Supporting Research Endeavors Across the Causeway

A third round of funding for Reaching Across the Causeway Awards was recently announced by the Associate Dean of Research of the School of Veterinary Medicine, Vice Dean for Research of the School of Medicine, the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) and UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC).

This unique program brings together the strength of the UC Davis Schools of Veterinary Medicine and Medicine to address complex health issues and reflects the ability to conduct groundbreaking research in our nationally ranked medical and veterinary schools, located less than 20 miles from each other across the Yolo Causeway. At least one School of Medicine (SOM) department and one School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) department are represented by researchers on each team. The program will provide one year of $50k in support for six multi-school (SOM/SVM) department teams to fund planning, preparation, and submission of team-based applications.

“Many of today’s most important research problems are complex and require a bold multidisciplinary approach,” said Danika Bannasch, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at the School of Veterinary Medicine. “This initiative fosters that type of collaboration across the university, advances One Health and also has the potential to lead to future extramural funding.”

Awardees for 2025 include:

·      Ji-Hey Lim (SVM: Surgical & Radiological Sciences) with Aijun Wang (SOM: Surgery) for “Evaluation of LLP2A/LXW7-Modified Collagen Scaffolds for Spinal Defect Repair in Dogs with Naturally Occurring Spina Bifida.” Funded by CTSC.

·      Paramita Ghosh (SOM: Urologic Surgery) and Damian Genetos (SVM: Anatomy, Physiology and Cell biology) with Gabriela Loots (SOM: Orthopedic Surgery) for “Determining the Role of Mitochondria Transfer in Tumor -Fibroblast Stromal Interaction and Metastasis to Bone—A Multi-Omics Approach.” Funded by the CCC.

·      Amir Kol (SVM: Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology) with Roy Ben-Shalom (SOM: Neurology) for “Establishing a Canine Cortical Organoid Model for Epilepsy Research through SCN1A Knockout.”

·      Lisa Miller (SVM: Anatomy, Physiology and Cell biology) with Michael Kleeman (College of Engineering: Civil & Environmental Engineering), Irene Cortes Puch (SOM: Internal Medicine) and Gabrielle Liu (SOM: Internal Medicine) for “Impact of Ambient Wildfire Smoke PM2.5 Exposure on Antibiotic Use in Pediatric Populations.”

·      Nicholas Kenyon (SOM: Internal Medicine) and Hong Ji (SVM: Anatomy, Physiology and Cell biology) for “TET1 Activity and VOC Production in Asthmatic Airways Following Wildfire PM2.5 Exposure.”

·      Christopher Lucchesi (SOM: Urologic Surgery) with William Culp (SVM: Surgical & Radiological Sciences), Neelu Batra (SOM: Urological Surgery), Robert Rebhun (SVM: Surgical & Radiological Sciences) and Paramita Ghosh (SOM: Urological Surgery) for “Advancing Canine Bladder Cancer Treatment: Integrating Neem-Derived Therapeutics with 3D Tumor Modeling for Precision Oncology.”