News and Highlights
Michael Steven Denison: 1954-2022
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Internationally known environmental toxicologist Michael “Mike” Steven Denison, a distinguished emeritus professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology and an integral part of the UC Davis Superfund Research Program (SRP), died March 22 at age 67 of cancer (glioblastoma). He was a resident of Woodland.
Professor Denison, who retired in 2018, joined the department in 1992 and advanced to professor in 1997. He served as a researcher in the UC Davis SRP, funded by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), for more than 25 years.
UCD SRP Researchers meet with Yurok tribe
Monday, March 13th, 2022
UCD SRP program researchers Tom Young, Beth Rose Middleton, Christophe Morisseau, joined by affiliate J. David Furlow, and graduate student researchers Dalia Rakha (Young lab), Brittany Saleeby (Young lab) and Tamara Solorzano (Middleton group), met with Yurok CEC Advisory Committee members Georgiana Gensaw, Patrick Willson, and Bertha Peters, and Yurok Tribe Environmental Program staff Christina Cosby, Richard Myers II, and Louisa McCovey (Director) to discuss the latest round of results of the analysis of water and sediments from the Klamath and tributaries.
New Approach to Remove Chemicals from Animal Derived Foods
Monday, January 25, 2021
In a new study, funded in part by the NIEHS Superfund Research Program (SRP), researchers improved an approach to remove persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from foods of animal origin. Michael Denison, Ph.D., from the University of California, Davis SRP Center collaborated with a team of researchers from the European Union Reference Laboratory to test several laboratory methods and develop an improved method for the extraction of lipids and associated POPs bound to animal tissue.
New Tool Monitors a Flame Retardant in Sediment
Wednesday, October 07, 2020
Researchers at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) Superfund Research Program (SRP) Center developed a new, inexpensive tool to reliably detect small amounts of tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) in environmental samples. TBBPA is a flame retardant commonly found in household dust, soil, water, sewage, sludge, and sediments.
Traditional approaches to measure TBBPA in the environment are complex and expensive. Led by Bruce Hammock, Ph.D., the UC Davis SRP Center team developed a new detection technology as a simple and effective alternative.
COVID-19 Commentary by Harvard-UC Davis Team: Most Downloaded Paper in History of CMR Journal
Friday, July 10, 2020
A research commentary on how a drug discovered in the laboratories of Professors Charles Serhan of Harvard Medical School and Bruce Hammock of the University of California, Davis, may control the body's inflammatory response to COVID-19 is the most downloaded article in the history of the journal Cancer Metastasis and Reviews (CMR), a Springer Nature publishing group. The drug stabilizes two groups of natural chemical mediators.
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UC Davis-Based Research Targeting Autism
Monday, May 11, 2020
DAVIS—A 16-member team of international researchers is targeting autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to see if a drug discovered in the Bruce Hammock lab at the University of California, Davis, can support efforts to control or block the neurodevelopmental disorder.
UC Davis Researchers Target Obesity; Compound May Prevent or Treat Obesity-Linked Illnesses
Monday, March 23, 2020
DAVIS--Newly published research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) indicates that a drug discovered and developed in the laboratory of Bruce Hammock,UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, may have a major role in preventing and treating llnesses associated with obesity.
Bruce D. Hammock: Science Should Be Fun
Thursday, March 12, 2020
Bruce D. Hammock is widely known for his groundbreaking research in insect physiology, toxicology, pharmacology, and experimental therapeutics. Early contributions were in fundamental regulatory biology, development of both small molecules and recombinant viruses as environmentally friendly pesticides, and the application of accelerator mass spectrometry to biological science. His laboratory pioneered the use of immunoassay for the analysis of human and environmental exposure to pesticides and other contaminants. His laboratory provides graduate training that is diverse in disciplines and research areas. He recently formed a company, EicOsis, to develop an orally active non-addictive drug for inflammatory and neuropathic pain for humans and companion animals.
International Honors for Hammock, Morisseau, and Kitamura
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
Three UC Davis scientists, including distinguished professor Bruce Hammock, are part of the Who's Who “click-chemistry team” that won the Royal Society of Chemistry's Horizon Team Award for advancing chemistry and “pushing the boundaries of science.”
The scientists from UC Davis also include researcher Christophe Morisseau of the Hammock lab and Seiya Kitamura, who completed his doctorate in the UC Davis Pharmacology/Toxicology Graduate Group working with Hammock and Morisseau before starting a postdoctoral position at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla.
Study may explain why some COVID-19 patients recover and others don't
Friday, March 26, 2021
A newly published UC Davis research paper pinpoints what could be “the missing link” in why some COVID-19 patients recover and some don’t.
A blood plasma biomarker discovered in hospitalized COVID-19 patients may not only predict the severity of adult respiratory distress syndrome but further research may lead to inhibiting the progression, a team of eight University of California researchers announced.
The UC researchers, primarily from the laboratory of UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock, found that four compounds in the blood of COVID-19 patients are highly associated with the disease. Their paper, “Plasma Linoleate Diols Are Potential Biomarkers for Severe COVID-19 Infections,” is published as open access in the current edition of Frontiers in Physiology.
A Discovery in the Hammock Lab May Lead to Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Inhibitors of a key regulatory enzyme in humans and experimental animals studied in the lab of UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock may lead to a role in treating people with Alzheimer's disease by reducing inflammation in the brain.
“Inflammation in the brain, or neuorinflammation, is strongly implicated in Alzheimer's disease,” said Hammock, co-author of a research paper, “An Epoxide Hydrolase Inhibitor Reduces Neuroinflammation in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease,” published Dec. 9 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
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How Harvard, UC Davis Team Blocked Progression of Cancer Growth; PNAS Paper
Monday, July 27, 2020
Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, Davis, blocked the progression of cancer growth caused by environmental carcinogens and food contaminants by resolving an eicosanoid/cytokine storm triggered by cell debris.
The research, from the laboratories of physician-researcher Dipak Panigrahy of Harvard Medical School and UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock, is published in the current edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Bruce Hammock: Lifetime Achievement Award from Chancellor
Monday, June 15, 2020
UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock, internationally recognized for his work in alleviating inflammatory and neuropathic pain in humans and companion animals--and known as the founder of the field of environmental immunoassays--is the recipient of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in Innovation, part of the 2020 Chancellor's Innovation Awards.
UC Davis, Harvard Scientists: Hammock Lab Drug May Help COVID-19 Patients Recover
Friday, May 08, 2020
A drug discovered in the laboratories of Professors Charles Serhan of Harvard Medical School and Bruce Hammock of the University of California, Davis, may control the body's inflammatory response to COVID-10 and could help patients recover, according to a nine-member research team's newly published commentary in the journal Cancer Metastasis and Reviews, Springer Nature publishing group.
Hammock/Hashimoto/RIKEN Research Could Lead to Drug to Prevent or Reduce Disabilities Associated with Autism, Schizophrenia
Monday, March 18, 2019
An enzyme inhibitor developed in the UC Davis laboratory of Bruce Hammock and tested in mice by a team of international researchers shows promise that it could lead to a drug to prevent or reduce the disabilities associated with the neurodevelopmental disorders of autism and schizophrenia.
Testing Sonoma Ash and Air for Fire-Formed Pollutants
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
When fires ripped through suburban subdivisions in Santa Rosa last October, they may have done more than reduce homes to ashes. By incinerating all kinds of materials — insulation, electronics, furniture, cleaning products, pesticides — at very high temperatures, they could have created unknown or previously unrecognized health hazards in the smoke and ash. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, are trying to figure out just what is in that ash and air. Dr. Thomas Young, who is mentioned in the article, is the Associate Director of the Superfund Program and the Leader of Project 1.
