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Bioinstrumentation and BioMEMS Laboratory

Prof. Cristina Davis

Department of Mechanical Engineering

University of California, Davis

Prof. Cristina Davis

Spotlight box

  • Prof. Davis chairs IEEE Sensors 2007 Platform Session on Sensors for Breath Analysis
  • Prof. Davis co-organizes breath analysis sensor workshop on UC Davis campus

Background and Interests

Dr. Cristina Davis is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at the University of California, Davis. Her main research interests are in chemical and biological sensing applications, use of technology to speed biomarker discovery, novel bioMEMS devices, and bioinformatics interpretation of sensor output.

Education

She earned her B.S. degree (1994) at Duke University with a double major in Mathematics and Biology. She went on to complete her M.S. (1996) and Ph.D. (1999) in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia focusing on ion channel electrophysiology and novel biosensor research. She then worked on silicon-chip based biosensors during a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University, and she continued this work in industry to develop a commercialized version of the technology. She then worked for three years leading chem/bio sensor development work for the defense industry, and has been working on chem/bio sensor topics since 2002.

Research Experience

2001-2002 Senior Scientist, Molecular Devices Corporation (Epalinges, Switzerland)

2001-2002 Visiting Scientist, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Lausanne, Switzerland)

2002-2005 The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory (Cambridge, MA)

2002-2004 Senior Member of the Technical Staff, MEMS Microsystems Group

2004-2005 Group Leader Bioengineering

2004-2005 Principal Member of the Technical Staff

2005- Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, UC Davis (Davis, CA)

2005- Affiliated Faculty Member, Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center (Berkeley, CA)

2007- Participating Guest Researcher, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, CA)

Awards and Honors

1990-1991 William A. Blees Foundation Scholarship, Duke University

1991 National Science Foundation, Summer Research Fellowship

1996-1999 National Institutes of Health, Predoctoral Cardiovascular Training Grant

2000-2001 Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Postdoctoral Fellowship

2007 Selected for the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative: "The Future of Human Healthspan: Demography, Evolution, Medicine and Bioengineering"

2007 Award for Outstanding Service as a Competition Judge, The Siemens Foundation and The College Board (Princeton, NJ)

2008 Invited Visiting Professor, Universidad de Nevarra, Máster Oficial en Ingeniería Biomédica (June-July 2008)