Bruce Hammock

A Davis-based company founded by UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock has received the green light to begin Phase 1 clinical trials to test a non-narcotic drug candidate developed in the Hammock lab to alleviate chronic pain.

EicOsis LLC, a pharmaceutical startup, has received Investigational New Drug (IND) approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to test the drug candidate, EC5026.  Clinical trials are expected to begin this year.

"EicOsis is developing a new class of oral non-narcotic analgesics based on inhibition of the soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) enzyme," said EicOsis chief executive officer Hammock, who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.  UC Davis has licensed EC5026 exclusively to EicOsis.

EC5026 (BPN-19186) is described as a first-in-class, small molecule that potently inhibits soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH). "It is key regulatory enzyme involved in the metabolism of membrane fatty acids," Hammock said. "Inhibition of sEH treats pain by stabilizing natural analgesic and anti-inflammatory mediators."

The sEH inhibitors developed by EicOsis have already shown to be effective for inflammatory and neuropathic pain in the rodents, horses, dogs and cats, with no apparent adverse or addictive reactions.

“Chronic pain management is a serious public health crisis with few options available that provide effective relief free of life-threatening safety concerns including abuse,” said UC Davis physician Scott Fishman, the Fullerton Endowed Chair in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, and professor and director of the Center for Advancing Pain Relief at the UC Davis School of Medicine. “The medical community is continually seeking effective pain management strategies. EicOsis's new compound is a novel pharmacological approach for treating pain, and I remain optimistic for its success.”

Approximately 50 million Americans (20 percent of the population) suffer from chronic pain, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The annual economic toll is $560 billion, encompassing direct medical expenses, lost productivity, and disability claims. Pain research is now one of the top priorities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

EicOsis advancement of EC5026 into clinical trials has been funded as part of the Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network (BPN) of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research. The BPN is a collaboration of NIH Institutes and Centers that supports innovative research on the nervous system with the goal of developing new neurotherapeutic drugs.

“There is clear unmet need for new pain therapeutics," said BPN Program Director Charles L. Cywin. "sEH is an important pain target in our portfolio and we are excited to see EC5026 advance to human clinical development on the pathway to treating patients."

The development of EC5026 also drew financial support from the Helping to End Addiction Long-term, or the NIH HEAL Initiative via a grant to EicOsis, which is using the funds to de-risk the development process of EC5026  and to accelerate the start of clinical trials.

"It's clear that a multi-pronged scientific approach is needed to reduce the risks of opioids, accelerate development of effective non-opioid therapies for pain and provide more flexible and effective options for treating addiction to opioids,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, who launched the initiative in early 2018. “This unprecedented investment in the NIH HEAL Initiative demonstrates the commitment to reversing this devastating crisis.”

Contacts:
Media inquiries: info@eicosis.com
Investor inquiries: Cindy McReynolds at cbmcreynolds@eicosis.com

Christian Nansen, guest editor for special edition of journal Remote Sensing. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Nansen, associate professor,  Department of Entomology and Nematology, is serving as the guest editor of the issue, "Remote Sensing to Detect and Diagnose Organismal Responses." The journal (impact factor 4.118) is a leading outlet for research articles and reviews on all aspects related to remote sensing.

"I'm inviting authors to submit studies that go beyond the detection of an optical reflectance response and tie a thorough analysis of remote sensing data to other types of data (physiological, molecular, genetic, biochemical)," Nansen said. "In other words, the special issue will embrace a phenomics approach, in which the overall goal is to, at least partially, explain why and how organisms exhibit an optical reflectance response to stressors and/or treatments."

As the guest editor, Nansen said he is seeking articles describing "exciting applications of remote sensing technologies to detect and diagnose differences and/or stress across all kingdoms."

Contributions are due by March 2020. For more information, access the website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/special_issues/rs4organismal_response.

The UC Davis entomologist specializes in applied insect ecology, integrated pest management and remote sensing, including proximal (lab) and aerial (drone) applications of remote sensing in agriculture; and robustness and accuracy of optical classification algorithms.

Nansen, who joined the UC Davis faculty in 2014, completed his doctorate in zoology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.  He previously held faculty positions at Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and most recently, the University of Western Australia. He may be reached at chrnansen@ucdavis.edu.

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Bruce Hammock, UC Davis distinguished professor, is the recipient of a RIVER Program award. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The award is part of the Revolutionizing Innovative, Visionary Environmental Health Research (RIVER) Program of the National Institutes of Environmental Health (NIEHS). This award is based on a track record of innovation and a ‘visionary' proposal to address serious problems in environmental health.

Hammock, who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Society, is known for his expertise in chemistry, toxicology, biochemistry and entomology. He meshes all four sciences in his 50-year research on how environmental chemicals impact human health.

“I am thrilled to receive the RIVER award,” said Hammock, who joined the UC Davis faculty in 1980 and now devotes much of his research toward environmental health. “The National Institutes of Health has many institutes and several of them have funded my laboratory over the years.  But it is the NIEHS that most closely matches my interests.  They have supported my work since I was a graduate student, so I am particularly thrilled they have shown such high confidence in the science and work our laboratory does.  This award certainly recognizes the current and past members of the laboratory who have been so productive and innovative.”

The program provides $6 million in funding over an eight-year period “to give scientists greater intellectual and administrative freedom as well as sustained support to achieve greater scientific impact,” according to NIEHS officials. RIVER provides a select few scientists with great latitude in addressing the most pressing scientific problems.

“Professor Hammock is especially deserving of this recognition for his important research over many years,” said Helene Dillard, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “Environmental health is central to the mission of our college, and we anticipate that this award will empower him to continue making advances in areas with the potential to impact human well-being.”

Ken Burtis, faculty advisor to the Chancellor and Provost and past Dean of Biological Sciences at UC Davis, said it would be difficult to find “a more deserving scientist to invest in than Bruce Hammock.”

“We both worked in the same building, and Bruce was one of the most hard-working, creative and enthusiastic colleagues I knew,” Burtis said. “The grant process often limits innovation.  The intellectual freedom NIEHS is providing Hammock makes our university shine and is a smart investment on the part of the agency. Their investment in him in the past paid off and RIVER will pay off even more in the future.” 

When asked how the award would change his life, Hammock, a kayak enthusiast and instructor, responded: “I will give up kayaking the harder rivers, I certainly do not want to drown and have to give any of the funding back. Having been given this great freedom, it will be hard to live up to the expectations.” 

Hammock, who has directed the NIEHS-UC Davis Superfund Research Program for the past 35 years, said many of his UC Davis collaborators are affiliated with the Superfund Program, including:

• Professor Aldrin Gomes who holds a joint appointment with the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences, and the Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, School of Medicine;
• Fawaz Haj, who holds a joint appointment with the Department of Nutrition, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine
• Research scientist Christophe Morisseau of the Hammock lab, Department of Entomology and Nematology and the Comprehensive Cancer Center, and
• Cardiologist Nipavan Chiamvimonvat of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, UC Davis Health System

“Bruce had been wonderful supporting students through running a training grant and particularly bringing diverse scientists together with the NIEHS Superfund Program,” said Chiamvimonvat. “It has been such a privilege to be part of this exciting program to understand the mechanisms of environmental contaminants on human health. His pioneering work on novel targets to combat inflammation has far-reaching applications, not only in pain, but also in other diseases including cancer and cardiovascular diseases, the two most common causes of morbidity and mortality.”

Gomes explained that rather than trying to find biological markers for individual environmental chemicals, this Superfund group is working together to find universal markers of stress and disease and understand how to prevent these diseases.  ‘By stabilizing mitochondria, the endoplasmic reticulium and other cell organelles to stress,” Gomes said, “we are reducing toxicity, as well as understanding the very basis of tissue damage by commonly used drugs and pesticides and how to reverse it.”

 Michael Lairmore, dean of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, said he was pleased to hear that Hammock has won the NIEHS River Award. “Bruce is very deserving of this award,” Lairmore said. “He has pioneered trans-disciplinary research across campus and has engaged faculty in multiple colleges and schools to transform the way we treat diseases in multiple species.  His creative approaches blend his natural curiosity with practical ways to translate his research findings into real world solutions to disease processes.”

“By providing research freedom through the RIVER award to Bruce Hammock, NIH made a remarkable decision,” said Scott Fishman, director of the Center for Advancing Pain Relief, Fullerton Endowed Chair in Pain Medicine, and executive vice chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine for the UC Davis School of Medicine.

“For example, Bruce sought me out shortly after I arrived at UC Davis with interest in reducing pain and our excessive use of opioids,” Fishman said. “Over time, he went on to develop an experimental pharmaceutical that is a promising unique non-opioid drug for treating chronic pain that will enter human trials this fall.  With Hammock as a recipient, the NIH RIVER Program has declared its commitment to recognizing basic scientists who are developing profound solutions that address the opioid crisis.”

Harvard Medical School researcher and former physician, Dipak Panigraphy, said that “The pioneering studies from the Hammock laboratory not only have elucidated how certain environmental contaminants increase cancer risk, but our collaborative work shows promise for preventing metastasis and recurrence of cancer following surgical tumor resection and chemotherapy. These potentially paradigm shifting studies show that preoperative or peri-chemotherapeutic management of inflammation may stave off cancer recurrences.”

 Said Hammock: “We would not have this without the scientific and intellectual input of Cindy McReynolds, program manager of the Superfund Program. Of course RIVER is a complement to the existing and past scientists who have worked on this project.”

The RIVER program is “the centerpiece of an emerging effort to support people, not projects, by providing support for much of an independent research program for outstanding investigators and giving them intellectual and administrative freedom, as well as sustained support, to pursue their research in novel directions in order to achieve greater impacts,” according to the NIEHS-RIVER website. “The RIVER program rewards outstanding environmental health sciences researchers who demonstrate a broad vision and potential for continuing their impactful research with increased scientific flexibility, stability in funding, and administrative efficiency.”

Nationally recognized for his achievements, 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 scores of awards, including the first McGiff Memorial Awardee in Lipid Biochemistry; and the Bernard B. Brodie Award in Drug Metabolism, sponsored by the America Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

“Bruce Hammock and his research team are the perfect example of how UC Davis translates university research into societal impact,” said Dushyant Pathak, associate vice chancellor for Innovation and Technology Commercialization in the UC Davis Office of Research.

“As a result of their fundamental work in unraveling both insect and human regulatory biology, the Hammock laboratory elucidated a biochemical pathway that regulates inflammation, pain and senescence,” Pathak said. “Enabled by this knowledge, a novel drug candidate to treat chronic pain is expected to enter human phase 1a trials this fall--also supported by NIH. The drug is licensed by the university to EicOsis, a company that is directing its development and is a UC Davis spin-off.”

A native of Little Rock, Ark., Hammock 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.

Hammock traces the history of his enzyme research to his studies in the Casida laboratory.  He was researching insect developmental biology and green insecticides when he and colleague Sarjeet Gill, now a distinguished professor at UC Riverside, discovered the target enzyme in mammals that regulates epoxy fatty acids.

“My research led to the discovery that many regulatory molecules are controlled as much by degradation and biosynthesis,” Hammock said. “The epoxy fatty acids control blood pressure, fibrosis, immunity, tissue growth, depression, pain and inflammation to name a few processes.”

“Basically, I began by trying to figure out how a key enzyme, epoxide hydrolase, degrades a caterpillar's juvenile hormone, leading to metamorphosis from the larval stage to the adult insect,” Hammock said. He asked himself these questions: “Does the enzyme occur in plants? Does it occur in mammals?" It does, and particularly as the soluble epoxide hydrolase in mammals.

"It is always important to realize that the most significant translational science we do in the university is fundamental science,” said Hammock, marveling that “this work to treat pain in companion animals, horses and humans all began by asking how caterpillars turn into butterflies.”

Keynote speaker Lynn Dicks of the University of East Anglia, England

Keynote speaker Christina Grozinger of Pennsylvania State University

A welcoming reception will take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Good Life Garden at the Robert Mondavi Institute, 392 Old Davis Road.

Themed “Multidimensional Solutions to Current and Future Threats to Pollinator Health,” the event will cover a wide range of topics in pollinator research: from genomics to ecology and their application to land use and management; to breeding of managed bees; and to monitoring of global pollinator populations.

Co-chairs are pollination ecologist Neal Williams and Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. The UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, directed by Amina Harris, is coordinating the conference. Events manager Elizabeth Luu (luu@caes.ucdavis.edu) serves as the conference coordinator.

Keynote speakers are Lynn Dicks, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, England, and Christina Grozinger, distinguished professor of entomology and director of the Center for Pollinator Research, Pennsylvania State University. Grozinger and Rufus Isaacs of Michigan State University launched the conference in 2012. They are held every third year; this year is the fourth conference.

Dicks will speak at 9 a.m., Thursday, July 18 on "The Importance of People in Pollinator Conservation" while Grozinger will address the crowd at 9 a.m., Friday, July 19 on "Bee Nutritional Ecology: From Genes to Landscapes."

Dicks, an internationally respected scientist, studies bee ecology and conservation. She received the 2017 John Spedan Lewis Medal for contributions to insect conservation. Grozinger studies health and social behavior in bees and is developing comprehensive approaches to improving  pollinator health and reduce declines.

Among the speakers is Rachel Vannette, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who will discuss her hummingbird research.

The agenda:

Wednesday, July 17

• 6:30 to 8 p.m.: Early Registration and welcome reception in the Good Life Garden at the Robert Mondavi Institute, 392 Old Davis Road, Davis.

Thursday, July 18
6:45 to 8:30 a.m., breakfast at Segundo Dining Commons

8:45 a.m. Opening remarks and welcome

9 a.m. Keynote Address: "The Importance of People in Pollinator Conservation" by Lynn Dicks, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, UK

10 a.m. Session 1: Novel Quantitative Methods in Pollinator Ecology & Management

• "The Role of Bee and Non-Bee Pollinators in Australian Open and Protected Cropping Systems (How do we overcome the pollination challenges?)" - Romina Rader, University of New England, Australia
• "Implementing a Honeybee Foraging Model and REDAPOLL Fruit Set Predictions in Washington State's Decision Aid System" - Vince Jones, Washington State University
• "Using DNA metabarcoding techniques to improve plant-pollinator interaction networks" - Victoria Reynolds, University of Queensland, Australia
• "Citizen Science Data for Mapping Bumblebee Populations" - Claudio Gratton, University of Wisconsin
  
  11:15 to 11:30: Break (Light refreshments in the foyer)
  
  
• "From Theory to Practice: The Bumble-BEEHAVE Model and its Application to Enhance Pollinator Friendly Land Management" - Matthias Becher, University of Exeter, UK
• "A Laboratory System to Study the Effects of Stressors on Honey Bee Health and Fecundity" - Julia Fine, USDA-ARS Davis, Calif.
• "Using Automated Tracking to Link Individual Behavior to Colony Performance in Bumble Bees" - James Crall, Harvard University
  
  Lunch at Segundo Dining Commons (opens from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.)

1:45 p.m. Session 2: Drivers of Host-Pathogen Interactions

• "DWV as a Driver of Host Bee Decline" - Robert Paxton, Martin-Luther University, Germany
• "Novel Transmission Routes and Intensification as Drivers of Disease Emergence and Virulence in Honey Bee viruses" - Mike Boots, UC Berkeley
• "Viral Transmission in Honey Bees and Native Bees Supported by a Global BQCV Phylogeny" - Elizabeth Murray, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

 3 to 3:15: Break (Light refreshments in the foyer)

• "Drivers of Pathogen Distributions in Feral and Managed Honey Bees" - Panuwan Chantawannakul, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
• "Serratia marcescens, a Pathobiont of Honey Bees?" - Kasie Raymann, University of North Carolina Greensboro
• "Foreign Fungi in Native Bees across the Commonwealth of Virginia" - Kathryn LeCroy, University of Virginia
• "Traits as Drivers of Plant-Pollinator-Pathogen Networks" - Quinn McFrederick, UC Riverside and Scott McArt, Cornell University
  
  4:30 p.m.: Poster Session 1 in the ARC Ballroom
  
  
• 6:30 to 8 p.m. Opening Reception
  Robert Mondavi Institute Sensory Building, 392 Old Davis Road, Davis
  Honey Tasting led by Amina Harris, director, Honey and Pollination Center

Friday, July 19
6:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., Breakfast at Segundo Dining Commons

9 a.m. Keynote: "Bee Nutritional Ecology: From Genes to Landscapes," by Christina Grozinger, Penn State University

10 a.m. Session Three: Variable Climates and Changing Pollinators

• "Bee Responses to Climate Change: from Micro- to Macroecology" - Jessica Forrest, University of Ottawa, Canada
• "A Climate Vise of Temperature Extremes May Explain Past and Predict Future Bumble Bee Range Shifts" - Michael Dillon, University of Wyoming
• "Climate Change Effects on Megachilidae Bee Species along an Elevation Gradient" - Lindsie McCabe, Northern Arizona University
  
  10:15 to 11:05: Break (Light refreshments in the foyer)
  
  
• "Testing the Phenological Mismatch Hypothesis for a Plant-Pollinator Iinteraction" - Charlotte de Keyzer, University of Toronto, Canada
• "Phenological Mismatch between Bees and Flowers Early in the Spring and Late in the Summer" - Gaku Kudo, Hokkaido University, Japan
• "Climate Change Impacts on Brazilian Pollinators" - Tereza (Cris) Giannini, Federal University of Para, Brazil
• "Pollinator Health in a Commercial Blueberry System" - Lief Richardson, University of Vermont
  
  Lunch at Segundo Dining Commons (opens from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.)
  
  Optional Discussion: How do you relate your science to justice, equity and advocacy issue

 1:45 Session 4: Causes and Consequences of Pesticide Use: From Use Patterns to Pollination Services

• "A New Framework for Environmental Risk Assessment of Pesticides" - Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, University of Sydney, Australia
• "Potency Paradox: Patterns and Drivers of Insecticide Use in U.S. Agriculture" - Maggie Douglas, Dickinson College
• "Estimating Pollinator Pesticide Exposure" - Maj Rundlof, Lund University, Sweden
  
  Break (Light refreshments in the foyer)
  
  
• "A Risk Assessment of Neonicotinoid Insecticides in New York" - Travis Grout, Cornell University
• "Risk of Exposure in Soil and Sublethal Effects of Systemic Insecticides Applied to Crops on Adult Female Ground-Nesting Bees Using the Hoary Squash Bee as a Model Species" - D. Susan Willis Chan, University of Guelph, Canada
• "Delayed Lethality: The Effects of a Widely-Used Fungicide on Honey Bees (Apis mellifera)" - Adrian Fisher II, Arizona State University
• "Sub-lethal Impacts of Pesticides on Bees" - Troy Anderson, University of Nebraska
  
  Poster Session 2 and Networking at the ARC Ballroom

Saturday, July 21
8 a.m.  Registration at the ARC Ballroom
6:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.: Breakfast at Segundo Dining Commons

9 a.m.: Session 5: Integrative Approaches to Improving Bee Health Across Landscapes

• "Combining Physiological and Ecological Data for More Effective Bee Protection and Conservation" - Cedric Alaux, INRA, France
• "Keeping Bees in a Warming World: Protein Biomarkers for Heat Stress and Queen Failure Diagnostics" - Alison McAfee, North Carolina State University
• "Factors Influencing Colony Survival in Migratory Beekeeping Based on Honey Bee Resistance Traits" - Michael Simone-Finstrom, USDA-ARS, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• "Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of Pollinator Communities across North Carolina Agroecosystem" - Hannah Levenson, North Carolina State University
• "The Effects of Land Cover on Habitat Quality for Nesting Bumble Bees" - Genevieve Pugesek, Tufts University
  
  10 to 10:15 a.m. Break (Light refreshments in the foyer)
  
  
• "Improving Bee Health in Canola Pollination" - Shelley Hoover, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry
• "Mitigating Land Use Decisions that Destroy Bee Forage" - George Hansen, Foothills Honey, Oregon, USA
• "Impact of Landscape-Scale Floral Resources Availability on Pollinator Communities" - Aaron Iverson, Cornell University
• "Why are Crops Mainly Visited by Broadly Polylectic Bee Species?" - Katja Hogendoorn, The University of Adelaide, South Australia
  
  12:15 Lunch

1:40: Session 6: Pollinators in Urban Environments

• Presentation by The Wonderful Company
• Honoring new California Master Beekeeper graduates - Elina Niño, UC Davis
• "Floral Trophic Ecology of a North American Metropolis Revealed by Honey Bee Foraging Assay" -
  Doug Sponsler, Penn State University
• "Pollinators and Urban Warming: A Landscape Physiology Approach" - Elsa Youngsteadt, North
  Carolina State University
• "Green Infrastructure to Support Urban Wild bees: Communicating Science to Practitioners" - Scott
  McIvor, University of Toronto, Canada
• "Urban Pollinator Conservation Opportunities: Integrating Research with Policy and Practice" -
  Katherine Baldock, University of Bristol, UK
• "Linking Pollinator Health, Microbiome Composition and Human Provisioning in Anna's Hummingbird
  (Calypte anna) - Rachel Vannette, UC Davis
  
  Break (Light refreshments in the foyer)
  
  
• "Beekeeping Ordinances: Protecting bees and Neighbors" - Tracy Ellis, San Diego County
  Department of Agriculture
• "Beekeeping in the City: Successes and Challenges" - Charlie Blevins, San Francisco Beekeepers'
  Association
• "Electric Power Companies Protecting Pollinators" - Jessica Fox, Electric Power Research Institute,
  Palo Alto
• "The Effect of Land use on a Sexually Selected Characteristic of the Cabbage White Butterfly (Pieris
  rapae) in the United States" - Anne Espeset, University of Nevada, Reno
• "Urban Pollinator Conservation: Bee Campus USA and Bee City USA as a Model for Meaningful
  Community Engagement" - Phyllis Stiles, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Portland,
  Ore.
  
  Closing remarks

(There are no plans to video record the conference)