The last several years have yielded results from several large randomized controlled trials that evaluated the efficacy and safety of chemoprophylaxis for prevention of HIV-1 acquisition. These trials have evaluated administration of tenofovir-based antiretroviral preparations either orally or vaginally, and informed the U.S. FDA’s approval of tenofovir-emtricitabine for HIV-1 pre-exposure...

The rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, (formerly Magnaporthe grisea), causes a serious disease of rice worldwide. The blast fungus leads a hemi-biotrophic lifestyle, which means that it initially invades living plant cells. However, cellular and molecular details of its biotrophic invasion strategy were not known. We are applying fungal molecular genetics, gene expression profiling, live-cell...

Learning how antibodies are drafted and revised Antibodies must recognize a great diversity of antigens to protect us from infectious disease. The binding properties of antibodies are determined by the sequences of their corresponding B cell receptors (BCRs). These BCR sequences are created in "draft" form by VDJ recombination, which randomly selects and deletes from the ends of V, D, and J...

David Mills is a Professor in the Departments of Food Science & Technology at the University of California at Davis. Dr. Mills studies the molecular biology and ecology of bacteria that play an active role in gut health or fermented foods and beverages. In the last 20 years Dr. Mills has mentored over 30 graduate students and postdocs and published more than 100 papers, including seminal work on...