Reaching Across the Causeway Fosters Cross-Disciplinary Research
Now in its third year, the Reaching Across the Causeway (RAC) Symposium held on October 8 brought together RAC awardees in addition to new faculty and other guest speakers. Every year, the UC Davis Schools of Veterinary Medicine and Medicine rotate in hosting an annual symposium that provides an opportunity for "cross-causeway" networking and engagement.
The RAC program is a joint funding initiative led by the Associate Dean of Research of the School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) and the Vice Dean for Research of the School of Medicine (SOM), with contributions from the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center.
“We initiated this program with the goal of capitalizing on the strength of having both schools just 20 miles apart,” said Associate Dean of Research Danika Bannasch. “By bridging disciplines and schools, this program aims to address today’s most complex scientific challenges through collaborative, team-based science. After three rounds of funding, we’re now hearing presentations from researchers about study results that were made possible by RAC awards. It’s gratifying to see the impact this program is starting to have.”
Presentations were organized into three sessions: Translational and Comparative Research; Infectious Disease and Microbiome Research; and Cancer Research. Those presenting spoke for 15 minutes with five minutes for Q&A. Some of the presentations from 2024 awardees included:
“Advancing Optogenetic Therapy for Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome (SARDS)”
Dr. Sara Thomasy (SVM-Surgical & Radiological Sciences)
Dr. Ala Moshiri (SOM-Ophthalmology)
“Improving the Non-invasive Diagnosis and Monitoring of Copper Associated Hepatopathy in Dogs and Humans”
Dr. Tarini Ullal (SVM-Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital)
Dr. Valentina Medici (SOM-Internal Medicine: Gastroenterology and Hepatology)
“Preventing Invasive Candidiasis by Restoring Gut Epithelial Hypoxia”
Dr. Hannah Savage (SVM-Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology)
Dr. Derek Bays (SOM-Internal Medicine: Infectious Diseases)
“Advancing NK Cell Cancer Therapy through Nanotechnology and Non-Invasive Imaging”
Dr. Jinhwan Kim (SOM-Surgery)
Dr. Jessica Lawrence (SVM-Surgical & Radiological Sciences)
The RAC awards, up to $50k per team, are designed to spark innovative, cross-disciplinary collaborations between the two schools. These funds have supported bold, high-impact ideas that will open new avenues of investigation and significantly enhance the potential for future extramural research funding. The awards may be used for staff or graduate student support, as well as expenses related to developing competitive extramural grant applications.
Read more about past awardees here.
Stay tuned for the next call for 2026 RAC Awards, which will go out in Spring 2026.
Exhibiting core facilities and units included:
Cancer Center Shared Resources
Veterinary Center for Clinical Trials
Health Sciences Advanced Imaging Facility
DNA Technologies and Expression Analysis Core
Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging
Comparative Pathology Laboratory
Aggie Square
Library Researcher Services