Principal Investigator
Barbara Blanco-Ulate
Associate Professor
[email protected] | Google Scholar
Bárbara is a faculty in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis. She is originally from Costa Rica, where she graduated with a BS in Biotechnology Engineering. She obtained a PhD in Plant Biology from UC Davis, studying the susceptibility of tomato fruit to fungal diseases, and did her postdoctoral research in the Department of Viticulture and Enology, focusing on ripening and pathogen infections of grape berries. Since joining the faculty in 2016, she has established a program focused on fruit biology and quality. Her current research integrates physiological, genomic, and biochemical approaches to study fruit development and fruit-pathogen interactions with the goal of improving the quality, nutrition, and shelf-life of fruit products. She is also the Co-Director of the UC Postharvest Research and Extension Center.
Graduate Students & Staff
Chris Preston Rubio
PhD Student
Horticulture and Agronomy
Yiduo Wei
PhD Student
Horticulture and Agronomy
Tianyue Wang
PhD Student
Horticulture and Agronomy
Mad Lalica
PhD Student
Plant Biology
Carlos Carachure
PhD Student
Plant Pathology
Alexis McQueary
MSc Plan II Student
Horticulture and Agronomy
Staff & Visiting Scholars
Elia Gutierrez Baeza
Assistant Specialist
Daniela Molina
Visiting Scholar
Undergrad Assistants & Volunteers
Bella Dachille
Viktoria Dubinin
Sheung Ho Lam
Giovanni Nepomuceno
Katherine Nguyen
Khine Zin Zin Thet
Postharvest Research and Extension Center Staff and Interns
Adrian Sbodio
Staff Research Associate
Brandon Moon
Undergrad Assistant
Zaina Alnahlawi
Undergrad Assistant
Former Members
Graduate Students
Elia Gutierrez Baeza, M.Sc., 2023-2025
Isabel Ortega-Salazar, Ph.D., 2019-2024
Saskia Mesquida Pesci, Ph.D., 2019-2024
Jaclyn A. Adaskaveg, Ph.D, 2018-2023
Christian J. Silva., Ph.D
Stefan Petrasch, Ph.D., 2017-2020
Fangyi Wang, M.Sc., 2019-2020
Sofia Guerrero Moreno, M.Sc., 2019
Postdoctoral Fellows
Baljeet Gill, Ph.D., 2018
Visiting Scholars
Giulio Giannini, Italy, 2025-2026
Anna Villalba Gimeno, Spain, 2025
Elisa Nassur, Brazil, 2024-2025
Hong Wang, Ph.D., China, 2024
Valeria Imperiale, Italy, 2024
Simone Piancatelli, Italy, 2023 & 2019
Thomas Bruno Michelon, Brazil, 2022-2023
Patricio Gutierrez, Chile, 2023
Lara O'Shea-Farren, England, 2022
Silvia Rodriguez Pires, 2019
Maria Lopez de la Calle, 2019
Simone Piancatelli, 2019
Caio Cattai de Andrade, 2019
Marta Balsells Llauradó, 2019
Francisco Javier Fernández-Acero, Ph.D., 2019
Victor Papin, 2017-2018
Casper van den Abeele, 2017
Duoduo Wang, Ph.D., China, 2017
High School Interns
Elijah Lerner, 2020
Ozaliqe Williams, 2019
Undergraduate Assistants
Annie Willett, 2024-2025
Yuyang (Ivy) Lin, 2024-2025
Amara Romero, 2024-2025
Tommy Ngo, 2024-2025
Allison Carloni, 2024 - 2025
Chunzheng (Chaz) Fang, 2024-2025
Dylan Chiang, 2024
Bryan Arreola, 2023-2024
Deysi Álvaro Cejas, 2023-2024
Christian Labasan, 2023-2024
Adam Adaskaveg 2022-2023
Daphne Crum, 2021-2023
Nancy Yip, 2021-2023
Shruthi Somasundaram, 2021-2022
Samantha Tay, 2021-2022
Dilasha Shenaz, 2021-2023
Benjamin Cohen Stillman, 2020-2021
Jacob Olaerts, 2020-2021
Peng Huang, 2020-2021
Justin T. Le, 2019-2020
Aaron Lee, 2019-2020
Dustin Williams, 2019-2020
Curtis Yam, 2019-2020
Anima Sharma, 2019-2020
Nancy Her, 2018-2020
Sean Garay, 2019
Sarah Ream, 2018-2019
Brittany Tam, 2018-2019
Karina Gallegos, 2017-2019
Botao Tao, 2018
Emily Lam, 2018
Jasmine Ortega, 2018
Derek Kawahara, 2017-2018
Prachi Jha, 2017-2018