.

The department, which trains and teaches future generations through hands-on education, has developed 15 wine grape, 15 table grape and five juice grape varieties, as well as seven rootstalks for an industry that is worth $88 billion in the Golden State alone.

Refining Rice to Feed A Growing Population

Rice — a global food staple with growing demand — is a key source of vitamins, minerals and fiber for communities around the world. UC Davis has been at the forefront of improving the crop, including finding ways to make rice more sustainable, disease resistant and able to withstand flooding.

In one instance, plant geneticists were able to pinpoint and isolate a gene in rice that increases production by 60% and is resistant to flooding. These varieties are grown by more than 6 million farmers in India and Bangladesh, contributing to the food security of 70 million people.

Finding a Cure for Spina Bifida Using Stem Cells

Spina bifida occurs when spinal tissue fails to fuse properly during the early stages of pregnancy. The birth defect can lead to a range of lifelong cognitive, mobility, urinary and bowel disabilities. It affects 1,500 to 2,000 children in the U.S. every year.

A landmark clinical trial at UC Davis Health is underway to improve outcomes for children with this birth defect by delivering the world’s first spina bifida treatment in utero, combining surgery with stem cells.

The clinical trial known formally as the “CuRe Trial: Cellular Therapy for In Utero Repair of Myelomeningocele” will treat 35 patients in total.

Fighting Cancer With Novel Therapy Program Using CAR T Cells

As part of a new program to treat patients with blood cancers, UC Davis Health has developed genetically modified cancer-fighting cells. It is the first such onsite program in the region.

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T-cell) therapy uses the body’s own defenses, its immune system, to fight cancer. T cells are removed from the patient, re-engineered so they aggressively target specific cancers and infused back into the patient to target cancer with precision.

Sparking the Future of Hybrid-Electric Vehicles

Widely known as the “father of the plug-in hybrid,” Professor Andrew Frank championed the widely adopted approach of using fuel-efficient vehicles that combines gasoline engines with electric motors running on rechargeable batteries. In 1973, Frank, then a young professor of engineering at the University of Wisconsin who would later become a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC Davis, co-authored a paper titled “Electric and Electric-Hybrid Cars – Evaluation and Comparison.” The paper described how a hybrid electric car would overcome the limitations of an electric vehicle. Since then, he has developed over 35 patents, 12 of which belong to UC Davis, that improve the performance and reduce liquid fuel consumption in hybrid electric vehicles.

Restoring Voices Lost to Cancer Using Silent Speech Technology

For people who lose their ability to speak due to cancer or other conditions, current voice restoration tools often sound mechanical and unfamiliar. UC Davis researchers are developing a new system that can recreate a person’s natural voice using facial muscle signals, video of silent speech, and existing audio samples from sources like family videos or voice memos. By decoding subtle muscle movements with facial electromyography (EMG), the system translates silent mouth motions into speech that sounds like the speaker’s original voice. Supported by UC Davis innovation grants, the National Science Foundation, and partners including Accenture, the long-term goal is to make this technology widely accessible — even via smartphone. This breakthrough has the potential to restore not just communication, but a vital part of identity, offering people a chance to once again speak and be heard in their own voice.

Advancing Medicine with Regenerative Cures for Animals and Humans

The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine has a track record of finding cures for prominent diseases in animals with the use of regenerative medicine involving stem cells. This research has translated into some of the most cutting-edge clinical procedures anywhere in the world. For example, stem cell therapy on cats with Feline Chronic Gingivostomatitis has resulted in many cats demonstrating complete disease cure. UC Davis veterinarians have also demonstrated that a regenerative approach to jaw reconstruction using bone morphogenic protein can successfully regrow bone lost to injury or disease.

Harnessing Psychedelic Compounds to Treat PTSD, Alzheimer’s, Schizophrenia and More

In 2018, UC Davis researchers demonstrated that psychedelics promote neuroplasticity — the regrowth of neurons and neural connections. With neuronal atrophy underlying neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases — including PTSD, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and more — the researchers saw an opportunity to design new therapeutics based on psychedelic compounds. Leveraging expertise in chemistry, neuroscience and medicine, researchers are illuminating how psychedelic compounds affect the brain at the molecular and cellular level. They’re using that knowledge to design targeted neurotherapeutics that strictly confer beneficial neuronal effects, divorcing them from hallucinations and other negative side effects. In recent NIH-funded research, researchers unveiled a new drug based on LSD that shows potential for treating schizophrenia. The research is one of many recent advancements revolutionizing brain health.

Unlocking the Boundaries in Biomedical Imaging

In 2005, UC Davis Professors Simon Cherry and Ramsey Badawi, had a vision of transforming the healthcare landscape with a revolutionary idea of a total-body scanner. Funded by a Transformative Research Award from the NIH, and developed in collaboration with United Imaging Healthcare, their partnership led to a first-of-its-kind scanner — EXPLORER— that can capture a 3-D picture of the whole human body at once, allowing more accurate imaging while reducing radiation exposure. As the scan produces breathtaking image quality, the technology can be particularly helpful to researchers studying cancer that has spread beyond a single tumor site, inflammation, infection, immunological or metabolic disorders and many other diseases. The Food and Drug Administration cleared the scanner in late 2018, following which the EXPLORER scanned its first human research subject at UC Davis in June 2019. This marked an important step toward improving diagnostics, tracking disease progression and researching new drug therapies. Currently, the scanner has been commercialized and installed at more than 20 other sites across the world.

Advancing Agriculture, Lowering Food Costs Through Mechanization and Breeding

Agricultural engineering has been a mainstay at UC Davis for more than a century and the development of the mechanical tomato harvester is one such milestone.

The harvester radically changed and improved production of canning tomatoes – used in sauces, soups and tomato pastes – while supporting an industry facing labor shortages. At the same time, plant breeders developed new tomato varieties that would roll rather than split when mechanically harvested thereby reducing spoilage.

By 1968, 95% of processing tomatoes in California were harvested mechanically using 1,400 machines, according to the book Abundant Harvest. The tomato harvester and other mechanical innovations revolutionized how crops got from the field to the table, helping California establish itself as an agricultural powerhouse and lowering consumer costs.

Breaking Barriers to Better Attendance

Professor Kevin Gee and co-researchers have identified nine key barriers that keep students from attending school regularly, including housing instability, transportation challenges and health issues. This work is guiding schools and districts toward practical, equity-centered solutions—such as engaging parents and students in socioemotional learning and improving access to basic needs. By shedding new light on the complex causes of chronic absenteeism in California’s schools, this research is helping educators and policymakers address absenteeism more effectively and support the success of all students.

Equipping Communities to Respond to Hazardous Air Pollutants

The Toxic-metal Aerosol Real Time Analysis, or TARTA, is a novel, low-cost air monitoring instrument developed in the lab of Distinguished Professor Anthony Wexler, director of the UC Davis Air Quality Research Center. The suitcase-sized sensor has been deployed in communities in Northern and Southern California to detect and measure toxic metals in the air in real time as part of the Community Air Project, a collaborative research effort led by UC Davis with researchers from UC Irvine and UC San Diego along with community-based organizations in Northern and Southern California. The project is helping California communities take action against the harmful pollutants in their environment that have been linked to serious health effects, including traffic and aircraft emissions, industrial pollution and seasonal wildfire smoke.

Lighting Up Cancer Cells

Medical technology developed at UC Davis is helping surgeons see cancerous tissue during surgery. Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging, or FLIm, measures fluctuations in how light is diffused, absorbed or emitted by tissue or cells. These light fluctuations can reveal healthy tissue and abnormalities associated with cancerous cells. FLIm seamlessly integrates with existing surgical imaging techniques. It allows surgeons to visually spot — and more precisely remove — malignant tumors and tissue. FLIm has shown benefits in head and neck, brain and breast cancer surgery. It also shows potential in diagnosing heart disease by identifying key traits associated with the buildup of atherosclerotic plaques in coronary arteries.

Developing a Successful Drug to Treat HIV Infection

Infectious diseases core scientist Koen Van Rompay helped to develop and test the antiviral drug tenofovir, which is currently, as part of combination antiretroviral therapy, the most frequently used HIV drug in the world. Van Rompay’s research at the California National Primate Research Center uses macaque models of HIV infection to study all aspects of HIV/AIDS and Zika virus pathogenesis. His team’s preclinical data provided the scientific foundation for clinical testing in humans. Since the FDA cleared it in 2001, tenofovir has saved the lives of many infants by preventing mother-to-child transmission and is now the key ingredient in pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis regimens to prevent transmission of the virus in high-risk groups.