Professor and Chair Satya dandekar of the Medical Microbiology and Immunology Department, revealed her team's findings of the effect that low levels of cytomegalovirus have on microbe and immune cell populations and their response to the influenza vaccine. 

The University of California, Davis, enabled the foundation of 16 commercial companies during the fiscal year ending June 30, an all-time high for the university. This brings the total number of startups made possible by UC Davis technologies during the past 10 years to 137. Among those startups, Evolve BioSystems, which builds on university research on infant gut microbiome and breast milk components, recently completed a $40 million Series C financing, co-led by Horizons Ventures and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to expand sales of its flagship infant probiotic product worldwide.  

The University of California, Davis (UC Davis), and BASF announced a collaboration to unlock new benefits of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). The long-term objective of this strategic research partnership is to develop and validate second-generation HMO molecules as potent bioactive compounds that can influence the establishment and maintenance of the gut microbiome and provide benefits beyond the gastrointestinal tract, such as brain health, for infants, children and adults.

Professor Bruce German from the Department of Food Science & Technology at UC Davis talks about the link between bacteria and human breast milk in ABC's (Australia Broadcasting Corporation) "Babytalk" podcast by Penny Johnston (39min).

An international consortium of scientists is proposing what is arguably the most ambitious project in the history of biology: sequencing the DNA of all known eukaryotic species on Earth. The central goal of the Earth BioGenome Project is to understand the evolution and organization of life on our planet by sequencing and functionally annotating the genomes of 1.5 million known species of eukaryotes, a massive group that includes plants, animals, fungi and other organisms whose cells have a nucleus that houses their chromosomal DNA. To date, the genomes of less than 0.2 percent of eukaryotic species have been sequenced. 

Researchers (including Oliver Fiehn and Dinesh Barupal of the UC Davis Genome Center) were able to create a strong predictive model capable of detecting myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) with an 84% certainty.

There is a story in Co.Design about using bacteria in home design featuring a project from UC Davis students.  See "The next big home design trend? Bacteria" by Katherine Schwab. The article discusses multiple projects including one on biodegradable diapers from UC Davis.

Supplementing breastfed infants with activated Bifidobacterium infantis (B. infantis) bacteria had a positive impact on babies’ gut microbes for up to a year, according to a recent study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Evolve BioSystems Inc. The work will be presented June 9 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Boston by Bethany Henrick, director of immunology and diagnostics at Evolve BioSystems, on behalf of the study co-investigator, Jennifer Smilowitz, associate director of human studies research at UC Davis’ Foods for Health Institute.

Ellie Yin receives award for doctoral research examining probiotics and health. Xiaochen (Ellie) Yin, who recently completed her Ph.D. in food science, has been awarded the John E. Kinsella Memorial Prize for outstanding research on her doctoral dissertation examining probiotics and health. Interest in probiotics has grown significantly with consumers in recent years and is now a leading sector of the food supplement market. However, probiotics research is still in its early stages—with promising but sometimes inconsistent outcomes regarding beneficial effects.

With help from more than 10,000 citizen scientists, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers and collaborators have compiled the largest public reference database concerning the human gut microbiome. Released today in mSystems, the study is a step forward in understanding how factors such as diet, antibiotics and mental health relate to the microbes living in the human gut.