Chemical Biology Innovation Group (CBIG) meetings highlight research-in-progress by chemical biologists on the UC Davis campus. Each meeting has speakers presenting projects that are mature, with the talks often focused on recently submitted or published papers. These meetings are open to all students and faculty conducting research at the interface of chemistry and biology.

All meetings are held on select Wednesdays throughout the academic year in the Alumni Center (AGR Room) from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm. 

Upcoming Meetings

2024-25

• November 20, 2024
• January 22, 2025
• February 26, 2025
• May 21, 2025

Past Meetings

2024-25

October 23, 2024

• Dr. Sukanya Mozumder (Fisher Lab): Structural Basis for RNA Editing by Human ADARs
• Dr. Malathy Palayam (Shabek Lab): Insights into the Structure and Mechanism of Strigolactone Perception and Signaling

2023-24

May 22, 2024

• CBP Trainee Lauren Ohman (Louie Lab): Probing tumor-associated macrophage phenotype through targeted ¹⁹F MRI nanoprobes
• CBP Trainee Anna Vernier (Olson Lab): Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine Analogs for Hallucinogenic Potential

April 17, 2024

• Dr. Sung Hee Hwang (Entomology & Nematology): Development of Inhibitors of Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase: a path from bench to bedside
• Dr. Min Liu (Fiehn Lab): Natural High: The Journey of Finding Endogenous Psychedelics

February 14, 2024

• Dr. Luis Eduardo Contreras-Llano (Tan Lab): Engineering Cyborg Mammalian Cells as Therapeutic Materials
• Hunter Warren (Olson Lab): Elucidating glycosylation pathways and protein interactions using LC-MS/MS

January 31, 2024

• Dr. Abhilash Padvannil (Letts Lab): Structure and functional characterization of plant mitochondrial complex II
• Michael Russelle Alvarez (Lebrilla Lab): Elucidating glycosylation pathways and protein interactions using LC-MS/MS

2022-23

May 31, 2023

• Ian Torrance (Siegel/Tantillo Labs): Mechanistic Analysis of a Copalyl Diphosphate Synthase
• Tanner Treece (Atsumi Lab): Biological Tesla: Shocking Microbes for Chemical Production

April 19, 2023

• Casey Jacobsen (Beal Lab): En Masse Examination of RNA Guides (EMERGe) for ADARs
• Cody Yothers (Franz Lab): Microbial Farming for a Sustainable Future

January 25, 2023

• Dr. Aritra Bej (Ames Lab postdoctoral research scholar): Structures of Calmodulin Bound to Two Different Sites in the Retinal Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Channel
• Dr. Luke Solano (Lam Lab postdoctoral research scholar): A New Generation of OBOC Combinatorial Libraries

November 16, 2022

• Savannah Conlon (David Lab): Key features of 8-oxoguanine required for human MUTYH detection revealed through GFP-based plasmid reporter assay
• Garret Couture (Lebrilla Lab): Development of the Davis Food Glycopedia--A Glycan Encyclopedia of Food

October 12, 2022

• Assistant Professor Christina K. Kim : Biochemical Mapping of Functionally Activated Neural Circuits
• Assistant Professor Elizabeth Neumann: Multimodal Mass Spectrometry Imaging Approaches for Probing Complex Biological Systems

2021-22

April 20, 2022

• Sam Hartanto (Fisher Lab): Structural and Phenotypic Characterization of a Mycobacterial Sulfate Activating Complex
• Selene Zhou (Louie Lab): Macrophage-targeted contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

March 16, 2022

• Angel Cobo (Franz Lab): Silicon in Synthesis: From Methodology to a Strategic Approach in Small Molecule Drug Design
• Heesung Shim (Wulff Lab): Pose Classification using 3D Atomic Structure-Based Neural Networks Applied to Ion Channel-Ligand Docking

January 19, 2022

• Yuanyuan Bai (Chen Lab): Substrate and Process Engineering for Biocatalytic Synthesis and Facile Purification of Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs)
• Yuuki Wittmer (Murray Lab):Characterization of the Liquid Droplet to Fibril Transition for a Wild-Type and Mutant RNA-Binding Protein Linked to Neurodegeneration

December 1, 2021

• Associate Professor Randy Carney: Towards Living Micromachines for Biomedical Applications
• CBP Trainee Albert K. Liu (Shih lab):  Retracing the evolution of form II rubisco

October 20, 2021

• Associate Professor Cheemeng Tan: Towards Living Micromachines for Biomedical Applications
• Assistant Professor Igor Vorobyov: Molecular Modeling Insights into Cardiovascular System Chemical Modulation

2020-21

May 12, 2021

• Cindy McReynolds (Hammock lab): Plasma Linoleate Diols are Potential Biomarkers for Severe Disease
• Ami Rose (Gervay-Hague lab): Identification of and Progress Towards the Total Synthesis of Theogallin, a Natural Product found in Camellia Sinensis

April 21, 2021

• Jess San Juan (Heffern lab): Investigating the Role of Copper in Mediating Interactions Between Proinsulin C-peptide and Serum Albumin
• Angela Zhang (Atsumi lab): Microbial Production of Human Milk Oligosaccharide Lactodifucotetraose

March 31, 2021

• Diana Cuda (Ames lab): NMR and EPR-DEER Structure of a Dimeric Guanylate Cyclase Activator Protein-5 from Zebrafish Photoreceptors
• Calvin Ly (Olson lab): Psychedelic-Inspired Biosensor for Drug Discovery

February 17, 2021

• Andrew Muchlinski (Zerbe lab): Mechanistic Insight Into Terpenoid Metabolism In Bioenergy and Medicinal Plants
• Professor Alexei Stuchebrukhov: Redox Enzymes Of The Respiratory Chain

January 27, 2021 (recording available to view here!) =

• Peishan Huang (Siegel lab): Integrating In Silico Modeling & Experimental Characterizations For Enzyme Engineering
• RJ Tombari (Olson lab): Development of Tabernanthalog, a Novel Compound With Therapeutic Potential

December 9, 2020

• Aidin Balo (Britt Lab): Trapping a Crosslinked Lysine–Tryptophan Radical Intermediate in the Catalytic Cycle of the Radical SAM Enzyme SuiB
• Erin Doherty (Beal Lab) :Rational Design of Oligonucleotide Guide Strands for Site-directed RNA Editing

November 12, 2020

• Professor Nitzan Shabek: Structural insights into Plant Signaling Regulation by the Ubiquitin System
• Merve Demir (David Lab) :Structural and Mechanistic Insights into OG Recognition and Adenine Excision by MutY

2019-20

February 26, 2020

• Phillip Gingrich (Tantillo Lab): Computational Predictions of Cytochrome P450 Mediated Oxidations
• Axe (Yixuan) Xie (Lebrilla Lab): Mapping Cell Surface Glycan-protein Interactions in situ using Oxidation Proteomics and Cross-linking Mass Spectrometry

January 15, 2020

• Professor Patrick Shih: Discovery of a missing link in the evolution of Rubisco
• Postdoctoral Research Scholar Lu Zhang (Lam Lab): Transformable peptide nanoparticles arrest HER2 signalling and cause cancer cell death in vivo

October 16, 2019

• Prof. Oliver Fiehn : Using Metabolomic Databases and Text Mining to Find Clues About Metabolism
• Alexander Thuy-Boun (Beal/Fisher Labs): Structural Characterization of an ADAR Dimer in RNA Editing

2018-19

April 24, 2019

• Antonio Gomez (Segal Lab): "Epigenetic Editing in Cancer and Development"
• Riyao Li (Chen Lab): "Chemoenzymatic Synthetic Strategy for N. meningitidis W Capsular Polysaccharide"

March 13, 2019

• Prof. Philipp Zerbe: "Investigating Terpenoid Metabolic Diversity Toward Biotechnology Applications"
• Prof. Dylan Murray: "Assembly of the Tropomyosin Intermediate Filament Tail Domain"

January 20, 2019

• Diana Cudia (Ames Lab): "NMR Studies of Guanylate Cyclase Activating Protein-5 (GCAP5)"
• Jackson Zhu (Kurth Lab): "Mechanistic Approach to Reaction Discovery: From Heterocycles to Photoswitches"

November 7, 2018

2017-18

May 30, 2018

• Marcus Moreno (Lagarias Lab): "Structural insights to chromophore binding in a novel Far-red Cyanobacteriochrome"
• Derek Gagnon (Britt Lab): "Utilizing EPR to Characterize Protein Metallation Sites and Radical Intermediates"

April 25, 2018

• Scott Suter (Beal Lab):  "Major groove modifications in the seed region of an siRNA can control its miRNA-like off-target effects" 
• Morgan Matson (Atsumi Lab):  "Electrical-biological hybrid system for CO2 reduction"

March 7, 2018

• Dr. Karen Wagner (Hammock Lab)
  "Small Molecule Inhibitors of soluble Epoxide Hydrolase in Nociception"
• Doug Banda (David Lab)
  "Pro-survival enzyme MUTYH kills cells in response to alkylation DNA damage: A biochemical approach"

January 31, 2018

• Joshua Wood (Associate Director, Mouse Biology Program)
  "Next Generation Tools and Techniques for the Efficient Production of CRISPR-Animal Models Translatable to the Clinic"
• Youtian Ciu (Siegel Lab)
  "Genomic enzyme mining and enzyme engineering enable a novel pathway for the production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid"

November 15, 2017

• Xiaoxiao Shi, PhD (Goodin Lab)
  "Conformational studies of cytochrome P450s in solution by Double Electron-Electron Resonance (DEER)"
• Guodong Rao (Britt Lab)
  "Organometallic intermediates in [FeFe] hydrogenase bioassembly"

2016-17

May 31, 2017

• Henny O'Geen, PhD (Segal Lab)
  "Targetable Epigenome Editing with dCas9/CRISPR”
• Qinhong Yu (Ames Lab)
  "Structural Basis of Light Activated Signaling by the Red/Green Cyanobacteriochrome, NpR6012g4"

April 12, 2017

• Professor Delmar Larsen
  "Primary Events underlying the Biological Activity in Photoreceptors"
• Rich Squitieri (Shaw Lab)
  "Construction of Carbon-Carbon Bonds by Enantioselective C-H Insertion Reactions of Donor-Donor Metal Carbenoids"

March 1, 2017

• Andrew Burch (Franz Lab)
  "Progress towards understanding microalgal lipid accumulation mechanisms during abiotic stress"
• Vikrant Singh, PhD (Wulff Lab)
  "Synthetic THR Modulators: Curious case of NH-3 and EBI"

January 18, 2017

• Jackson Zhu (Kurth Lab)
  "Potent CFTR Activator as a Potential Therapy for Constipation"
• Mariana Barboza, PhD (Lebrilla Lab)
  "Development of a Glycoproteomic Platform to Unravel the Complexity of Brain N-Glycoproteins"

November 30, 2016

• Professor David Olson
  "Chemical Control of Neural Plasticity"
• Masaaki Sokabe, PhD (Fraser Lab)
  "The Mechanism of mRNA Selection for Translation: A Universal Role of eIF4A"