Principal Investigator
Barbara Blanco-Ulate (bblanco@ucdavis.edu)
Associate Professor
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 conducted 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
Research Associates & Lab Assistants
Jacob Olaerts
Economics & Biological Sciences
Benjamin Cohen Stillman
Biological Sciences
Visiting Scholars and Interns
Former Members
Undergraduate Assistants
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
Visiting Scholars
Hong Wang, 2024
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, 2017
Postdoctoral Fellows
Baljeet Gill, Ph.D., 2018
Graduate Students
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
High School Interns
Elijah Lerner, 2020
Ozaliqe Williams, 2019