Leadership and Advisory Committee

Center Leadership

K.C. Lloyd, DVM, Ph.D. is a Surgery School of Medicine Professor and Director of the UC Davis Mouse Biology Program.  As Principal Investigator/Project Director, Dr. Lloyd is responsible for planning, directing, and implementing all MMRRC at UC Davis activities. He participates in and responds to decisions of the CC and leads the MMRRC at UC Davis management team.

Kristin Grimsrud, DVM, Ph.D., is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine. Dr. Grimsrud serves as co-investigator and deputy project director of the MMRRC at UC Davis and has academic training in comparative pathology. Dr. Grimsrud ensures vivarium services meet Consortium guidelines. She oversees the animal health status and reporting for imported and distributed lines and is the alternate representative of the MMRRC at UC Davis to the CC.

Internal Scientific Advisors

Denise Imai-Leonard, DVM, Ph.D., Diplomate ACVP, is the Director of the Comparative Pathology Laboratory (CPL) in the School of Veterinary Medicine and co-coordinator of the Laboratory Animal Pathology Residency and Fellowship at UC Davis. As an expert on infectious diseases of mice, Dr. Imai-Leonard advises the MMRRC-UCD on diagnostic support elements, infectious disease surveillance, and issues related to mouse dysmorphologies.

Suma Shankar, MD, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at UC Davis School of Medicine.  Dr. Shankar is a practicing clinical specialist in genomics and a board-certified ophthalmologist seeing patients and conducting translational and clinical genetics research. Dr. Shankar is leading efforts in precision medicine at UC Davis and works with the MMRRC-UCD to determine the pathogenicity of variants of unknown significance by modeling patient variation in the mouse.  She advises the MMRRC on the human clinical relevance of mouse phenotypes and on implementing the “Fast Track Genome Editing” service.

Abhijit Chaudhari, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Radiology and Director of the Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging (CMGI) in the School of Engineering at UC Davis.  Dr. Chaudhari researches anatomical imaging at the submillimeter resolution, novel imaging approaches registration and rendering of images from different modalities for comparative analysis, and non-invasive imaging technology.  Dr. Chaudhari advises on issues related to phenotyping mice in which micro-imaging modalities and other unique expertise on campus can add scientific value to users of the MMRRC-UCD.

David Segal, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine in the School of Medicine at UC Davis.  Dr. Segal’s research focuses on engineering zinc fingers, TALEs, CRISPR/Cas nucleases, and transcription factors. Dr. Segal advises the MMRRC-UCD on genetic management and induced genetic manipulation of mice.

Andrew Fell, Ph.D., is a science writer and public relations expert working for the UC Davis News Service, covering the “Research News” beat on campus.  Andy’s background in biological and physical sciences and engineering make him particularly savvy in translating technical details and information into attractive copy for marketing and outreach. Andy advises the MMRRC-UCD on public relations and marketing strategies. 

William Tucker, Ph.D., MBA, is the Executive Director of Innovation Access at UC Davis and an expert on patent law and intellectual property.  Dr. Tucker advises the MMRRC-UCD and the MMRRC National Consortium on intellectual property, technology transfer, and commercial and for-profit distribution of mouse lines.