Congratulations to Dr. Hailing Jin on being elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences! This honor recognizes her outstanding and continued contributions to scientific research. The official announcement of the newly elected NAS members can be found here.
At the 2025 World Ag Expo in Tulare, CA, UC Riverside's College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (CNAS) presented nine seminars highlighting innovative solutions for agricultural challenges. The event highlighted UCR's leadership in addressing challenges in citrus, food safety, pest management, and sustainable farming. Speakers included Ashraf El-kereamy, Fatemeh Khodadadi, Ahmed El-Moghazy, Philippe Rolshausen, Elia...
Dr. Ahmed El-Moghazy, improves food safety with rapid biosensor technology and antimicrobial coatings. The full article about these findings can be found on the UCANR site, titled UC food-safety specialist tests biosensors to ensure safe produce.
About 100 middle school students learned about sustainable food production through hands-on activities. The event, featuring plant experiments and discussions on insects and microorganisms, aimed to inspire future studies in agriculture and natural sciences. The full article about this event can be found on the UCR News Site, titled Middle schoolers get a crash course...
In collaboration with other researchers, Dr. Jason Stajich found a virus that infects the deadly fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), which threatens amphibians worldwide. This virus could be engineered to help control the fungal disease and protect amphibian populations. These findings were recently published in the Current Biology journal with the title An endogenous DNA virus...
Dr. Juliet Morrison and her team's new discovery suggests that enhancing the body's natural defenses might be a better approach to treating infections than new antivirals. These findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences with the title Pleural macrophages translocate to the lung during infection to promote improved influenza...
A mushroom was discovered on a Rao’s intermediate golden-backed frog in the Western Ghats. While it resembles a bonnet mushroom, its identity remains unclear. Dr. Sydney Glassman stresses the need for genetic samples to confirm its classification, emphasizing the necessity for further research into fungi in nature. The full article about these findings can be...
Dr. Rong Hai, along with other researchers at UC Riverside have developed a vaccine that speeds up antibody production against SARS-CoV-2. This new approach uses a combination of flu and COVID-19 proteins to rapidly activate the immune system. These findings were recently published in the Journal of Virology with the title Harnessing preexisting influenza virus-specific...
In collaboration with other researchers, Dr. Hailing Jin has discovered that plants use tiny lipid bubbles filled with RNA to fight gray mold. This new understanding could lead to eco-friendly RNA-based fungicides that target mold without harmful residues. These findings were recently published in the Cell Host & Microbe journal with the title Plant mRNAs...
In collaboration with other UC Riverside researchers, Dr. Hailing Jin has secured over $11 million to fight citrus greening, a disease harming citrus crops. The USDA is funding three projects: developing HLB-resistant rootstocks, creating resistant scion varieties, and Dr. Jin's use of antimicrobial peptides. You can read more about these efforts targeting sustainable solutions to...
The department of Microbiology & Plant Pathology (MPP) had the pleasure of hosting this year's Graduate Student Invited Lectureship and Awards Ceremony 2022-2023 on October 26, 2023, in the Genomics Auditorium & Lobby. This year's award recipients included: Benjamin Hoyt - Peter and Pamela Tsao Endowed Graduate Student Scholarship Award Dylan Enright - Microbiology and...
Congratulations to Dr. Emma Gachomo on receiving a 2023 NSF CAREER Award! These prestigious awards are provided to "...early career faculty who demonstrate the potential to serve as academic role models and advance their organization's mission." Dr. Gachomo’s research will "investigate how potential contaminants known as chemicals of emerging concern impact the yield of soybean...
Congratulations to Dr. Jin whose lab has published an article in Nature Communications titled "Fungal small RNAs ride in extracellular vesicles to enter plant cells through clathrin-mediated endocytosis." Her research was recently highlighted on UC Riverside News examining recent discoveries of how "lipid 'bubbles' secreted by mold cells on crops...are essential for communications between pathogens...
In collaboration with other UC Riverside researchers, Drs. James Borneman and Poonamjot Deol, of the MPP department, have helped to discovered a link between high consumption of soybean oil and ulcerative colitis. These findings were recently published in the Gut Microbes journal with the title Diet high in linoleic acid dysregulates the intestinal endocannabinoid system...
In local news, Dr. Vidalakis and Dr. Jin were recently quoted in an article by the Press Enterprise discussing how their research is helping combat the citrus greening disease that is impacting southern California. Dr. Vidalakis and his team are working to disrupt the "disease triangle" which prevents the elements that cause the disease from...
Congratulations to Dr. Glassman whose lab published an article in Molecular Ecology titled "Rapid bacterial and fungal successional dynamics in first year after chaparral wildfire." PhD Candidate Fabiola Pulido-Chavez and Dr. Glassman were quoted in a recent article about their research. You can read the article here: https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2023/02/07/fungi-and-bacteria-are-binging-burned-soil
Congratulations to Dr. Sydney Glassman who has recently received a $3.1 Million grant, from the U.S. Department of Energy, to fund research studying the effects that post-wildfire conditions have on microorganisms and their emission of the greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide. Check out the article on the UC Riverside News site here.
Congratulations to Dr. Emma Aronson's lab, who, in collaboration with UCSD, UC Mexus Personnel, & CCB personnel, has found that Mexican mangroves have been capturing carbon for 5,000 years. Their findings have recently been published in the Marine Ecology Progress Series (MEPS) journal: https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v695/p15-31/ Read more about this exciting research in the UC Riverside News...
Congratulations to Dr. Emma Aronson whose lab published a paper in the Frontiers in Microbiology journal titled "Landscape Topography and Regional Drought Alters Dust Microbiomes in the Sierra Nevada of California." The study was led by UC Presidential Postdoc Fellow, Dr. Mia Maltz who was also quoted in a recent article featured on UC Riverside...
Congratulations to Siyi Ge from the Microbiology and Plant Pathology department who has been awarded a 2021-2022 Outstanding Teaching Assistant (OTA) award. The Outstanding Teaching Assistant (OTA) Award is a departmental-level award granted by Graduate Division on behalf of the departments to recognize teaching excellence within specific fields. OTA Award recipients are recognized during the...
