Congratulations to Sierra Durham and Yu-Ping Huang on graduating with their Ph.D.!

The Barile Lab is excited to announce the graduation of Sierra Durham and Yu-Ping Huang, who both have successfully graduated with a Ph.D. in Food Science!

Sierra joined the Barile lab in 2017 and has spent most of her time working on the exploration and analysis of bioactive oligosaccharides in milk and dairy products originating from bovine milk and other various sources, in their raw forms and after enzymatic or microbial treatment. Sierra applied a variety of liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and capillary electrophoresis techniques for her research.

Among the highlights of her time as a graduate student, Sierra served since 2017 as Vice President and in her final year as President for the Food Science Graduate Student Association at UC Davis where she advocated for the academic, social and professional growth and well-being of Food Science graduate students. Besides her outstanding academic achievements Sierra has devoted many hours of volunteering to the Department of Food Science and Technology, promoting STEM education, being a union advocate and helping those in need.

Yu-Ping joined the Barile lab in 2017 as well. She continuously maintained excellent academic achievements while also making great analytical contributions in the fields of glycomics and peptidomics. The scientific community was lacking the tools to study bioactive peptides in detail. A particular excitement about Yu-Ping’s research are the state-of-the-art mass spectrometry techniques she has optimized to rapidly and effectively characterize those small bioactive peptides. Yu-Pings research uncovered the fragments of proteins resulting from enzymatic hydrolysis and they will soon be considered novel therapeutics.

Besides her many academic achievements and awards Yu-Ping is an amazing mother, wife, colleague and friend. She has served the lab with her incredible repertoire of knowledge while always caring for those around her.

The Barile Lab is very happy that both Yu-ping and Sierra are staying as Postdoctoral Scholars. We are very grateful to work besides these two amazing women and scientists while they continue to make an impact on current food science research.