Rett syndrome, a common neurodevelopmental disorder in girls, alters motor skills and cognition, with disruptions in digestion and metabolism frequently occurring in affected individuals. The Janine LaSalle lab, including Demario Chappell -- MCBGAP alumnus and current med student at Albert Einstein Medical College -- have identified new pathways of the progression of Rett Syndrome, with changes in the gut microbiome and metabolism emerging prior to the onset of neurological symptoms. Further, they observed sexual dimorphism in disease progression within mouse models.

Arquel Miller gave a wonderful poster at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America. She and her coauthors describe variation in the germination niche across the jewelflower clade. Go to https://cdmcd.co/5mqGzB for the details!

Arquel works as a Junior Specialist in the lab of UC Davis faculty member Jenny Gremer.

An international team of researchers led by UC Davis plant biologist Siobhan Brady have found genes that control several key aspects of tomato growth and that could function to protect plants from environmental stressors. Further, they demonstrated that these genes have homologs in rice and Arabidopsis.

Allie Igwe, an alumna of Howard University, graduate of UC Davis from the Rachel Vannette Lab, and current NSF Postdoc at the University of Miami with Michelle Afkhami, has been selected as one of five Science for Social Equity Fellows in the US by the NGO Faircount! Allie first came to UC Davis as a summer researcher in the EEGAP program, one of progenitors of BioGAP.

In summer 2020, Marlynn Rollins, a PhD student in the UC Davis Ecology program and Howard University alumna, served as a writing intern for California Sea Grant. Her latest blog post explores the connections between California abalone and human populations, with lessons for conservation, biodiversity, and policy. It's really good!