Supporting Programs and Facilities

The Ralph M. Parsons
Foundation Plant Transformation Facility
http://ucdptf.ucdavis.edu
The state-of-the-art Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Plant Transformation Facility was established at UC Davis as a service-oriented facility dedicated to providing cost-effective plant transformation services for the UC system and outside academic and industrial partners.  The staff has extensive experience in the transformation of a wide range of crop plants, specializing in crops important to California agriculture.

Genome Center
http://genomecenter.ucdavis.edu
Established through a major campus-wide initiative in genomics, the UC Davis Genome Center is part of a broad campus commitment to build on existing strengths in the life sciences while establishing an internationally recognized program in genomics research.  Housed in the new Genome and Biomedical Sciences Facility on campus, the center provides research space and administrative support for 17 new faculty research programs in genomics, bioinformatics, and computational biology.  In addition, over 40 faculty actively involved in genomics research across campus are Associate Members of the center.  Together, these faculty provide diverse state-of-the-art research and training opportunities in genetics, expression analysis, proteomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics.
 
The Genome Center also houses five technology core facilities for high throughput biology whose services are available to enable research at UC Davis and outside academic and industrial partners.  These established core facilities provide services at cost and on as needed basis for genotyping, transcriptional profiling, mass spectrometry, and bioinformatics (see http://www.genomecenter.ucdavis.edu/corefacilities.html for more
details).

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CA Crop Improvement Association
http://ccia.ucdavis.edu
The California Crop Improvement Association (CCIA), a non-profit corporation, is officially recognized as the seed certifying agency under the California Seed Law.  The mission of CCIA is to provide services and support research that promotes the improvement, production, distribution, and use of superior quality seeds and other agricultural products.

Foundation Seed Program
http://fsp.ucdavis.edu
Created in 1937, the Foundation Seed Program (FSP) is a self-supporting, on-campus service unit within the College of Agriculture and Environmental Science whose mandate is threefold:  1) To grow, increase, and maintain seed of cultivars developed by UC and other public breeders; 2) To maintain the genetic purity of these cultivars; and 3) To insure that certified seed of these cultivars is continuously available to the public.  The FSP seed conditioning facility, specifically designed for handling high quality, low volume seed stocks, is a CCIA approved conditioning facility, a CCOF certified organic processing facility, and is capable of custom conditioning on a contract basis.

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Seed Biotechnology Center
http://sbc.ucdavis.edu
The UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center is a focal point for interaction between the seed industry and the research and educational resources of the university.  The center coordinates research to address problems of interest to the seed industry and provides continuing education in seed biology and technology (see, for example, the Plant Breeding Academy).  Its mission is to mobilize the research, educational, and outreach resources of the University of California, in partnership with the seed and plant biotechnology industries, to facilitate discovery and commercialization of new seed technologies for agricultural and consumer benefit.

Genetics Resources Conservation Program
http://www.grcp.ucdavis.edu
Established in 1985, the Genetic Resources Conservation Program (GRCP) is concerned with California’s biological diversity and its conservation in the broadest sense: onsite and offsite conservation of the native flora and fauna; collections of germplasm amassed for agricultural, medicinal, and industrial uses; and collections of genetic stocks, tissues, cells, and DNA developed for teaching and research purposes.  Through and wide variety of projects and task forces, the program identifies and supports animal, microbial, and plant genetic resources; helps develop improved methods and strategies for procuring and maintaining genetic resources; and facilitates the teaching and dissemination of information concerning genetic resources conservation by means of workshops, classes, seminars, conferences, publications, and other outreach activities.

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Rice Experiment Station
http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/ricestation
The primary mission of the California Cooperative Rice Research Foundation (CCRRF), located in Biggs, CA, is to develop improved rice varieties and agronomic management systems for the benefit of the California rice industry.  The production and maintenance of foundation seed of currently grown rice varieties is an additional activity at the CCRRF Rice Experiment Station.  Though the foundation is funded primarily through the California Rice research Board, cooperation with UC and USDA scientists is strong.  Indeed, an important secondary objective of the station is to support UC and USDA research by providing land, resources, and management for agronomic, weed, insect, disease, and other disciplinary research.

UCD Office of Research:
Technology and Industry Alliances
http://www.research.ucdavis.edu/home.cfm?id=OVC,2Through the many services it offers to UC Davis faculty, Technology and Industry Alliances (TIA) plays a critical role in facilitating research, developing productive university-industry alliances, and enabling the efficient commercialization and dissemination of university inventions, improved cultivars among them.  TIA supports the work of university plant breeders by helping them navigate the complexities of intellectual property right law via valuable technology transfer services such as patent services, licensing services, material transfer agreements, and plant test agreements.

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C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center
http://tgrc.ucdavis.edu
The C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center (TGRC) is one of the world's most comprehensive collection of genetic stocks and wild relatives of tomato.  This impressive genebank collection of wild relatives, monogenic mutants and miscellaneous genetic stocks of tomato was founded by the late Dr. Charles M. Rick (UC Davis Dept. of Vegetable Crops), who personally collected many of the wild species accessions and produced a large proportion of the marker and cytogenetic stocks.  Over time, many other researchers contributed germplasm to the TGRC, and the collection continues to grow today.  In addition to germplasm acquisition, activities of the TGRC include stock maintenance, seed distribution, and research.  The center is an invaluable resource for the future improvement of tomato cultivars.

Foundation Plant Services
http://fpms.ucdavis.edu
A self-supporting service department in the College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, the UC Davis Foundation Plant Services (FPS) produces, tests, maintains and distributes premium foundation-level virus disease-tested plant materials for use by California nurseries.  The program is also the home of the nation's only dedicated grape importation facility, processing highly-sought-after foreign grape selections through quarantine for evaluation and use by the California and U.S. grape industry.  Although propagating material can be purchased by anyone, FPS is primarily geared toward the sale of small quantities of commercially-important propagating stock to nurseries and others who increase the stock for sale to commercial growers.  In this way, FPS makes possible the public dissemination of healthy, vegetatively-propagated cultivars.

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Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture
http://www.pipra.org
Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA) is an initiative by universities, foundations and non-profit research institutions to help public sector agricultural research institutions achieve their public missions by ensuring access to intellectual property to develop and distribute improved staple crops and improved specialty crops.  The development of new crop varieties with biotechnology depends on access to multiple technologies which are often patented or otherwise protected by intellectual property rights (IPRs). Ownership of these rights is fragmented across many institutions in the public and private sector, which makes it difficult to identify who holds what rights to what technologies, in which countries, and to establish whether or not a new crop variety is at risk of infringing those rights.  PIPRA works to overcome these barriers to the commercialization of new staple and specialty crop varieties by reviewing public sector licensing practices, developing a collective public IP asset database, exploring the development of shared technology packages, and educating and engaging the public and other stakeholder organizations.

CA Institute for Food and Agricultural Research
http://www.cifar.ucdavis.edu
The California Institute of Food and Agricultural Research (CIFAR) is a dynamic program of the UC Davis College of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences whose mission is to create opportunities for collaboration, multidisciplinary research, program sponsorship, and technology exchange between the campus and the food and agricultural industries.  CIFAR provides essential information in areas of new product development for health and well-being, sustainable and complete resource management in food processing operations, and production of biofuels and bioproducts from food "wastes."  The program's international network extends to Asian, European, and Australian participants linked through the UC Davis food and agricultural research community.

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Controlled Environment Facility
http://greenhouse.ucdavis.edu/cef
The UC Davis Controlled Environment Facility (CEF) offers over 150 plant growth chambers that control light intensity, temperature, relative humidity, photoperiod, and irrigation systems; together, these chambers comprise over 7,000 sq. feet of controlled environment growing area.  The facility also houses many specialized units, such as a dew chamber, controlled atmosphere chambers, low temperature chambers, a darkroom, and others.  All units are available for rent by any faculty, staff, or student whose research calls for a controlled environment.

Division of Biological Sciences UCDNA Sequencing Facility
http://dnaseq.ucdavis.edu
Located in Storer Hall, the Division of Biological Sciences UCDNA Sequencing Facility (DNASEQ) is committed to providing quality, cost-competitive sequencing services to all UC campus research facilities.

CA&ES Genomics Facility
http://cgf.ucdavis.edu/home
Located in Robbins Hall, the College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences Genomics Facility (CGF) supports campus researchers with low-cost genomics technologies for use in individual and collaborative research programs.  The facility provides DNA sequencing; houses robotics instrumentation for liquid handling, colony picking and sample preparation; and administers computer hardware and software resources for use in sequence interpretation and related data analyses.  The CGF also incorporates additional technologies (e.g. genotyping and transcriptional profiling) when technically appropriate and if there is sufficient need.

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Research Greenhouse Facility
http://greenhouse.ucdavis.edu/research.htm
The College of Biological Sciences Research Greenhouse Facility consists of 20 research greenhouses available to all UCD researchers.  The greenhouses, located at the Orchard Park Plant Growth Facility and the Core Greenhouse Complex, 1/2 mile from central campus, are individually automated and controlled to grow anything from tropical rice to low-light orchids to cool-growing mustards.  The greenhouses also include mist propagation facilities, root temperature control systems, adjoining screen and lath houses, and outdoor nurseries.

UCD Statistical Laboratory
http://www-stat.ucdavis.edu/stalab
The Statistical Laboratory, staffed by two statistical consultants, provides statistical consulting and associated computing and programming support to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, members of organized research units, administrative and service unit personnel, and non-University agencies and individuals.

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Field Facilities
The UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences has over 1,000 acres for cultivation located on campus, with associated field stations and equipment services.  In neighboring Winters, CA, is the university's Wolkskill Experimental Orchard, featuring 176 acres of fruit and nut crops.  The Oakville Experimental Vineyard, located in Napa Valley, is a state-of-the-art research facility surrounded by 40 acres of vineyards.  The university also maintains a statewide system of agricultural field stations, providing students and researchers a wide variety of climatic conditions, soil types, and water quality to facilitate the investigation of new cultivars, rootstocks, and cultural practices.  An additional resource located on campus is the National Plant Germplasm Repository, established in 1981 in cooperation with the USDA.  The repository is responsible for collecting and storing germplasm of cultivars and related species of grape, almond, walnut, pistachio, peach, nectarine, plum, prune, apricot, cherry, fig, and olive.

Plant Genomics Program
http://pgp.ucdavis.edu

Comprised of 38 faculty members from 17 departments on the UC Davis campus, the Plant Genomics Program (PGP) was established in 2004 to encourage interaction between the wide range of people and disciplines involved in plant genomics research on campus.

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