- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Hammock joins two other UC Davis scientists in the 170-member Class of 2014 fellows:
- Kyriacos A. Athanasiou, department chair and distinguished professor of biomedical engineering, and the Child Family Professor of Engineering, who holds a joint appointment in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
- M. Saif Islam, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and co-director of the Center for Nano and Micro Manufacturing, or CNM2
The new fellows will be inducted March 20 at the NAI's fourth annual conference, to be held at the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) Tech, Pasadena. The Deputy U.S. Commissioner for Patent Operations, from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), will preside. The fellows will be presented with a special trophy, medal and rosette pin.
Hammock has made major innovations in multiple fields. Most recently his laboratory found potent enzyme inhibitors that dramatically reduce inflammation, inflammatory pain and neuropathic pain. He is the founder and CEO of EicOsis, and through EicOsis, the compounds are in clinical trials for companion animals and the Pre-Investigational tional New Drug Application (Pre-IND) Consultation Program for neuropathic pain in human diabetics. Hammock is developing both enzyme inhibitors and natural products as drugs for use in the United States and developing countries. In agriculture, his laboratory developed the first recombinant viruses as greeninsecticides, while in environmental chemistry, they pioneered the use of immunodiagnostics for environmental analysis and biosensor development, currently applying alpaca nanobodies to sensor technology.
Hammock 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 directs the campuswide Superfund Research Program, National Institutes of Health Biotechnology Training Program, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Combined Anayltical Laboratory.
A member of the UC Davis faculty since 1980, he received his bachelor of science degree magna cum laude from Louisiana State University in entomology and chemistry, and his doctorate from UC Berkeley in entomology and toxicology, working in xenobiotic metabolism.
Hammock was co-nominated by NAI member Glenn Prestwich of the University of Utah who spent a sabbatical year in entomology at UC Davis. The NAI also recognizes mentoring young scientists in entrepreneurship, an area where Hammock has been very active.
Hammock describes himself as a basic scientist who “sometimes finds something interesting.” He attributes his success to “having wonderful colleagues and students.” He also describes himself as “an avid, if incompetent hiker and climber,” and occasionally teaches white-water kayaking with UC Davis Outdoor Adventures.
NAI was founded in 2010. The total number of NAI fellows is now 414. They represent more than 150 prestigious research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutions.
Included among all of the NAI Fellows are 61 presidents and senior leadership of research universities and non-profit research institutes, 208 members of the other National Academies, 21 inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, 16 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation, 10 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Science, 21 Nobel Laureates, 11 Lemelson-MIT prize recipients, 107 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and 62 fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, among other awards and distinctions.
Academic inventors and innovators elected to the rank of NAI fellow were nominated by their peers for outstanding contributions to innovation in areas such as patents and licensing, innovative discovery and technology, significant impact on society, and support and enhancement of innovation.
In a news release, NAI officials said that election as an NAI fellow “is a high honor bestowed upon academic innovators and inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions and innovations that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.”
Athanasious studies the healing processes of cartilage, and works to augment them via the application of tissue engineering principles. “Our approach entails the use of biodegradable scaffolds designed to incorporate suitable bioactive agents and signals to regenerate cartilage,” his website states. He is the recipient of the Marshal Urist Award for Excellence in Tissue Regeneration Research, the Thomas A. Edison Patent Award and a number of innovation awards.
Islam's research focuses on ultrafast optoelectric devices, molecular electronics, and the integration of semiconductor nanostructures in devices for imaging, sensing, computing and energy conversion. He holds 37 U.S. patents. He is the co-founder of Atocera, the co-founder of Atocera, a start-up that plans to bring its silicon surgical and razor blades to market as a less expensive alternative to ceramic and diamond blades. Atocera is housed in the College of Engineering's incubator — officially known as the Engineering Translational Technology Center.
Chancellor Katehi was elected to NIA in 2012. She holds 19 U.S. patents and was recognized her work as an electrical engineer whose cell phone, radar and antenna circuits are used in signal transmitting, receiving and processing.
Jerry Woodall, distinguished professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was elected in 2013.Woodall is a pioneer in the research and development of compound semiconductor materials and devices. He has collected 85 issued U.S. patents. He is best known for inventing the high-efficiency red LEDs used in remote control and data-link applications such as TV sets and IR LAN, and the super-bright LEDs used in CD players and short link optical fiber communications. Fully half of the world's annual sales of compound semiconductor components have been made possible by his research legacy. Other projects include the “pseudomorphic” high electron mobility transistor (HEMT), a state-of-the-art, high-speed device used in cell phones and satellites; and the weight-efficient solar cell.
(UC Davis News Service contributed to this report.)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Chemist Kin Sing Stephen “Sing” Lee, a postdoctoral researcher and assistant project scientist in the Bruce Hammock lab in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, has won a coveted National Institutes of Health K99 Award, often called the “NIH Pathway to Independence Award” or the “Career Transition Award/Research Transition Award.” The award will enable Lee to shift rapidly into a permanent tenure-track or equivalent faculty position.
“The K99 award recipients are highly motivated, advanced postdoctoral research scientists,” said Hammock, a distinguished professor of entomology. This is the first ever K99 ever awarded in his lab since he joined the faculty in 1980. Molecular geneticist Joanna Chiu, assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is also a K99 recipient.
“The Pathway to Independence (PI) Award is designed to facilitate a timely transition from a mentored postdoctoral research position to a stable independent research position with independent NIH or other independent research support at an earlier stage than is currently the norm,” according to the NIH website. The PI award will provide up to five years of support consisting of two phases. The initial phase will provide one to two years of mentored support for postdoctoral research scientists. The second phase: up to three years of independent support contingent on securing independent tenure-track or equivalent research position.
Lee joined the Hammock lab in March of 2010 as a post-doctoral trainee of the Superfund Research Program, directed by Hammock. His research includes human soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitors for treatment of neuropathic pain. He also mentors two graduate students and six undergraduate students.
Lee received his bachelor of science degree in chemistry in 2003 from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and his doctorate in organic chemistry from Michigan State University. “Interestingly enough, it was somewhat like receiving a Ph.D from Davis,” Hammock commented. Babak Borhan, Lee's mentor at Michigan State, did his Ph.D. with Hammock and with UC Davis chemistry professor Mark Kurth.
The title of the $131,680 K-99 grant from NIH's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is “Identifying the Receptors of Environmentally Sensitive Epoxy-Eicosanoids with AMS. “It is an ambitious project: he needs only three Nobel Prizes to complete it,” Hammock said, smiling. “The work involves innovative a red shifted photolabel and the use of a powerful technology termed accelerator mass spectrometry to find a receptor for pain and inflammatory mediators that has eluded other laboratories for over a decade.”
Since his arrival at UC Davis, Lee has reported the most powerful known inhibitors of the soluble epoxide hydrolase as drugs to treat pain and inflammation; helped develop a new theory for predicting the potency of drugs by quantitative evaluation of target occupancy; carried out drug metabolism studies; and collaborated with other laboratories at UC Davis and elsewhere in the world. Lee has published or co-authored work in a number of journals, including Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Journal of American Chemistry Society, Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, Toxicology Letters,Journal of Cardiovascular and Pharmacology, Journal of Lipid Research, and the American Chemical Society's Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, among others.
He and his colleagues published two works in PNAS last year: “Epoxy Metabolites of Docosahexanenoic Acid (DHA) Inhibit Angiogenesis, Tumor Growth and Metastasis” and “Unique Mechanistic Insights into the Beneficial Effects of Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase Inhibitors in the Prevention of Cardiac Fibrosis.” The first study is particularly timely in suggesting that an omega-3 rich diet could help in cancer treatment.
A member of the American Chemical Society since 2003, Lee is a reviewer of Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry and Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, and a co-reviewer of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and Analytical Biochemistry.
This year he delivered presentations at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the SuperFund Research Program, held Nov. 12-14 in San Jose; and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, April 26-30, San Diego; and the Eicosanoid Research Association meeting held March 9-12 in Baltimore. Previously he discussed his work at meetings of the American Chemical Society, and the International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies.
Long-term exposure to triclosan, an antimicrobial commonly found in soaps, shampoos, toothpastes and many other household items, may potentially have serious health consequences, according to a team of University of California researchers, including Bruce Hammock, distinguished professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Their research, published Nov. 17 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that triclosan causes liver fibrosis and cancer in laboratory mice through molecular mechanisms that are also relevant in humans.
“Triclosan's increasing detection in environmental samples and its increasingly broad use in consumer products may overcome its moderate benefit and present a very real risk of liver toxicity for people, as it does in mice, particularly when combined with other compounds with similar action,” said Robert H. Tukey, professor in the departments of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Pharmacology, UC San Diego School of Medicine
Tukey led the study with Hammock, who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Research Center. They direct the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Superfund Programs at their respective campuses.
The team, including Mei-Fei Yueh, found that triclosan disrupted liver integrity and compromised liver function in mouse models. Mice exposed to triclosan for six months--roughly equivalent to 18 human years--were more susceptible to chemical-induced liver tumors. Their tumors were also larger and more frequent than in mice not exposed to triclosan.
The study suggests triclosan may do its damage by interfering with the constitutive androstane receptor, a protein responsible for detoxifying (clearing away) foreign chemicals in the body. To compensate for this stress, liver cells proliferate and turn fibrotic over time. Repeated triclosan exposure and continued liver fibrosis eventually promote tumor formation.
Triclosan is perhaps the most ubiquitous consumer antibacterial. Studies have found traces in 97 percent of breast milk samples from lactating women and in the urine of nearly 75 percent of people tested. Triclosan is also common in the environment: It is one of the seven most frequently detected compounds in streams across the United States.
“We could reduce most human and environmental exposures by eliminating uses of triclosan that are high volume, but of low benefit, such as inclusion in liquid hand soaps,” Hammock said. “Yet we could also for now retain uses shown to have health value — as in toothpaste, where the amount used is small.”
Triclosan is already under scrutiny by the FDA, due to its widespread use and recent reports that it can disrupt hormones and impair muscle contraction.
Co-authors include Koji Taniguchi, Shujuan Chen and Michael Karin, UC San Diego; and Ronald M. Evans, Salk Institute for Biological Studies. (See PNAS paper)
This research was funded, in part, by U.S. Public Health Service grants ES010337, GM086713, GM100481, A1043477, ES002710 and ES004699.
Author: Heather Buschman
UC San Diego Health Sciences
hbuschman@ucsd.edu
Phone: (619) 543-6163
(Editor's Note: Hammock was featured in the Sept. 4 edition of Newsweek in a piece titled "Is Cancer Lurking in Your Toothpaste? (And Your Soap? And Your Lipstick? Hammock called triclosan “quite a good antimicrobial” that belongs in the hospital, not on the kitchen counter, wrote reporter Alexander Nazaryan, who quoted Hammock as saying: “There's no reason for it to be there" (in hand and dish soaps).
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Sparks will discuss "Natural Products – Sources and Inspiration for Insect Control Agents" from 11 to 11:50 a.m. in Room 1022 of the Life Sciences Building.
At Dow AgroSciences, Sparks is a research fellow with the Insect Management Group, Discovery Research unit, a position he has held since January 2010.
"Natural products (NPs) have long been used as pesticides and have broadly served as a source of inspiration for a great many commercial synthetic organic fungicides, herbicides and insecticides that are in the market today," Sparks says in his abstract. "In light of the continuing need for new tools to address an ever changing array of fungal, weed and insect pests, NPs continue to be a source of models and templates for the development of new pest control agents. "
"Interestingly, an examination of the literature suggests that NP models exist for many of the pest control agents that were discovered by other means, suggesting that had circumstances been different, these NPs could have served as inspiration for the discovery of a great many more of today's pest control agents. With an emphasis on insecticides, an attempt will be made to answer questions regarding the existence of NP models for existing pesticides, and using the spinosyns as a reference point, what is needed for the discovery of new NPs and NP models for pest control agents."
"Tom Sparks enrolled at UC Riverside to study biological control," recalled Hammock, a distinguished professor of entomology with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. “This interest soon took a more physiological and biochemical turn."
“Tom had broad interests even then, ranging from synthesis of juvenile hormone analogs as green pesticides to resistance management, to his thesis work on the fundamental biochemistry of how butterflies and moths undergo metamorphosis.”
Sparks went on to become a professor at Louisiana State University in an academic career spanning from 1978 to 1989. He completed a sabbatical leave at UC Davis in the summer of 1985.
Sparks won the 2012 International Award for Research in Agrochemicals at the American Chemical Society's 244th meeting, in Philadelphia for "research and exceptional accomplishments in applying new technology from a number of disciplines to the discovery of new pest control agents.
“Tom was instrumental in the discovery and development of a new class of insecticides called spinosids,” Hammock said.
In 2009, Sparks was named the 44th Scientist of the Year by the global research and development magazine, R&D. He won that honor via a vote from readers and editors of R&D. Past recipients have included the inventor of the Internet and the first to successfully sequence the entire human genome.
At the time, R&D senior editor Paul Livingstone said: “Tom Sparks is one of the leading entomologists in agroscience and a pioneer in the wave of new green chemistries that are changing the way we control the insects that are a crucial factor in global agriculture." Sparks' research on “green” insecticides led to spinetoram, a highly effective new insecticide chemistry that eliminates toxic side effects in humans and mammals.
Sparks, now a resident of Greenfield, Ind., grew up in California's Central Valley. He received his bachelor's degree in biology from California State University, Fresno, before enrolling in the graduate program at UC Riverside. While at UC Riverside, Sparks won the Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and also received a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship.
Both Hammock and Sparks are fellows of ESA.
Livingston said Hammock played an important role in Sparks' development: “While working in the well-known laboratory of Dr. Bruce Hammock, Tom completed key research on hormones that would guide him into the unexplored regions of entomological science.”
More information on the Oct. 16 seminar is available from events manager Jacki Balderama of the UC Davis Biotechnology Program, at jbalderama@ucdavis.edu
Related links:
- Thomas Sparks, First Graduate Student of Bruce Hammock, Wins International Award for Research in Agrochemicals
- Scientist-of-the-Year Thomas Sparks Closely Linked to UC Davis; Bruce Hammock Was His Major Professor
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Triclosan researcher Bruce Hammock, distinguished professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, is featured in the Sept. 4 edition of Newsweek in a piece titled "Is Cancer Lurking in Your Toothpaste? (And Your Soap? And Your Lipstick?)"
Writer Alexander Nazaryan led with: "Since cancer seems to be an ever-present enemy, we greet the appearance of its lethal emissaries in prosaic objects with a morbid lack of surprise: carcinogens lurks in coffee, hamburgers, rugs, dry-cleaned clothes, even peanut butter. And it may apparently reside in one of the most popular toothpastes on the market, a toothpaste you've probably thrown into your own shopping cart with nary a second thought."
Of Hammock, he wrote:
"But for others, the chemicals aren't dangerous if used with moderation. Dr. Bruce D. Hammock, for example, runs the Laboratory of Pesticide and Biotechnology at UC Davis and was one of the investigators involved in the study on triclosan and triclocarban. 'There are real risks to triclosan,' Hammock says. 'And there are real benefits.' He welcomes more research into its effects on the human body.
Hammock called triclosan “quite a good antimicrobial” that belongs in the hospital, not on the kitchen counter, Nazaryan wrote. He quoted Hammock: “There's no reason for it to be there" (in hand and dish soaps).
See the full story in Newsweek.
In addition to his duties in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (see his lab research website), Hammock holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and directs the campuswide Superfund Research Program, National Institutes of Health Biotechnology Training Program, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Combined Analytical Laboratory.
The UC Davis provost named him a distinguished professor in 2003. Hammock is a fellow of the Entomological Society of America, a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, and the recipient of the 2001 UC Davis Faculty Research Lecture Award and the 2008 Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate and Professional Teaching.
Related News:
See the Aug. 13, 2012 UC Davis news release expanding on triclosan: "Triclosan, an antibacterial chemical widely used in hand soaps and other personal-care products, hinders muscle contractions at a cellular level, slows swimming in fish and reduces muscular strength in mice, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the university of Colorado. The findings appear online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America."