People

Joanna C. Chiu, Ph.D., Principal Investigator

Professor and Chair

Department of Entomology and Nematology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences

Center Affiliations:

UC Davis Genome Center
UC San Diego Center for Circadian Biology

Graduate Group Affliliations:

Entomology
Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Integrative Genetics and Genomics
Animal Behavior
Neuroscience

I received my Bachelor of Arts degree from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, M.A., with double majors in Biology and Music. After college, I proceeded to pursue graduate studies under the guidance of Dr. Gloria Coruzzi, Carroll & Milton Petrie Professor and Chair of Biology at New York University. I received a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from the Department of Biology at NYU. The overall goal of my thesis research was to understand the function of glutamate receptor genes (GLR) in plants by using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model organism. Even though I enjoyed my career in plant research as a graduate student, I realized that my real passion is to study how genes and proteins regulate and control animal behavior. Of particular interest is the field of circadian biology. Circadian rhythms are endogenously driven, and exist in life forms ranging from bacteria to mammals. It drives daily oscillations of physiological states and activities including sleep and feeding, and allows organisms to perform necessary tasks at biologically advantageous times of day. To study the inner workings of circadian rhythms, I joined the lab of Dr. Isaac Edery at the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine in Rutgers University, NJ, as a postdoctoral fellow to study how posttranslational mechanisms of clock proteins regulate circadian rhythms. I am now continuing to investigate the regulation of animal circadian and seasonal rhythms in my own lab in UC Davis by using a combination of molecular genetics, biochemical, and proteomic approaches.

My UCD Entomology page

Yao Cai, Postdoctoral Fellow

I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Plant Protection from China Agricultural University (CAU). I then pursued and received a Master’s degree majoring in Agricultural Entomology and Pest Control from CAU. To explore new aspects of biological research, I joined the Chiu Lab as a PhD researcher in the Fall of 2016 and investigated the timing mechanisms by which animal circadian clocks keep time. I was excited to see that my discoveries advanced the comprehensive understanding of circadian clock and shed light on the molecular mechanisms of a human sleep disorder! Upon graduation in Summer 2022, I continued my postdoctoral research in the Chiu Lab. With a newfound interest in genome stability, I hope to investigate how circadian clocks contribute to the maintenance of genome stability. Outside of the lab, I investigate the timing mechanisms in music via playing drums.

Christine Tabuloc, Postdoctoral Fellow

I graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UC Davis in 2015. I joined the lab as an undergraduate research assistant in 2012, completed my Ph.D. in Entomology in 2023, and am currently a postdoctoral fellow. Much of my work in the lab has involved different agricultural pests and investigating the molecular aspects contributing to the insect’s ability to be an effective pest. My current focus is to investigate the effects of climatic change on gene expression of an invasive pest and determine whether there is a correlation to resistance and survival.

Curtis Carlson, Graduate Student (Entomology Graduate Group)

I graduated with a B.S. in Global Disease Biology from UC Davis in 2018. During my undergrad, I worked on the phylogeography of North American Baylisascaris procyonis (raccoon roundworm) in Dr. Steve Nadler's lab. After graduating, I joined Dr. Bryce Falk's lab in Plant Pathology where I worked as a Junior Specialist. In Dr. Falk's lab I researched the insect-host-microbe interactions of citrus greening disease, completed new genome assemblies of Diaphorina citri (Asian citrus psyllid), and worked to engineer insect-specific viral vectors. I joined the Chiu Lab in 2022. I am broadly interested in entomology, molecular biology, and bioinformatics and hope to combine these interests for my PhD in entomology.

Rodrigo Del Rio, Graduate Student (Integrated Genomics and Genetics Graduate Group)

I received my B.S degree for Ecology and Evolutionary biology from UC Irvine in 2020. As an undergraduate researcher, I conducted research in Dr. Susana Cohen-Cory’s laboratory investigating cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate synapse formation during development. I was given the opportunity to present my research at both ABCRMS and AAAS before graduating. From my undergraduate research experience, I became interested in molecular biology and genetics and decided to pursue a Ph.D. degree with the IGG graduate program here at UC Davis. I now am a member of Dr. Chiu’s laboratory, investigating the mechanisms underlying the responses of the circadian clock to temperature changes.

Yu-Ping Meng, Graduate Student (Entomology Graduate Group)

I joined the Chiu Lab in the summer of 2022 as a second year undergraduate student majoring in biotechnology. I am interested in understanding the mechanisms of animal circadian rhythms because dysfunctional circadian rhythms can cause lots of health problems and I am a person that is heavily influenced by circadian rhythms. I feel excited to work with the Chiu Lab and have recently started my Ph.D. in Entomology. I will continue working in Dr. Chiu's lab and will investigate metabolic regulation of circadian rhythms.

Mandy Situ, Undergraduate Researcher

I am an undergraduate majoring in genetics and genomics. During my first two years of undergrad, I worked in the Kopp lab under Dr. Ben R. Hopkins where we utilized the Drosophila sex comb to investigate endoreplication and ATP production as mechanisms for producing evolutionary novelty. I then switched over to the Chiu lab, where I will be working under Curtis Carlson to research how Smith-Kingsmore Syndrome affects mitochondrial regulation.

Lab Alumni

Vickie Chung

(UG, 2011-2012)

Diana Teng

(UG, 2011-2012)

UCSF Master's Program in Nursing

Jessica Chan

(UG, 2012-2013)

Counselor at Sacramento Children's Home

Anna Lei

(UG, 2010-2012)

Quality & Compliance Engineering, Penumbra Inc.

Ivy (Yu) Zhong

(UG, 2014-2015)

Health Sector Management at 10X Genomics

Lisa Soyeon Baik

(UG and Junior Specialist, 2012-2014)

Asst. Prof UC Davis

Axelle Weeger

(UG, 2013-2014)

Career in genetics

Jonathan Diehl

(M.S. in BMCDB, 2012-2014)

Academic Advisor at Bellevue College

Kevin Cervantes

(UG, 2014-2015)

Elizabeth Chan

(UG, 2015-2016)

Career in veterinary medicine

Jessica West

(UG, 2013-2016)

PhD Biochemistry Cornell; Postdoc at UCSF

Pedro Gutierrez Tamayo

(UG, 2014-2016)

PhD Neuroscience Columbia; Postdoc at UCSD

Tientien Hsieh

(UG, 2014-2016)

Software Engineer, Poshmark

Ran Bi

(UG, 2015-2016)

Pharmacy degree, CSU

Katherine Freitas

(UG and Research Associate, 2011-2016)

PhD in Immunology, Stanford, Principal Scientist at Kite Pharma

Rosanna Kwok

(Junior Specialist, 2010-2012; PhD, 2012-2016)

Principal Scientist, Assay Development and Technology at Genentech

Helen Capewell

(UG, 2016-2017)

Project Manager, The Clorox Company

Khine Lin

(UG, 2016-2018)

Scientific Data Curator at Stanford

Adam Contreras

(PhD, 2013-2018)

Senior Scientist, Director of Protein Engineering, BioStone Animal Health

Vu Lam

(PhD, 2012-2018)

Ying Li

(PhD, 2013-2018)

Senior Data Engineer at Calico Life Sciences

Derek Wilson

(Junior Specialist, 2016-2018)

MSc Universite Cite Paris

Hoang Nguyen

(UG, 2016-2018)

Associate Scientist at Denali Therapeutics

Thu (Tammy) Pham

(UG, 2016-2018)

Senior Clinical Research Associate at Syneos Health

Jose Del Carmen Li

(High School Research Assistant - Project SEED, Summer 2017 & 2018)

Undergrad at UCLA Class of 2022

Qi Wei

(Visiting Student, CSC Fellowship, October 2017 to February 2019)

Assistant Researcher, State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, China

Michelle Lei

(UG, 2018-2019)

Christopher Ochoa

(UG, 2017-2019)

Ph.D. student at UCLA

Dominik Aylard

(UG, 2017-2020)

Ph.D. UC Berkeley, Postdoc at Gladstone Institutes

Wenqi Song

(UG, 2018-2020)

MSc Stanford, Program Manager at N1 Life

Kory Chan

(UG, 2018-2020), Medical School

Cindy Truong

(UG, 2018-2020)

Megan Fung

(UG, 2020-2021)

Daniel Eweis-LaBolle

(UG, 2019-2021), Ph.D. student at Cornell

Maribel Anguiano

(Junior Specialist, 2020-21), Ph.D. student at Princeton

Antoine Abrieux

(Postdoctoral Fellow 2016-21), Strategic Research Associate, Innovation Institute of Food & Health

Christian Flynn Atallah

(UG, 2019-2022), MSc Drug Development and Product Management at UCSD

Yi (Zita) Gao

(UG, 2020-2022), Ph.D. student at UC Irvine

Kiya Jackson

(UG, 2020-2022), Ph.D. student at UCLA

Ana Armenta Vega

(UG, 2020-2022), NIH IRTA Scholar

Cameron Vasquez

(UG, 2021-2023), Ph.D. student at University of Michigan

Kenna Takamiya

(UG, 2023-2024)

Maeta Phoupraseut

(UG, 2022-2023), EMT-B at NorCal Ambulance

Madison Sandler

(UG, 2022-2024), Junior Specialist at UC Davis

Alexandra Espinosa

(UG, 2022-2023)

Emily Chen

(UG, 2022-2023), M.S. student at Stanford

Kyle Lewald

(PhD, 2018-2023), FAS at Bio-Techne Spatial Multiomics

Hayley Sheehy

(MS, 2021-2023), Research Associate at Astellas Gene Therapies

Xuehan Xu

(MS, 2021-2024), Research Analyst at WuXi AppTec

Gary Chow

(Postdoc Fellow 2020-2023), Scientist at the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of J & J

Summer Calvache

(UG, 2022-2023), School of Veterinary Medicine

Sergio I. Hidalgo Soleto

(Postdoc Follow 2020-2025), Asst. Prof. WSU Pullman

Xian-Hui (Nitrol) Liu

(PhD, 2014-2020; Postdoc Fellow 2020-2024), Assoc. Prof. Soochow University, China

Katherine Avila-Diaz

(UG, 2023-2024)

Shea Erler

(UG, 2023-2024)

Derek Jermanis

(UG, 2023-2025)

Ben Kunimoto

(HS Intern, 2019-2021; UG, 2021-2025), PhD student in Bioengineering at UCSB

Lorenzo Munoz

(UG, 2023-2025)

Nusrat Jahan

(Visiting Scientist, 2024)

Research Assistant at Univ. of Arkansas

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