- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
What an incredible story!
It all began with insects and an entomology graduate student's curiosity of how caterpillars turn into butterflies.
Bruce Hammock, now a UC Davis distinguished professor who holds a joint appointment with the Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, remembers studying juvenile hormones in the UC Berkeley lab of John Casida back in the 1970s.
He and fellow graduate student Sarjeet Gill, now a UC Riverside distinguished professor emeritus, co-discovered that a key enzyme in the metamorphosis degrades a caterpillar's juvenile hormone, allowing it to move from the larval stage into an adult insect.
So, for the past 50 years, Hammock has been researching inhibitors of soluble epoxide hydrolase or sEH. Those inhibitors alleviate chronic pain and inflammation in experimental animals. That research has led to experimental drugs that target such diseases as diabetes, hypertension (heart disease), Alzheimer's disease, and cancer.
Hammock's curiosity may lead to this: patients suffering from chronic pain and inflammation may be able to take a non-narcotic to alleviate that pain.
Flashback to 2011: Hammock and UC Davis alumna and pharmacologist-toxicologist Cindy McReynolds co-founded EicOsis (pronounced eye-co-sis) in 2011.The Davis-based company recently completed testing a drug candidate in Phase 1 human clinical trials with their lead candidate EC5026 that inhibits sEH. “Inhibiting sEH increases the levels of naturally occurring inflammation resolving and pain-relieving compounds,” Hammock said. “The clinical trial showed no side effects.”
Fast Forward to Today: The company, EicOsis has been named one of Pepperdine Graziadio Business School's 2024 Most Fundable Companies. EicOsis s one of 18 recipients from a competitive pool of more than 2000 U.S. startups and notable in being a pharmacology company. The seventh annual list features companies from diverse sectors, including FinTech, AgTech, Healthcare, Industrial Automation, Consumer Packaged Goods, and Advanced Materials.
“At EicOsis, our mission is to develop new effective and safe oral medicines to help people suffering from pain and inflammation,” said McReynolds. “We are committed to improving the lives of those suffering from pain, helping them feel themselves again.”
EicOsis derives its name from eicosanoid, “the major backbone of chemical mediators in the arachidonate cascade,” said McReynolds. “It symbolizes the epoxide group in chemistry, which is key to the anti-inflammatory chemical mediators and where the biochemical target called soluble epoxide hydrolase works.”
“Chronic pain affects 100 million Americans alone, and the increased prescription of opioids has led to a widespread public health emergency, the U.S. Opioid Crisis,” Hammock said. “Our company seeks to meet the unmet need for safe, non-addictive and effective pain medications that can help pain patients and fight the opioid crisis.”
In the United States alone, more than 81,000 people died of opioid overdose deaths in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and more than 2.1 million people are addicted. The Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative reports that the opioid epidemic In the 1990s, was "fueled by widespread overprescribing of opioids for pain management. This situation has led to significant reductions in appropriate opioid prescribing for pain at a time when safer and effective pain management strategies are not available to millions of Americans who live with pain.”
EicOsis won the “Sacramento Region Innovator of the Year” in 2019 in the medical health/biopharmaceutical category.
Long and Productive Road. It's been a long but productive road for Hammock, born in Little Rock, Ark., in 1947. Hammock earned a bachelor's degree in entomology magna cum laude, with minors in zoology and chemistry from Louisiana State University in 1969, and his doctorate in entomology/toxicology from UC Berkeley in 1973. A postdoctoral fellowship in biochemistry followed at the Rockefeller Foundation, Department of Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
He also served active duty as a medical officer with U.S. Army Academy of Health Sciences, San Antonio, where he witnessed the depths of acute and chronic pain.
"The frustration of seeing the effects of terrible pain coupled with the inability to effectively treat it has led me on a life-long quest to address pain and related illnesses,” said Hammock. “The study of this enzyme and the natural mediators it regulates has the added benefit of providing deeper understanding of diseases from heart failure to Alzheimer's which in turn is leading to new treatments.”
Since joining the UC Davis faculty in 1980, Hammock has taught a variety of subjects through the years, including biochemistry, endocrinology, toxicology, and pharmaceutical discovery and developmental biology.
As Wikipedia says: "Dr. Hammock continually moves between fundamental research and its application. Amongst his many research endeavors, he found a key hydrolytic enzyme that controlled insect metamorphosis and exploited this by developing transition state inhibitors that altered insect development. Then he used this hydrolytic enzyme in a transgenic viral insecticide. He found another hydrolytic enzyme important in insect development that also controlled key biological functions in mammals. His laboratory developed transition state inhibitors of this enzyme as well, which are used in human clinical trials where they reduce pain and inflammation. In addition, his lab pioneered immunoassay techniques for analyzing both humans and environmental exposure to pesticides and other contaminants. He continues as an internationally recognized figure in these fields for over five decades and has published over 1300 papers."
Highly honored by his peers, Hammock is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, which honors academic invention and encourages translations of inventions to benefit society. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the Entomological Society of America, and the recipient of the Bernard B. Brodie Award in Drug Metabolism, sponsored by the America Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. He directed the campuswide NIEHS Superfund Research Program, National Institutes of Health Biotechnology Training Program for almost 40 years and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Combined Analytical Laboratory.
Cindy McReynolds. “As co-founder, Cindy has played a key role building EicOsis into a leader in therapeutics targeting sEH,” Hammock said in a UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology article. "Cindy's scientific insight, drive, and commitment ideally positions her to take EicOsis to the next level and builds on the vast body of science validating our approach. I know Cindy will continue to deliver great results for EicOsis and for a great many patients."
McReynolds received a bachelor's degree (1999) in animal science from UC Davis and a master's degree (2001) in animal science from Washington State University (WSU). Her career advanced from senior research associate, Celera (formerly Axys) in South San Francisco to senior associate scientist of Miikana, Fremont, to project coordinator of Arete Therapeutics, South San Francisco, to UC Davis researcher and EicOsis CEO.
At UC Davis, she served as the scientific program manager (2010-2017) for the Center for Integrative Toxicology, and as a graduate student researcher. She won a UC Davis Staff Assembly Citation of Excellence in Research in 2021. She earlier received the UC Davis 1999 Outstanding Senior Award, and several awards from WSU: the 2000 Dr. Erb Outstanding Graduate Student Award; the 2001 Teaching Assistant of the Year, and the 2001 Outstanding Graduate Student. While a graduate student, she was supported by a National Institutes of Health Chemical Biology Training Grant.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you're a member of the Hammock lab, you're family.
So it was no surprise--no surprise at all--when Jean-Pierre Delplanque, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies announced that Hammock is a recipient of a 2024 Graduate Studies Distinguished Graduate and Postdoctoral Mentoring Award.
“Your dedication to mentoring is truly commendable, and this recognition is well-deserved,” he told Hammock in an email.
The annual award recognizes “the vital role mentoring plays in the academic and professional development of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars at UC Davis.” The professor will receive a certificate and a $1,000 education enrichment award.
Hammock, who holds a joint appointment with the Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Center, “is an incredible mentor, legendary scientist, highly supportive colleague, and a great friend,” wrote nominator and former Hammock lab member Guodong Zhang, now an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Nutrition. “He richly deserves this prestigious award.”
Zhang described the Hammock lab as a “highly multidisciplinary, with members having scientific backgrounds in nutrition, pharmacology, analytical chemistry, cancer, pain, and environmental toxicology. From these extensive interactions within and outside of the research group, I have learned how to conduct scientific collaborations."
“The 3-year postdoc training in the Hammock lab stands out as one of the most rewarding periods in my research journey,” Zhang related. “In my moments of experimental setbacks, Bruce was a constant source of encouragement, guiding me on extracting valuable insights from negative data. Conversely, when experiments yielded positive results, he offered insightful advice and introduced me to other labs at UC Davis, thus broadening the scope of our research projects. Bruce was most excited about the ‘unexpected data' because of his belief that such anomalies often herald new scientific discoveries. And he always encouraged us to perform experiments to disprove his favorite hypotheses, fostering a positive and nurturing research environment.”
In his letter of nomination, Zhang shared comments by four other Hammock lab alumni: Kin Sing Stephen Lee, now an assistant professor, Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University; Yuxin Wang, lead computational biologist and manager of the Stephen Lindemann lab, Purdue University; Weicang Wang, assistant professor, Department of Food Science, Purdue University, and Susanne Mumby, retired assistant dean for postdoctoral affairs at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. (Read the comments here)
'If Science Is Not Fun, It Shouldn't Be Done!'
We remember when Marlin Rice, a past president of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) chronicled Hammock in a 2020 Legends feature in the ESA's American Entomologist and asked what he looks for in researchers seeking to join his lab. "Curiosity," Hammock replied. "And then there's this: If science is not fun, then it shouldn't be done. And if they enjoy science, then they probably will be successful."
A member of the UC Davis faculty since 1980, Hammock is known for his expertise in chemistry, toxicology, biochemistry, entomology and human health research. His work in enzyme research alone spans more than 50 years. He co-discovered a human enzyme termed Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase (sEH), a key regulatory enzyme involved in the metabolism of fatty acids. The enzyme regulates a new class of natural chemical mediators, which in turn regulates inflammation, blood pressure and pain, and is in human clinical trials to replace opioid analgesics.
As director of the UC Davis Superfund Research Program (funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) for nearly four decades, Hammock supported scores of pre- and postdoctoral scholars in interdisciplinary research in five different colleges and graduate groups on campus. campus. He ran a pre- and postdoctoral training grant associated with this program and in addition for 15 years was principal investigator of a NIH training grant in the UC Davis Biotechnology Program.
Hammock is an internationally celebrated scientist. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the National Academy of Sciences, the California Academy of Sciences, and ESA. At UC Davis, he received both the Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award and the Faculty Research Lectureship. In 2020, UC Davis Chancellor Gary May awarded him the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award.
His story, however, begins in Arkansas.
A native of Little Rock, Ark., Bruce received his bachelor's degree in entomology (with minors in zoology and chemistry) magna cum laude from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, in 1969. He received his doctorate in entomology-toxicology from UC Berkeley in 1973 with John Casida at UC Berkeley. Hammock served as a public health medical officer with the U.S. Army Academy of Health Science, San Antonio, and as a postdoctoral fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation, Department of Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
In the Army, he served as a medical officer at Fort Sam, Houston, and what he saw--severely burned people in terrible pain--made a lasting impression on him. Today he's deeply involved in his research at UC Davis and the company he founded, EicOsis, in 2011 to alleviate pain in humans and companion animals.
And today, UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock is a newly announced recipient of a 2024 Graduate Studies Distinguished Graduate and Postdoctoral Mentoring Award. Not only highly commendable, but so well-deserved!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
“I got two phone calls almost simultaneously on my two cell phones, so I thought this could not be a prank, but I am still in disbelief,” said Leal, a UC Davis distinguished professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and former professor and chair of the Department of Entomology (now Entomology and Nematology)
The caller: The National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
The message: You've been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the highest honor a scientist can achieve.
"Members are elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research,” a spokesperson related. “Membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive. Current NAS membership totals approximately 2,400 members and 500 international members, of which approximately 190 have received Nobel prizes."
“As they say, many deserving and few lucky ones," Leal commented. "Bruce Hammock told me many years ago that when he was elected to NAS, he looked around and saw many deserving colleagues. Now I understand that feeling very well. It is a tremendous and humbling honor. I hope an imposter syndrome does not kick in.”
Hammock, a UC Davis distinguished professor who holds a joint appointment with the Department of Entomology and Nematology, was elected a NAS member in 1999.
They are the only UC Davis entomologists who are NAS members.
Leal: World Leader in His Field
Leal, a native of Brazil and educated in Brazil, Japan and the United States, joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 2000. In 2013, he accepted a position with the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. "Walter is an internationally recognized entomologist and a world leader in his field for his groundbreaking and transformative research in insect olfaction and chemical ecology,” Hammock said. “He is truly a renaissance man. He chaired our entomology department from 2006 to 2008, and under his tenure, our department was ranked No. 1 in the country. I've long admired (1) his rigorous fundamental research programs supported by National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture, and other agencies, (2) how he tackles and solves multiple challenging problems in insect olfaction and chemical ecology, (3) his grasp of how to organize and moderate highly successful worldwide research webinars (4) his generosity in helping other succeed and (4) his finely honed sense of humor."
Leal solves entomological problems spanning agriculture, human health, and welfare. He translates pheromone technology to agriculturists and serves as a principal investigator for the Pacific Southwest Regional Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Diseases (affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). He holds more than 20 patents.
“Walter has been exceptionally conscientious, active, and generous in professional service at UC Davis,” Hammock pointed out. "In August of 2021, he achieved a ‘first' for international science communication when he organized and led the extraordinary virtual conference ‘Insect Olfaction and Taste in 24 Hours Around the Globe.' I especially applaud him for elucidating the mode of action of the insect repellent DEET, developed in 1946 and known as ‘the gold standard of repellents.' Its mode of action remained an enigma for six decades until Walter's discovery. In researching the neurons in mosquito antennae sensitive to DEET, he isolated the first DEET-sensitive odorant receptor, paving the way for the development of better repellents.”
May Berenbaum, professor and head, Department of Entomology, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, National Medical of Science Laureate, NAS member, and editor of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, earlier wrote that “Dr. Leal is indisputably a world leader in the field of insect chemical ecology whose work over the course of his long and distinguished career has transformed basic knowledge of insect olfactory mechanisms and inspired innovative practical applications for sustainable management of insects of importance in agriculture and human health. He has contributed significantly to the current understanding of the structure and function of every component of olfaction, including receptors, binding proteins, and degrading enzymes, revising classic paradigms along the way. No textbook and no course on insect chemical communication could be considered complete without mentioning his landmark research achievements.”
'Just Like in a Honey Bee Colony'
Leal recently was named the 2024 recipient of the UC Davis Academic Senate's Distinguished Research Award, and will present a lecture on “Just Like in a Honey Bee Colony--It Takes a Team in the UC Davis Hive to Win an Award” at the Academic Senate's Faculty Distinguished Research Award Lecture Lunch on Tuesday, May 7 from noon to 1 p.m. in the UC Davis Conference Center.
Leal is the first UC Davis faculty member to receive the Academic Senate's trifecta of awards: outstanding teaching, public service, and research. Leal received the Academic Senate's 2020 Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching, and the 2022 Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award.
Among Leal's many honors: Fellow of the Entomological Society of America (2009), American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005), and the National Academy of Inventors (2019). He was elected a trustee of the Royal Entomological Society in February 2024.
Leal holds a Ph.D. in applied biochemistry from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, with subsequent postdoctoral training in entomology and chemical ecology at the National Institute of Sericultural and Entomological Science (NISES) and Cornell University, respectively. He was the first non-Japanese person to earn tenure at Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
As mentioned earlier, two members of the Academic Senate's winners' circle are UC Davis Distinguished Professor Walter Leal of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology (and former professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology), and Professor Louie Yang of the Department of Entomology and Nematology (ENT).
Leal won the Distinguished Faculty Research Award (see Feb. 22 Bug Squad blog) and Yang won a Distinguished Teaching Award, undergraduate category (see Feb. 26 Bug Squad blog). UC Davis Distinguished Professor Bruce Hammock of ENT nominated Leal, while Joanna Chiu, professor and chair of ENT, nominated Yang.
The awards reception is Monday, May 13; more information is pending. "In all, 15 faculty members have received awards from the two groups at UC Davis," UC Davis Dateline reports. (See list of the recipients.)
Leal is the first UC Davis faculty member to win all three of the Academic Senate's most coveted awards: in research, teaching, and public service. In 2020, the Academic Senate awarded him the Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching, and in 2022 Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award.
“Dr. Leal is an internationally recognized entomologist and a world leader in his field for his groundbreaking and transformative research in insect olfaction and chemical ecology,” Hammock wrote. "Walter is truly a renaissance man. "He chaired our entomology department from 2006 to 2008, and under his tenure, our department was ranked No. 1 in the country. I've long admired (1) his rigorous fundamental research programs supported by National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture, and other agencies, (2) how he tackles and solves multiple challenging problems in insect olfaction and chemical ecology, (3) his grasp of how to organize and moderate highly successful worldwide research webinars (4) his generosity in helping other succeed and (4) his finely honed sense of humor."
Wrote Chiu: "I have watched him (Professor Yang) engage, inspire, and challenge his students, fostering creative and critical thinking like no one else I've ever seen. We deeply appreciate and admire his innovative and inclusive teaching, his exemplary work ethic, his welcoming demeanor, his dedication to his students, and his nationally recognized ecology expertise. Louie has received many well-deserved teaching and mentoring awards for his teaching contributions on and off campus.”
Of special note, too, is the James H. Meyer Distinguished Achievement Award, given annually to a member of the Academic Federation for "a distinguished record in research, teaching, and/or public service." This year the award went to Kirsten Gilardi, director of Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center, and a health sciences clinical professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine.
Wrote Dateline: "Health Sciences Clinical Professor Kirsten Gilardi has been part of the UC Davis Community since 1989. She is currently the director of the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center, a research, service and teaching center of excellence. In 2005, she founded the California Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Program, which hires experienced commercial scuba divers to remove gear and other marine debris from near-shore waters in a safe and environmentally sensitive manner. This program continues to help reduce the potential impact of losing fishing gear and marine debris on living marine resources and underwater habitat. Beyond her significant accomplishments in her field, her colleagues around the world highlight her passion for her position at UC Davis 'that expects her to protect wild animals and wild places.'"
Check out the Dateline website which includes a 2013 image of Gilardi with a silverback gorilla (image courtesy of Sandy Buckey.)
They all do UC Davis proud!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Congratulations to UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal, the recipient of the Academic Senate's highly competitive 2024 Distinguished Faculty Research Award.
That makes three. Good things come in threes.
Leal is the first UC Davis faculty member to win all three of the Academic Senate's most coveted awards: in research, teaching, and public service. In 2020, the Academic Senate awarded him the Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching, and in 2022 Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award.
Leal, a member of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology since 2013 and former professor and chair of the Department of Entomology, commented: "Faculty at land-grant universities, like the University of California, have three hats labeled Teaching, Service, and Research. A significant challenge is to budget time to wear them equally and avoid the temptation to emphasize one part of the job over others. It is gratifying to be recognized by my peers as excelling in all areas. The Academic Senate Faculty Distinguished Research Award is particularly humbling because more than 3000 eligible faculty excel in all research areas on this campus. Why me? Because of my students, postdoctoral scholars, visiting scholars, collaborators, and colleagues. They deserve most of the credit for this honor. I accept it on their behalf. It is a team effort, like in a honey bee colony.”
"Walter is truly a renaissance man," wrote Hammock. "He chaired our entomology department from 2006 to 2008, and under his tenure, our department was ranked No. 1 in the country. I've long admired (1) his rigorous fundamental research programs supported by National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture, and other agencies, (2) how he tackles and solves multiple challenging problems in insect olfaction and chemical ecology, (3) his grasp of how to organize and moderate highly successful worldwide research webinars (4) his generosity in helping other succeed and (4) his finely honed sense of humor."
“Walter has been exceptionally conscientious, active, and generous in professional service at UC Davis,” Hammock pointed out. “In August of 2021, he achieved a ‘first' for international science communication when he organized and led the extraordinary virtual conference ‘Insect Olfaction and Taste in 24 Hours Around the Globe.' I especially applaud him for elucidating the mode of action of the insect repellent DEET, developed in 1946 and known as ‘the gold standard of
repellents.' Its mode of action remained an enigma for six decades until Walter's discovery. Inresearching the neurons in mosquito antennae sensitive to DEET, he isolated the first DEET-sensitive odorant receptor, paving the way for the development of better repellents.”
Leal is a newly elected trustee of the Royal Entomological Society, the 13-member council that governs the 190-year-old international organization. He is the first UC Davis scientist to be elected a trustee. And he's chair of the Council of the International Congresses of Entomology, the body that ensures the continuity of the international congresses of entomology. He co-chaired the 2016 International Congress of Entomology, which drew 6,682 registrants from 102 countries to Orlando, Fla.
Among Leal's many honors: Fellow of the Entomological Society of America (2009), American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005), and the National Academy of Inventors (2019).
A native of Brazil, Leal joined the UC Davis entomology faculty in 2000, after serving as the head of the Laboratory of Chemical Prospecting, National Institute of Sericultural and Entomological Science (NISES), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, Japan. In 2013, he accepted a position as professor of biochemistry, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. (See news story)
Frankly, we don't know how Leal does it all. He not only excels at research, teaching and public service, but he is widely known as "The UC Davis Ambassador," organizing campus-wide celebrations for faculty transitioning to emeriti.
As an aside, two UC Davis entomology faculty members scored two, but not three, of the Academic Senate's coveted awards. Bruce Hammock received the Distinguished Faculty Research Award in 2001, and the Distinguished Teaching Award (graduate student/professional category) in 2008. UC distinguished professor of entomology, James R. Carey, took home the Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award (undergraduate student category) in 2014 and the Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award in 2015.
Six other entomology faculty members have received Academic Senate awards:
- UC Davis distinguished professor Jay Rosenheim, Distinguished Teaching Award (undergraduate student category) in 2011
- UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey (now emerita), Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award in 2016
- UC Davis distinguished professor Frank Zalom, Distinguished Scholarly Public Service in 2017
- UC Davis professor and now department chair Joanna Chiu, Distinguished Teaching Award (graduate/professional category) in 2022
- UC Davis distinguished professor Diane Ullman, Distinguished Teaching Award (undergraduate category) in 2022
And the latest to join the winner's circle: Professor Louie Yang won the Distinguished Teaching Award (undergraduate category), announced today. More on this amazing teacher and mentor is pending.
