The Department of Molecular Biosciences serves as the academic home for all nutritional, physiological chemistry, and pharmacologic and toxicologic programs of the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis.
The goal of the Department of Molecular Biosciences is to study fundamental biological processes and their perturbations by mutations, nutrition, drugs and xenobiotics and the application of these to the improvement of animal and human health. Eukaryotic systems will be investigated at the level of gene expression, in subcellular, cellular, tissue, organ and whole animal systems to elucidate the pathobiological mechanisms of diseases of multifactorial origin.
Individuals in the department play major roles in programs in Animal Nutrition and Environmental Toxicology and participate in a number of graduate groups such as Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Genetics, Microbiology, Neurosciences, Nutrition, and Pharmacology and Toxicology.
The department contributes substantially to school and campus initiatives in Genomics/ Proteomics, Environmental Health, Human Health and Alternative Medicine. The department also interacts with toxicologists at the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System and provides expertise for the Equine Analytical Program of the State of California. The department also has responsibility for the Clinical Pharmacology, Clinical Toxicology, and Clinical Nutrition Programs, including the Nutrition Consulting Service at the VMTH.
