Professor, Department of Animal Science
Dr. Medrano’s research focuses on applications of genomics and systems biology approaches to study genetic variation of complex traits. He currently leads the U.C. Davis project developing the first genome reference sequence of Coffea arabica to set the foundation of a coffee breeding program. He has also been a collaborator in the development of the new improved bovine genome assembly that will become available in 2017. Another area of work has focused in the genetics of milk composition, studying the health and nutritional properties of cow and human milk, and application of genetic markers to improve manufacturing properties of milk.
Director of research at the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center and Associate Director of the UC Davis Plant Breeding Center
Dr. Allen Van Deynze is the Director of Research at the Seed Biotechnology Center and Associate Director of the Plant Breeding Center at University of California, Davis. He has a Ph.D in plant breeding from University of Guelph, Canada. As part of the SBC’s mission to serve as a liaison between public institutions and seed industry, Allen is responsible for developing, coordinating and conducting research and generating and disseminating scientific and informational content for the Seed Biotechnology Center’s and Plant Breeding Center’s educational and outreach programs. His research focuses on developing and integrating genomics into plant breeding of California crops. He has programs on breeding for disease resistance and quality in pepper and spinach, and development and application of genomics in crops. With Dr. Kent Bradford he co-developed and is organizer for the Plant Breeding Academysm and past chair of the US Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee. He has been involved in International and National policy including US Regulations for Biotechnology. He is an instructor for the African Plant Breeding Academy and scientific co-leader for the African Orphan Crops Consortium.
Associate Professor and Systems Biologist, Department of Viticulture & Enology
Dr. Cantu’ research group uses systems biology, comparative genomics and quantitative genetics to understand how plants interact with their environment and with pathogenic and beneficial microorganisms. Current objectives of Dr. Cantu’s research include the development of (i) immunization protocols for protecting plants from bacterial diseases, (ii) early detection tools for fungal diseases, (iii) new plant genotypes with durable genetic resistance to fugal diseases, and (iv) methods to mitigate the negative impact of disease or sub-optimal environmental conditions on crop yield and quality.
Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Department of Plant Sciences. Currentl:Computational Biologist (USDA-ARS) & Assistant Professor (North Carolina State University)
Amanda Hulse-Kemp recently became a member of the USDA-ARS Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Unit and is a computational biologist located at North Carolina State University where she focuses on implementing computational tools for intelligently improving breeding programs. While a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Dr. Allen Van Deynze’s lab she focused on bioinformatics, resource development and integration of genomics and biotechnology tools for enhancing breeding of vegetables and other crops, including spinach, coffee, tomato and pepper. She continues to collaborate on the coffee genome sequencing project and to study the diversity of coffee varieties.