- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Casida, 88, one of the world's leading authority on how pesticides work and their effect on humans, died June 30 of a heart attack in his sleep at his home in Berkeley. He was considered the most preeminent pesticide toxicologist over at least the last two centuries.
A distinguished professor emeritus of environmental science, policy and management and of nutritional sciences and toxicology, Casida was the founding director of the campus's Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology Laboratory.
When awarded the Wolf Prize in Agriculture in 1993, the Wolf Foundation lauded his “research on the mode of action of insecticides as a basis for the evaluation of the risks and benefits of pesticides and toxicants, essential to the development of safer, more effective pesticides for agricultural use." according to a UC Berkeley News Service story. "His discoveries span much of the history of organic pesticides and account for several of the fundamental breakthroughs in the fields of entomology, neurobiology, toxicology and biochemistry.”
Former graduate student Bruce Hammock, now a distinguished professor at the University of California, Davis, who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, remembers him as a “lifelong mentor who evolved into a colleague and a friend.”
“John continued his high productivity until his death with major reviews on pesticides in 2016, 2017, and 2018 in addition to numerous primary papers,” Hammock noted. “He was working on primary publications as well as revising his toxicology course for the fall semester at the time of his death. Pesticide science was the theme of his career, and we live in a world with far safer and more effective pest control agents because of his effort.”
John Casida opened multiple new fields ranging from fundamental cell biology through pharmaceutical discovery. "He pioneered new technologies throughout his career, from being one of the first to use radioactive compounds for pesticide metabolism through studies with accelerator mass spectrometry, photoaffinity labeling and others," Hammock related. "Yet the greatest impact of his career probably lives on in the numerous scientists he trained, now carrying on his traditions of excellence in science. These scientists are around the world in governmental, industrial and academic careers.”
As compiled and shared by Hammock, below are comments from a few of his doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows who worked both with Casida at UC Berkeley and at, least for a time, also were at UC Davis.
Sarjeet Gill
Distinguished Professor of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Riverside
"This project also allowed me to build a long lasting friendship with Bruce Hammock who also was on the same project. Since John was always very focused, I often challenged John's patience with my practical jokes. I am sure he knew who the culprit(s) were but he never revealed he knew.
“The research experiences in John's lab made an indelible impression on me that drove me to return to the United States from Malaysia for an academic career in the UC system. Personally, I have lost an incredible mentor, and the scientific community lost the most preeminent pesticide toxicologist in the last two centuries. John changed the way we investigated mechanisms of toxicity at all levels. I certainly will miss him dearly.
Bruce Hammock
Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Davis: Joint appointment with the Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center
"After telling him I was there to be his graduate student, he replied he had no money for students. My retort was that I had a fellowship. He then told me that students were not space effective, and I promised not to take up much space. He continued that students were not time effective, and I promised not to take his time. In retrospect, Sarjeet must have really soured him on graduate students a few hours earlier."
"Months later, Sarjeet and I were sharing a desk-lab bench in the windowless closet next to the 'fly room' when Dr. Casida walked in. He had noted we both listed him as our major professor and asked if there was anything, he could do to encourage us to leave. When in unison we replied 'No!,' he politely left without accepting us, but soon we both had a desk and bench.
"So a few paces after Sarjeet, I initiated the most thrilling four years of my life. John's introduction to experimental science was marvelous with the perfect balance of inspiration, instruction and tremendous freedom. I was privileged to learn from a wonderful group of individuals and, of course, I made my most enduring of friendships with Sarjeet Gill. In addition to science, John taught a life-family-science balance by example. John was my life long mentor in science and in life but also evolved as a colleague and friend.
"Three more delightful years passed and John then took me to lunch at the faculty club. As I was about to leave the laboratory for the U.S. Army, he gave me sagely advice such as he had had it easy during the Sputnik period and I would have it hard. Then he went on to tell me than most people in the laboratory did not find my practical jokes nearly as funny as I did. I did not reveal that Sarjeet had both planned and executed most of them. Thus, Sarjeet succeeded in disrupting my Berkeley career from beginning until the end.
"John and his laboratory at Berkeley provided me with the most exciting years of my scientific career. In his own work, John moved from strength to strength creating numerous entire fields along the way. His scientific insight and drive were a constant stimulation to drive for innovation and excellence. Whenever I had an opportunity, I encouraged others to join his team. John was an inspiration and role model, not only because John came in early and stayed late, but also because he did science for the fun of discovery and taught for the joy of teaching."
Keith Wing Consulting LLC
Life Science Industrial Biochemistry or Biotechnology
"While we all worked hard including many evenings and weekends, there were times when I or other American rebels would lead a mass lab exodus for a salmon fishing or ski trip during (gasp!) regular business hours. John would pretend to barely notice our ill-disguised escape along the cabinets that lined the Wellman Hall basement, except to raise his right eye from his manuscript editing in an unmistakable sign of disapproval at our lack of scientific drive.
"And this leads to another Casida work pattern of the time…. All of us scientists were subject to John's multiple cycles of manuscript editing. We would wrack our brains trying to put the right words and figures down as manuscript drafts, submit them to John, and wait for three days or less for him to return it to us in a sea of thin red ink, and the humbling realization that we really were much poorer writers than we'd thought. After discussion with John and acquiescing to practically every edit he'd made, the manuscript would be re-typed manually by his administrative assistants in entirety and the cycle would repeat but with less red ink. After at least three cycles of this, we'd submit the manuscript for publication, often with a high acceptance rate. With time, we all came to understand and see John's wisdom in approaching publication and science contribution. All of this occurred right as word processing programs had started taking hold in the outside world, and perhaps my one service to the lab on my 1983 exit was to convince John to look into using word processing/saving documents on disks for editing. Oh, and maybe a bit of science as well.
"John Casida's lab has been the world leader in examining both pesticide metabolism and their biochemical target sites. I was lucky enough to work on a project that combined both, and it molded the way I looked at insecticide discovery in industry. The interdisciplinary approach to the mechanisms by which xenobiotics interface with biological systems influenced the thinking of every person who has passed through John's lab. That influence has proliferated throughout the world and has advanced the field of pesticide toxicology to what it is today. We mourn the loss of a great leader but understand that his alumni are a large international family that will carry his spirit and teachings forward."
Andrew 'Andy' Waterhouse
Director of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science and Professor of Viticulture and Enology,
University of California, Davis
"A couple of weeks after I arrived, he showed me Don Crosby's book on natural toxicants, and asked if I would confirm the very high toxicity of ryanodine mentioned therein. The high toxicity suggested strong binding to a key regulatory protein, and its novel and unknown mode of action made it an exciting prospective target. Confirming that ryanodine was in fact a deadly toxic, he set a project in motion to discover the site of action, hiring Isaac Pessah to use the yet-to-be-made radioligand on a hypothetical site of action!
"We were astonishingly lucky to find that the natural source of ryanodine contained a major impurity that was one step away from the highly radioactive form, so it wasn't too long before we had very hot ryanodine available. Initial attempts detected no binding at all, but Isaac thought to add some calcium to the assay, and we had the binding site in hand! This discovery essentially established a field of science in muscle physiology and pharmacology, with entire symposia dedicated to exploring this binding site and its broader significance to toxic modes of action. Isaac is an established leader in the field. It was a real privilege to see how groundbreaking research can happen and be part of it, and to get to know all the fabulous scientists that John collected around him."
Isaac Pessah
Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education, and Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine
University of California, Davis
"I remember most vividly my reaction when John also indicated that working on the biochemistry GABA receptors, my original intent for traveling across country for a postdoc, was not to be. ‘Work on something else' John advised, ‘there are so many interesting unanswered questions around the PCTL.' Arguably John's straightforward and highly insightful advice changed the course of my professional life. He introduced me to chemist Andy Waterhouse, and the next two years of work that led to the discovery and identity of the ryanodine receptor were breathtaking. Our discovery benefited from many factors; a gift from Ryania speciosa in the form of didehydroryanodine, which Andy identified, the newly published use of palladium catalyst to catalyze efficient reduction of minute quantities of unsaturated bonds, the National Tritium Laboratory just above the PCTL…and of course, there was John's unwavering support for discovery, no matter how risky. Successful synthesis of [3H]ryanodine and identity of its receptor paved the way to immense basic discoveries in virtually every field of science, identification of several disease causing mutations of skeletal and cardiac muscle and the nervous system, and successful discovery of highly selective ryanoid insecticides. Since the first paper published in 1985, there have been nearly 20,000 peer reviewed publications (ISI Web of Science) and a search on Google Scholar yields more than 70,000 hits. To many, John was the recognized leader in pesticide chemistry and toxicology. I agree, although from my perspective, John was also a true renaissance individual, seeding ideas of great significance in so many fields, of which ryanodine receptors represents only one of many. His love of science and discovery positively impacted his students and postdocs. He will be fondly remembered and sorely missed.'
Qing Li
Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
" In April 2018, I had a couple of telephone conversations with Professor Casida. He shared with me what he was doing (of course, writing manuscripts), his health, Kati's health, his sons and his grandkids. We talked about meeting at the Biochemistry and Society: Celebrating the Career of Professor Bruce Hammock, to be held in Davis in August 2018. We talked about a possibility to attend a meeting together in China in 2019.
"I was privileged to manage Professor Casida's manuscript entitled 'Pesticide Detox by Design' that he submitted to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. This is Professor Casida's last manuscript, I believe. It is still in the review process. He wrote that 'Detoxification (detox) plays a major role in pesticide action and resistance…' A reviewer who reviewed the manuscript wrote me “I just heard that Professor Casida has passed away... Professor Casida was a giant in pesticide science, a special and unique person. It is a great loss to the pesticide science community…”
Professor Casida is survived by his wife, artist and sculptor Kati Casida, sons Mark and Eric Casida, and two grandchildren.
Related Information
- John Casida Obituary, UC Berkeley News Service
- For the Fun of Science: A Discussion with John E. Casida (Archives of Insect Biochemistry and Physiology)
- Still Curious: An Overview of John Casida's Contributions to Agrochemical Research (JAFC)
- Curious about Pesticide Action, by John E. Casida (JAFC)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Co-authoring the first-place poster were mentors Hillary Sardinas, alumna of the Claire Kremen lab, UC Berkeley, and now with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation; and UC Berkeley Professors Nick Mills and Claire Kremen.
The Bee Symposium was sponsored by the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, directed by Amina Harris, and the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, chaired by Steve Nadler.
Associate professor/Chancellor's Fellow Neal Williams of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology announced the four winners, all from UC Berkeley or UC Davis. He serves as the co-faculty director of the Honey and Pollination Center.
Second place of $750 went to UC Davis graduate student W. Cameron Jasper for his poster, "Investigating Potential Synergistic Effects of Chronic Exposure to Amitraz and Multiple Pesticides on Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Survivorship." Jasper studies with major professor and Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. Niño and K. Grey co-authored the poster.
Third place of $500 went to UC Davis graduate student Britney Goodrich for her poster on "Honey Bee Health: Economic Implications for Beekeepers in Almond Pollination." She studies with major professor Rachael Goodhue of the UC Davis Agricultural and Resource Economics, co-author of the poster.
Fourth place of $250 went to UC Davis graduate student John Mola for his poster on "Fine Scale Population Genetics and Movement Ecology of the Yellow-Faced Bumble Bee (Bombus vosnesenkii). His poster co-authors: faculty members Neal Williams, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; and Michael Miller and Sean O'Rourke of the Department of Animal Science and Graduate Group in Ecology.
The Honey and Pollination Center funded the awards, with the program underwritten by Springcreek Foundation; Natural American Foods and the American Beekeeping Federation.
A trio of entomologists judged the posters: Dennis vanEnglesdorp, professor of entomology at the University of Maryland, College Park; Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis; and Quinn McFrederick, assistant professor of entomology, UC Riverside.
Yves Le Conte, director of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, Paris, keynoted the symposium, launching the daylong conference that took place in the UC Davis Conference Center. VanEnglesdorp delivered the keynote speech in the afternoon.
Coordinating the poster competition was program representative Christine Casey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, staff director of the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven.
The competition was open to graduate students from any related department--UC Davis, UC Berkeley, California State University, Sacramento, and beyond, Casey said.
Last year's winners were all from the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology:
- First Place: Margaret "Rei" Scampavia, "Farming Practices Affect Nest Site Selection of Native Ground Nesting Bees"
- Second Place: Jennifer VanWyk, "Wet Meadow Restoration Buffers the Impact of Climate Change: Pollinator Resilience during the California Drought"
- Third Place: Leslie Saul-Gershenz, "Native Bee Parasite Shows Multitrait, Host-Specific Variation and Local Adaptation"
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Host is Michael Parrella, professor and chair, Department of Entomology and Nematology.
"Many species groups, including mammals or many insects, determine sex using heteromorphic sex chromosomes," Bachtrog says in her abstract. "Diptera flies, which include the model Drosophila melanogaster, generally have XY sex chromosomes and a conserved karyotype consisting of six chromosomal arms (5 large rods and a small dot), but superficially similar karyotypes may conceal the true extent of sex chromosome variation. Here, we use whole-genome analysis in 35 fly species belonging to 22 different families of Diptera and uncover tremendous hidden diversity in sex chromosome karyotypes among flies.
"We identify over a dozen different sex chromosome configurations, and the small dot chromosome is repeatedly used as the sex chromosome, which presumably reflects the ancestral karyotype of higher Diptera. However, we identify species with homomorphic sex chromosomes, others were a different chromosome replaced the dot as a sex chromosome, or were up to three chromosomal elements became incorporated into the sex chromosomes, and others yet with female heterogamety (ZW sex chromosomes). Transcriptome analysis shows that dosage compensation has evolved multiple times in flies, consistently through upregulation of the single X in males. Yet, X chromosomes generally show a deficiency of genes with male-biased expression, presumably reflecting sex-specific selection pressures. These species thus provide a rich resource to study sex chromosome biology in a comparative manner, and show that similar selective forces have shaped the unique evolution of sex chromosomes in diverse fly taxa."
Bachtrog writes on her website: "Research in our lab combines both computational and experimental approaches to address a broad range of topics in Evolutionary and Functional Genomics including: (1) Determining the evolutionary benefits of sex and recombination (2) Investigations of large scale changes in patterns of gene expression on evolving sex chromosomes: Dosage compensation of X-linked genes and silencing of Y-linked genes by heterochromatin formation (3) Comparative & functional genomics of young Y chromosomes in Drosophila and mammals (4) Sexual antagonistic variation and feminization & masculinization of evolving X chromosomes (5) Quantifying the mode and strength of selection acting on coding and non-coding DNA in the Drosophila genome (6) Population genetics of Tetrahymena thermophila." (See lab research)
Bachtrog received her master's degree in genetics in 1999 from the University of Vienna, graduating with high honors. She obtained her doctorate in genetics in 2002 from the University of Vienna, Austria, and University of Edinburgh, UK, , graduating with high honors. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, from 2002 to 2003, and then was an Austrian Academy of Science Fellow (2003-2005) at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
Bachtrog's first faculty appointment was as assistant professor, 2005-2008, at UC San Diego's Division of Biological Sciences. She joined UC Berkeley in 2008, serving as an assistant professor, 2008-2012, in the Department of Integrative Biology, Center for Theoretical Evolutionary Genomics. Bachtrog was promoted to associate professor in 2012.
Among the recent awards and honors she's received:
- Packard Fellowship in Evolutionary Biology, David and Lucile Packard Foundation (2008)
- Sloan Research Fellowship in Computational and Evolutionary Molecular Biology, Alfred P. Sloan foundation (2007)
- Young Investigator Prize for Most Promising Young Researcher, The American Society of Naturalists (2004)
- Austrian Academy of Science, Austrian Programme for Advanced Research and Technology fellowship (2003)
- The Royal Society, Royal Society Research Grant (2002)
The remainder schedule of seminars:
Wednesday, Dec. 3
No seminar
Wednesday, Dec. 10
Sawyer Fuller
Postdoctoral researcher, Harvard University
Title: "RoboBee: Using the Engineering Toolbox to Understand the Flight Apparatus of Flying Insects"
Host: James Carey, distinguished professor of entomology
This seminar is being remote broadcast to UC Davis via internet
Contacts:
Steve Nadler, sanadler@ucdavis.edu
Professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jesael "Jesa" David, jcdavid@ucdavis.edu
Student Affairs Officer, Graduate Programs
Plant Pathology, Entomology and Nematology
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Graduate student Katharina Ullmann of the Neal Williams lab is the host.
“Many recent studies have shown that enhancing floral resources in intensive agricultural landscapes promotes species richness of flower-visitor communities, but to date, it is not known whether such effects are transient, merely concentrating individuals from across the larger landscape at flower-rich patches,” M'Gonigle says in his abstract. “Long-term data series and use of occupancy models are particularly helpful in determining whether these richness patterns actually reflect true increases in occupancy, or not. Further, such models can also determine whether enhanced occupancy results from decreased extinction rates, increased colonization rates, or both, providing information that is useful for conservation planning. “
“To date, these models have not been applied to the study of pollinators and their response to restoration. Here we present the results from a long-term study chronicling how restoration and subsequent maturation of native plant hedgerows affects occupancy, persistence and colonization of bees and syrphid flies in the Central Valley of California. Using a hierarchical occupancy model, we show that restoration via the introduction of perennial flowering native shrubs promotes the between-season persistence, but not colonization, of both bees and syrphid flies. This increased occupancy has the long-term effect of leading to the assembly of more diverse communities. We also find that, for native bees, hedgerow restoration has a greater impact on floral resource specialists than generalists."
M'Gonigle received his bachelor of science degree in mathematics (honors with distinction) from the University of Victoria in 2005; his master's degree in zoology from the University of British Columbia in 2006, and his doctorate in zoology from the University of British Columbia in 2011.
The recipient of numerous awards, he won the Dan David Prize ($15,000 prize for doctoral work) in 2011 and was named the top teaching assistant in his department (based on student course evaluations encompassing 70 teaching assistants) in both 2008 and 2011. Considered an outstanding speaker, he won “best talk” awards from several scientific organizations.
His most recent publications include:
Frishkoff, L.O., Karp, D.S., M'Gonigle, L.K., Mendenhall, C.D., Zook, J., Kremen, C., Hadley, E.A., and Daily, G.C. Land Use Transforms the Tree of Life. In prep.
M'Gonigle, L.K., Ponisio, L.C., and Kremen, C. Habitat restoration promotes pollinator persistence in intensively managed agriculture. In prep.
Ball-Damerow, J.E., M'Gonigle, L.K., Resh, V.H. Landscape, climate, and habitat factors influencing assemblages of dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) in California and Nevada. Submitted.
Ball-Damerow, J.E., M'Gonigle, L.K., Resh, V.H. Changes in occurrence, richness, and biological traits of dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) in California and Nevada over the past century. Submitted.
M'Gonigle's seminar is scheduled to be video-recorded for later posting on UCTV.
(Editor's Note: See remainder of Spring Quarter Seminars, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
DAVIS--Neil Tsutsui, associate professor, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley, will focus on Argentine ants when he speaks on "Integrating Chemical Ecology and Genetics to Illuminate the Behavior of an Invasive Social Insect," at his seminar on Wednesday, Jan. 8, hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
The seminar, the first of the winter quarter, is from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in 122 Briggs. Host is Brian Johnson, assistant professor and coordinator of the winter quarter seminars. Plans call for video-recording the seminar for later posting on UCTV.
“Some of the most damaging invasive species are social insects, and the Argentine ant ranks as one of the most widespread and abundant,” Tsutsui says in his abstract. “As is true for social insects generally, many of the key behaviors and biological processes that underlie the success of Argentine ants are regulated by sophisticated chemical signaling.”
“In recent years, my lab group has been investigating the identity, production, and perception of these chemical signals using tools from chemical ecology, genomics, and functional genetics. Our research has produced insights into how these ants coordinate their behavior, reproduction, and foraging, and suggests potential new methods for their control."
On his website, Tsutsui says: “The research in our lab focuses on ants and bees--how they communicate, why they behave the ways they do, their ecology, and their evolution. We work in both the field and the lab, using a variety of different approaches.”
Tsutsui joined the UC Berkeley faculty in July 2007. He earlier was an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC San Diego. He received his bachelor’s degree in biology, specializing in marine science, from Boston University in 1995, and his doctorate in biology from UC San Diego in 2000.
Winter Seminars:
List of winter quarter speakers