Program Information

The Chemical Biology Program (CBP) is supported by a NIH T32 Training Grant (July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2026), with matching funds from UC Davis, providing fellowships for 6-7 highly qualified predoctoral candidates annually. Our goal is to engage students in effective cross training at the interface of chemistry and biology. Through the CBP, trainees will develop an understanding for the value of the synthesis and analysis tools traditionally associated with chemistry in addressing biological questions relating to human health.

A trainee from this program will be equipped to move comfortably into a scientific career that requires them to communicate with both chemists and biologists (e.g. leading teams of investigators comprising both chemists and biologists or executing research projects with significant chemical and biological components). This will be achieved by a combination of coursework, laboratory rotations, individual development plans (IDP), research-in-progress presentations, career development activities and annual retreats.

 

Training Activities

 

Financial Support

The NIH T32 Training Grant and University Matching Funds provides funding for up to two years of your graduate education (years two and three), including a stipend and all tuition and fees. This funding is contingent upon satisfactory progress in your graduate Ph.D. training. This includes, but is not limited to, maintaining a minimum 3.0 GPA in all required coursework, making satisfactory progress in all research-related activities and participating in Program activities.

 

Participating Graduate Groups

If you are a prospective UC Davis graduate student, before applying for the CBP fellowship, you must first apply and be accepted to one of our participating graduate groups. Specific application requirements and deadlines vary and may be found on their respective websites and from the Office of Graduate Studies.

 

Participating Faculty

The faculty listings below are sorted by graduate group affiliations. Graduate groups embody the collaborative spirit of discovery at UC Davis by bringing together scholars from different areas of study who share common research interests, which means many of our faculty belong to more than one graduate program. You may also refer to our faculty directory for an alphabetical listing.

  • Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
  • Shota Atsumi | Synthetic biology and metabolic engineering 
    Peter Beal | Nucleic acids chemical biology
    Sheila David | Chemical biology of DNA repair
    Oliver Fiehn | Mass spectrometry and computation chemistry for metabolomics
    Andrew Fisher | Protein structure-function and X-ray crystallography
    Annaliese Franz | Organic synthesis, catalysis, and biofuels
    Christopher Fraser | Cellular and viral mRNA translation in humans
    Bruce Hammock | Biological chemistry of regulatory lipids, medicinal chemistry
    J. Clark Lagarias | Structure, function and evolution of bilin-based photoreceptors
    David Segal Genome engineering tools and therapeutics
    Jared Shaw | Synthetic methods, natural products, chemical biology
    David Wilson | Structural biochemistry
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Randy Carney | Nanoplasmonics, Raman spectroscopy/SERS, exosomes, cancer diagnostics
    Christina Kim | Functional and biochemical mapping of neural circuits using in vivo imaging, single-cell RNA sequencing, and proteomics
    Kit Lam | Lymphoma, targeted therapy for cancer, molecular imaging, drug development and combinatorial chemistry
    Angelique Louie | Molecular imaging and novel imaging probes
    Julie Sutcliffe | Department of Biomedical Engineering
  • Biophysics
  • James Ames | Biophysical chemistry and structural biology
    R. David Britt | Biological and synthetic energy catalysis, metalloenzymes, EPR spectroscopy
    Andrew Fisher | Protein structure-function and X-ray crystallography
    David Goodin | Metalloenzyme structure and function
    Delmar Larsen | Photoactivated dynamics in sensory proteins and photocatalysis
    Justin Siegel | Computational enzyme design
    Alexei Stuchebrukhov | Electron and proton transfer dynamics in condensed phases
    Michael Toney | Enzyme catalysis, functional genomics, and biofuel cells
    David Wilson | Structural biochemistry
  • Chemistry
  • James Ames | Biophysical chemistry and structural biology
    Shota Atsumi | Synthetic biology and metabolic engineering
    Peter Beal | Nucleic acids chemical biology
    R. David Britt | Biological and synthetic energy catalysis, metalloenzymes, EPR spectroscopy
    Xi Chen | Chemical biology/glycoscience
    Sheila David | Chemical biology of DNA repair
    Oliver Fiehn | Mass spectrometry and computation chemistry for metabolomics
    Andrew Fisher | Protein structure-function and X-ray crystallography
    Annaliese Franz | Organic synthesis, catalysis, and biofuels
    Jacquelyn Gervay-Hague | Natural products synthesis, tea chemistry, and phytoceuticals
    David Goodin Metalloenzyme structure and function
    Marie Heffern | Bioinorganic chemistry in nutrition and diseases, chemical biology and imaging
    J. Clark Lagarias | Structure, function and evolution of bilin-based photoreceptors
    Kit Lam | Lymphoma, targeted therapy for cancer, molecular imaging, drug development and combinatorial chemistry
    Delmar Larsen | Photoactivated dynamics in sensory proteins and photocatalysis
    Carlito Lebrilla | Bioanalytical mass spectrometry
    Angelique Louie | Molecular imaging and novel imaging probes
    David Olson | Organic synthesis and chemical neuroscience
    Jared Shaw | Synthetic methods, natural products, chemical biology
    Justin Siegel | Computational enzyme design
    Alexei Stuchebrukhov | Electron and proton transfer dynamics in condensed phases
    Dean Tantillo  | Theoretical organic chemistry, natural products biosynthesis
    Michael Toney | Enzyme catalysis, functional genomics, and biofuel cells
    Heike Wulff | Design of potassium channel modulators
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology
  • Sheila David | Chemical biology of DNA repair
    Oliver Fiehn | Mass spectrometry and computation chemistry for metabolomics
    Bruce Hammock | Biological chemistry of regulatory lipids, medicinal chemistry
    Kit Lam | Lymphoma, targeted therapy for cancer, molecular imaging, drug development and combinatorial chemistry
    David Segal Genome engineering tools and therapeutics
    Heike Wulff | Design of potassium channel modulators