Human health and nutrition

Doctoral student Maria Rottersman joins a national fellowship this year that helps early-career scientists pursue their research and develop their careers in food science and agriculture.

Rottersman is now a part of the Rockey Fellowship’s 2024-27 cohort. Hosted by the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research, Rottersman will receive mentoring from industry professionals and have many networking opportunities within her field, while being supported by an annual stipend of $55,000 to cover tuition and living expenses.

Ana Zepeda has received a $7,300-grant to help women in southern Mexico plant a community garden, intended to provide better nutrition for their children and keep them in school.

Zepeda developed the project as part of her doctoral dissertation in the lab of Amanda Crump, and she’ll start the work later this year. The grant, from the UC Davis Advancing Sustainable Development Goals program, furthers the university’s commitment to support development at home and around the world.

Maeli Melotto and her team at the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences are looking for strains of lettuce that are genetically stronger at resisting bacteria that can make people sick. Their work has led to the identification of a gene that could play a role in the plant’s susceptibility to E. coli, a bacterium that causes potentially lethal intestinal illness.

Christine Diepenbrock, an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, and several researchers from Cornell, Michigan State, Purdue, and North Carolina State Universities have collaborated to identify and thoroughly dissect 11 genes underpinning natural variation in levels of carotenoids, including those with provitamin A activity, in maize kernels.