Leadership
Ilias Tagkopoulos
Professor of Computer Science and the Genome Center, UC Davis
Director and Principal Investigator
Ilias is a Computer Science Professor at UC Davis, leading the Integrative Biology and Predictive Analytics lab. He also serves as the Director AIFS, the USDA-NIFA/NSF Artificial Intelligence Institute for Next Generation Food Systems.
With experience in advising and founding companies, particularly in AI for Life Sciences, his focus lies in data integration, modeling, experimental design, and decision-making under uncertainty, with practical applications in clinical and nutrition data.
Recognized for his contributions, he received the NSF CAREER award in 2013. Ilias holds a Master of Science degree from Columbia University (2003) and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University (2008).
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AIFS Publications
Journal Article ⏐ Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 2022Journal Article ⏐ Comput. Electron. Agric. 2022Special Report: AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems (AIFS)
Tagkopoulos, Ilias,Steve Brown,Xin Liu,Qing Zhao,Tarek I Zohdi,Mason Earles,Nitin Nitin,Daniel Runcie,Danielle G Lemay,Aaron Smith,Pamela Ronald,Hao Feng,and Gabriel YoutseyDOI: 10.1016/j.compag.2022.106819
Journal Article ⏐ Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 2026Journal Article ⏐ Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 2026Birds of a Feather: Environmental Insights From a Review of Global Broiler Chicken Production
DOI: 10.3389/fsufs.2026.1641029
Journal Article ⏐ Nature Communications 2022Journal Article ⏐ Nat. Commun. 2022Knowledge Integration and Decision Support for Accelerated Discovery of Antibiotic Resistance Genes
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29993-z
Workshop Article ⏐ AI + Food Systems Data to Enhance Human and Planetary Health Workshop 2024Workshop Article ⏐ AI for Food and Health Workshop 2024White Paper: Artificial Intelligence for Food and Health
Journal Article ⏐ Clinical Nutrition 2021Journal Article ⏐ Clin. Nutr. 2021Methane and Fatty Acid Metabolism Pathways Are Predictive of Low-FODMAP Diet Efficacy for Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Eetemadi, Ameen,and Ilias TagkopoulosDOI: 10.1016/j.clnu.2020.12.041
Journal Article ⏐ Current Research in Food Science 2026Journal Article ⏐ Curr. Res. Food Sci. 2026Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Information Estimates Breed and Variety Composition Ratio in Food
Tan, Cheng-En,and Ilias TagkopoulosDOI: 10.1016/j.crfs.2026.101312
Journal Article ⏐ Scientific Reports 2022Journal Article ⏐ Sci. Rep. 2022An Early Prediction Model for Canine Chronic Kidney Disease Based on Routine Clinical Laboratory Tests
Kokkinos, Yiannis,JoAnn Morrison,Richard Bradley,Theodoros Panagiotakos,Jennifer Ogeer,Dennis Chew,Ciaran O'Flynn,Geert D Meyer,Philip Watson,and Ilias TagkopoulosDOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-18793-6
Journal Article ⏐ Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal 2022Journal Article ⏐ Comput. Struct. Biotechnol. J. 2022A Computational Algorithm to Assess the Physiochemical Determinants of T Cell Receptor Dissociation Kinetics
DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2022.06.048
Journal Article ⏐ Food Research International 2026Journal Article ⏐ Food Res. Int. 2026Artificial Intelligence for Plant-based Meat Alternatives: Pathways to a Sustainable Future
Aghagholizadeh, Roya,Mohammad Tarahi,Pranav Gupta,Manisha Singh,Ilias Tagkopoulos,and Mina DokouhakiDOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2026.119563
Journal Article ⏐ Foods 2020Journal Article ⏐ Foods 2020Preliminary Techno-Economic Assessment of Animal Cell-Based Meat
Risner, Derrick,Fangzhou Li,Jason S Fell,Sara A Pace,Justin Siegel,Ilias Tagkopoulos,and Edward S SpangDOI: 10.3390/foods10010003
Preprint ⏐ AIFS White Paper 2025Preprint ⏐ AIFS White Paper 2025The Future of Food: How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Food Manufacturing
DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2511.15728
Journal Article ⏐ Computers in Biology and Medicine 2024Journal Article ⏐ Comput. Biol. Med. 2024FoodAtlas: Automated Knowledge Extraction of Food and Chemicals From Literature
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2024.109072
Journal Article ⏐ Nature Communications 2026Journal Article ⏐ Nat. Commun. 2026Discovery of Potent Low-toxicity Antimicrobial Peptides Through Diffusion Modeling
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75030-8- Journal Article ⏐ Current Research in Food Science 2026Journal Article ⏐ Curr. Res. Food Sci. 2026
Predicting Food Taste with Bound-driven Optimization
DOI: 10.1016/j.crfs.2026.101533 
Journal Article ⏐ Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 2022Journal Article ⏐ JAMIA 2022Algorithmic Lifestyle Optimization
Eetemadi, Ameen,and Ilias TagkopoulosDOI: 10.1093/jamia/ocac186
Journal Article ⏐ npj Science of Food 2026Journal Article ⏐ npj Sci. Food. 2026AI-driven Prediction of Consumer Liking of Coffee From Sensory Data
DOI: 10.1038/s41538-026-00779-7
Journal Article ⏐ Nature Food 2026Journal Article ⏐ Nature Food 2026Artificial Intelligence for Food Innovation
Datta, Bianca, Markus Buehler, Yvonne Chow,Kristina Gligorić, Dan Jurafsky, David L Kaplan, Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro,Giorgia D Missier,Lisa Neidhardt,Karim Pichara,Benjamin Sanchez-Lengeling, Miek Schlangen,Skyler Pierre,Ilias Tagkopoulos,Anna Thomas,Nik Watson,and Ellen KuhlDOI: 10.1038/s43016-026-01380-7
Journal Article ⏐ Communications of the ACM 2025Journal Article ⏐ Commun. ACM 2025Advancing AI in Agriculture Through Large-Scale Collaborative Research
Adve, Vikram,Steve Brown,Alan Fern,Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, Ananth Kalyanaraman,Shashi Shekhar,Ilias Tagkopoulos,and Jessica WedowDOI: 10.1145/3760437
Journal Article ⏐ International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2022Journal Article ⏐ Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022Understanding the Formation and Mechanism of Anticipatory Responses in Escherichia Coli
DOI: 10.3390/ijms23115985
Journal Article ⏐ Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence 2020Journal Article ⏐ Front. Artif. Intell. 2020Using Word Embeddings to Learn a Better Food Ontology
DOI: 10.3389/frai.2020.584784
Journal Article ⏐ PLOS Digital Health 2026Journal Article ⏐ PLOS Digit. Health 2026Translating Dietary Standards Into Healthy Meals with Few-ingredient Substitutions
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0001367- Journal Article ⏐ npj Science of Food 2026Journal Article ⏐ npj Sci. Food 2026
A Unified Knowledge Graph Linking Foodomics to Chemical-disease Networks and Flavor Profiles
Li, Fangzhou,Jason Youn,Kaichi Xie,Trevor Chan,Pranav Gupta,Arielle Yoo,Michael Gunning,Keer Ni,and Ilias TagkopoulosDOI: 10.1038/s41538-025-00680-9 
Journal Article ⏐ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2022Journal Article ⏐ J. Agric. Food Chem. 2022Chardonnay Marc As a New Model for Upcycled Co-products in the Food Industry: Concentration of Diverse Natural Products Chemistry for Consumer Health and Sensory Benefits
Holt, Roberta R,Daniela Barile,Selina C Wang,John P Munafo,Torey Arvik,Xueqi Li,Fanny Lee,Carl L Keen,Ilias Tagkopoulos,and Harold H SchmitzDOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.2c04519