Current Research Teams
Research teams recruit new members on a rolling, as needed basis. Join our mailing list to receive the recruitment emails.
Real Vegan Cheese
Recruiting Status - Full
The Real Vegan Cheese project is exploring the potential of using yeast expression systems to produce vegan-cheese and related proteins. Their project involves DNA cloning, protein expression, bacterial/yeast culturing and transformation.
To learn more, reach out to Allison Muller at allmuller@ucdavis.edu or Victoria Welsh at vcwelsh@ucdavis.edu
Microfluidics
Recruiting Status - Full
Microfluidics is the science of manipulating tiny quantities of fluids — think microliters and nanoliters. The team is using these technologies to make a single cell capture and culture device for mammalian cells.
To learn more, reach out to Veda Nayak at vnayak@ucdavis.edu and Jennifer Tah-Espens at jetahespens@ucdavis.edu.
ALGene
Recruiting Status - Full
The ALGene project aims to genetically modify Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a strain of single-cell green algae, to produce insulin and/or other pharmaceutical-relevant proteins in a cost-effective and sustainable manner.
To learn more, reach out to Caleb Humphrey (cchumphrey@ucdavis.edu), Michelle Azuma (mkazuma@ucdavis.edu), or Sky Tuse (srtuse@ucdavis.edu).
Past Research Teams
iGEM
iGEM is short for International Genetically Engineered Machine (See why we call it iGEM?). This is an international competition that happens each year. A group of highly motivated students engage in a summer-long research sprint before presenting their work at the annual iGEM competition. We currently do not have an iGEM team but may be able to help facilitate a group of students who are interested in participating in this competition.
For more information please contact: Tanya Chettri
3D Organic Polymer Silk (3D-OPS)
This team of BIG researchers worked to use spider silk in a variety of medical applications.
3D-OPS is now a company - find more information about them here.
Bioprinter
A bioprinter is a device that can print biological materials (hydrogels, cells suspended in different matrices) in three dimensions. This team of BIG researchers worked to create affordable bioprinting technologies by converting a FDM printer system into one that would print bacterial and mammlian cells embedded in an agarose based hydrogel.
ELISA Optimization
Through a collaboration with HM Clause, this team was developing a better workflow for detecting plant disease using ELISA.