- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
BioDivDay is Sunday. March 6 at the UC Davis Conference Center: Can't wait to see you!
That's the message the organizers of the 11th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day are spreading throughout social media.
The UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day is a free, science-based event that takes place from 11 a..m. to 3 pm. in the UC Davis Conference Center, 550 Alumni Lane. Admission and parking are free, but visitors must adhere to the COVID-19 Campus Ready guidelines. Masks will be required in accordance with campus policies. This year's event is especially geared for undergraduates and other members of the UC Davis community.
Visitors to the Conference Center will see displays from 11 museums or collections on campus in one large exposition in the ballrooms, and be able to ask questions of the scientists from the:
- Arboretum and Public Garden
- UC Davis Bee Haven
- Bohart Museum of Entomology
- Botanical Conservatory
- California Raptor Center
- Center for Plant Diversity
- Department of Anthropology Museum
- Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology
- Nematode Collection
- Paleontology Collection
- Phaff Yeast Culture Collection
Admission and parking are free, but visitors must adhere to the COVID-19 Campus Ready guidelines. Masks will be required in accordance with campus policies, organizers said. Visitors can also sign up at the Conference Center for limited tours. Several collections or museums are offering side trips, with registration to take place at the Conference Center.
Latest updates today:
Bohart Museum of Entomology. At the Bohart Museum booth in the Conference Center, UC Davis alumnus and Bohart scientist Fran Keller, a professor at Folsom Lake College, will join Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas in discussing the state insect, the California dogface butterfly, Zerene eurydice, and its host plant, California false indigo, Amorpha californica. This is the 50th anniversary of the year that the California Legislature named the butterfly the state insect. Keller authored the children's book, The Story of the Dogface Butterfly, with photos by Kareofelas and Keller and illustrations by former UC Davis student Laine Bauer. Keller and Kareofelas collaborated on a California dogface butterfly poster that's for sale in the gift shop.
Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, will discuss the Asian giant hornet. Vespa mandarinia (nicknamed "the murder hornet" by the news media), and will show specimens of the hornet, other species of Vespa, and Vespa nests.
Nematode Collection. The nematode collection will feature mostly root-knot nematodes and Ascaris (roundworm) nematodes, according to coordinator and nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, and doctoral student Alison Coomer. The display will include:
- What's in the jar?
- Celery infected with root-knot nematodes
- Tree swallow infected with Diplotriaena
- White-tailed deer eye infected with a Thelazia species
- Peach root infected with root-knot nematodes
- Mormon crickets infected with Gordius robustus
- Lettuce infected with root-knot nematodes
- Garlic damaged by Ditylenchus dipsaci
- Horse stomach infected with three parasites: Parascaris (roundworms), tapeworms, and botfly larvae.
- Grape roots infected with root-knot nematodes
- Sweet potato infected with root-knot nematodes
- Sugar beet infected with cyst nematodes
- Peach root infected with cyst nematodes
- Sugar beet infected with root-knot nematodes
- Ascaris lumbricoides (roundworm)
- Minke whale infected infected with ascaridoid nematodes
- Heartworm of dog
Nematologist Steve Nadler, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, explains what a nematode is on this YouTube video presented at the 2021 UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day.
So, let's see--bees, birds, bugs, plants, raptors, fossils, nematodes (aka round worms), and yeast cultures. Bring your camera, your questions to the scientists, your smile, your COVID-19 pandemic approvals and wear that mask.
And as they say: "Can't wait to see you!"
The UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day is traditionally held on the Saturday of Presidents' Day weekend. However, last year's event was virtual, and this year's event is centrally located in an exposition. For more information, access the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day website and/or connect with Instagram,Twitter, and Facebook.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
You won't want to miss the UC Davis-based COVID-19 Symposium on Wednesday, June 3.
Dr. Robert Gallo, world-renowned virologist at the forefront of the AIDS epidemic and now targeting COVID-19, will headline the panel of speakers.
The free online symposium, to focus primarily on vaccines, will take place from 5 to 7 p.m., Pacific Daylight Time on Zoom and YouTube. (A pre-program, with interviews and questions, begins at 4:30 p.m.) It's the third in a series of COVID-19 symposiums organized and moderated by UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal as a public service.
Panelists will discuss:
- Is the polio vaccine a solution?
- Are the front-runner vaccines safe and effective? If so, when might they be available?
Gallo, who co-discovered that HIV causes AIDS, is the Homer and Martha Gudelsky Distinguished Professor in Medicine; co-founder and director of the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Institute of Human Virology; and co-founder of the Global Virus Network. He will be joined by Dr. Dean Blumberg, professor and chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, UC Davis Health; and Dr. Allison Brashear, dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine, among others.UC Davis Chancellor Gary May will deliver the welcoming address.
Also interviewed will be Dr. Atul Malhotra, professor of Medicine, Pulmonology, Critical Care, UC San Diego Health, and Dr. Stuart H. Cohen, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and director of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control, UC Davis School of Medicine. (See program at https://bit.ly/2AgVbxY)
Renowned honey bee geneticist Robert E. Page, former professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, will comment on bee therapy, a possible treatment for COVID-19 treatments (suggested by researchers in China but not yet investigated.) (See https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0041010120302245)
Retired UC Davis Medical Center nurse Carolyn Wyler of Sacramento, a passenger on the ill-fated Grand Princess cruise ship, will talk about her COVID-19 outbreak experiences from ship to shore. She and her husband were quarantined in their room for six days. They then spent 13 days in quarantine at Travis Air Force Base before being released. (Both tested negative.) A 71-year-old passenger on the same ship, but on a different cruise, was the first in California to succumb from the disease. Overall, two passengers and one crew member on the Grand Princess died, and 103 tested positive. (Read her amazing story on Ipinion Syndicate: "No one wanted us," she wrote.)
To register, post questions, and to link to the list of panelists, access https://bit.ly/2B2YGZm.
Among those asking questions will be Jennifer Cash, newest faculty member of the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences; Fred Gould, National Academy of Sciences member; UC Cooperative Extension advisor Surendra Dara; and University of Brasilia graduate student Raquel Silva.
Leal, a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, a member of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology faculty and a former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is hosting the symposiums as a public service.
The first symposium is online at https://bit.ly/2VurK3Z. "You are our heroes," one viewer wrote.
The second symposium can be accessed at https://bit.ly/3b8TAau. "It was a great symposium--the personal story of the frontline physician was incredible,” one viewer wrote. Added another viewer: "Well, what an amazing finale and yes, we are taking it seriously, especially those of us older office workers. What a story of your life and death experience. Amazing presentation!" And another: "Congratulations on today's new webinar. It was excellent again. I look forward to the next one."
One more thing about the third COVID-19 symposium on June 3: Leal's interview with Gallo, who is as humble a person as you'd ever want to meet, is a must-see. Learn what sparked his interest in virology, what fueled his dreams, and why he doesn't plan to retire. Ever. Very moving.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The webinar, to be broadcast on Zoom and YouTube Live from 1:30 to 4 p.m., will feature physicians, scientists and a survivor of the COVID-19 virus, announced organizer-moderator Walter Leal, UC Davis distinguished professor of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
“COVID-19 is set apart from all other strains of flu for the simple reason that people die from it at higher rates than from other varieties,” Carey says. “It follows that understanding the actuarial details and consequences of this virus is central to understanding, has potential impact on the U.S. population in particular and on the world population in general.”
In his presentation, Carey will ask and answer three questions: “The first is related to case fatality rate of COVID-19. The second concern will be the age-specific mortality of this virus, and the third, to its demographic consequences if no health-related interventions, policies implemented, or a vaccine were available.” Carey is the co-author of the newly published book, Biodemography: An Introduction to Concepts and Methods. (See news story.)
The webinar, free and open to the public, will include experts in immunology, infectious diseases, pathology and emergency medicine. Viewers can register at http://zoompresentation.com and submit advance questions. Also, viewers can access YouTube Live at covidactionplan.com or https://bit.ly/2VurK3Z.
Chancellor Gary May will give the introduction.
The main speakers are UC Davis physician-scientists Emanuel Maverakis, Stuart Cohen and Nathan Kuppermann; UC Davis veterinarian-scientist Nicole Baumgarth; physician Ron Chapman, Yolo County Health Officer; and pediatrician State Sen. Richard Pan, District 6 chair, Senate Committee on Health.
Davis resident Marilyn Stebbins, a pharmacist who works at the UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy--and a survivor of the deadly illness that to date has killed more than 182,000 people worldwide (15,000-plus in the United States)--will tell her story. (See Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus map for up-to-date statistics.)
You-Lo Hsieh, UC Davis distinguished professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, and an expert on textiles and clothing, will explain the differences between regular masks, surgical masks, and N95 masks.
Newly added to the list: Michael B. A. Oldstone, M.D., of Scripps Research Institute; professor emeritus Niels Pedersen, DMV, of UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, and Anne Wyllie, PhD., Yale School of Medicine.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The first Yolo County resident to test positive for COVID-19 will join physicians and scientists at the UC Davis-based COVID-19 public awareness webinar set from 1:30 to 4 p.m., on Thursday, April 23, on YouTube Live at covidactionplan.com.
Marilyn Stebbins, 58, of Davis, a UC San Francisco pharmacist, will participate, announced webinar organizer-moderator Walter Leal, UC Davis distinguished professor of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, College of Biological Sciences and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
The webinar, to include experts in immunology, infectious diseases, pathology and emergency medicine, is free and open to the public. Registration is underway at http://zoompresentation.com, where advance questions can be submitted. The webinar also will include live questions.
Looking back, Stebbins related she began getting coldlike symptoms prior to a family skiing trip to Sandpoint, Idaho. An airline flight took her and her husband from Sacramento to Spokane, Wash. Upon returning home, she sought medical care for what she thought was the flu. She was tested for COVID-19 on March 3, and was informed March 4 she was positive. She was hospitalized for three days with what she calls the “worst illness I've ever had.”
In her story, “My COVID-19 Journey,” which appears on the UCSF School of Pharmacy website, https://bit.ly/2x1pqIe, Stebbins describes herself as “a healthy, fit, 58-year-old woman who enjoys distance trail running, weekly circuit training, and Pilates. I'd completed a 30K trail race just before the departure date for my vacation and looked forward to a 50K race two weeks after my return home.”
Controversy erupted when a Yolo County Health Department press release inaccurately described her as “an older woman with underlying health conditions.”
Stebbins said her symptoms included headache, diarrhea, nausea, coughing, and chills but “I never had a fever.” Family members, including her husband, who were with her on the skiing trip, have not contracted the disease.
The webinar is expected to draw a widespread audience. Chancellor Gary May will give the introduction. The main speakers are UC Davis physician-scientists Emanuel Maverakis, Stuart Cohen and Nathan Kuppermann; UC Davis veterinarian-scientist Nicole Baumgarth; physician Ron Chapman, Yolo County Health Officer; and pediatrician State Sen. Richard Pan, District 6 chair, Senate Committee on Health.
UC Davis distinguished professor James R. Carey of the Department of Entomology and Nematolgoy will share his modeling expertise. UC Davis You-Lo Hsieh, distinguished professor, UC Davis Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, and an expert on textiles and clothing, will explain the differences between regular masks, surgical masks, and N95 masks.
