PEW Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences

a row of microscopes

UC Davis Honorees

PEW Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences More>>

Kenneth H Britten

Kenneth Britten, a professor in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior and a member of the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience group, looks at how a visual motion hierarchy processes information, and how the signals in the brain's cortex are employed in perception. 

 


A. Kimberley McAllister

A. Kimberly McAllister, a professor in the departments of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior and Neurology, and a member of the Center for Neuroscience group, focuses on the understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of synapse formation in the developing cerebral cortex. 

 


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Kassandra Ori-McKenney

Kassandra Ori-McKenney, a professor in the department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, studies the mechanisms that trigger dementia and neurodegeneration following traumatic brain injury. 

 

 


Bennet Penn Headshot

Bennet Penn

Bennet Pen, MD, a professor in the Department of Medicine and Medical Microbiology and Immunology looks to understand how the bacterium M. tuberculosis, the causative agent of TB, develops its tolerance to antibiotics. Using a suite of cutting-edge techniques in cell and molecular genetics, biochemistry and bioinformatics, Penn and his team will examine how the composition and modification of proteins change in TB bacteria as they grow resistant to antibiotics. 

 


Katherine Ralston

Katherine Ralston

Katherine Ralston, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics seeks to unravel the mechanism by which the tropical parasite Entamoeba histolytica kills human intestinal cells (which is responsible for diarrhea), She studies the genes that E. histolytica employs to nibble on host tissues and determine whether nibbling on host cells helps amoebae to evade detection by the host immune system and how it destroys host cells, a reaction that may trigger a novel form of self-induced cell death.