Excitement Builds on the Research Horizon

As I reach the end of my deanship, I see a very bright future for research at this campus, particularly for biological research with the potential to improve human and animal health. The excitement generated by recent developments is palpable in this age of tools, manipulations, and determinations that were previously impossible.

The completion of the sequencing of the human genome is an achievement of the same magnitude as putting a man on the moon. There will be no rest for the sequencers, or their machines. The genome of the mouse will be completed shortly, followed by those of other laboratory animals and, finally, of domestic animals. Our colleagues in agronomy will soon achieve sequencing of the genome for corn, soybeans, and rice.

As information accumulates on the genomes of plants and animals, researchers become dependent on massive computing capacity. This campus will be able to couple expertise in genomics with strength in computer science and information technology.

Our campus plans to capitalize on the biotechnology era by developing a post-genomics institute. We are hoping that, along with a building where DNA from plants, animals, and microbes will be sequenced, compared, and manipulated, the post-genomics institute will include a campus-administered biocontainment building.

The campus biotechnology initiative propels several powerful interdisciplinary research efforts on the horizon for veterinary medicine:

Cattle bred for increased resistance to infectious diseases while retaining production efficiency. At the Dixon Springs Agricultural Center we and colleagues in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences have established a 200-head breeding herd using line-breeding strategies based on the immunological detection of specific genetic loci. We will use molecular techniques and embryo transplantation in the future.

An exploration, with the College of ACES, into the genetic aspects of reproduction. Funds have been approved to hire three researchers in this area, which builds on our strengths in reproductive biology and environmental toxicology.

With the Colleges of ACES, Applied Life Studies, and Medicine, research into aging. We will examine the roles of nutrition and exercise in cognition and in delaying and reversing the aging process. Our faculty in equine medicine and surgery will apply their understanding of the horse as an animal athlete to the study of human health.

With the College of ALS, inquiries into using stem cells to repair central nervous system injuries. Stem cells can home to a site of injury and differentiate to repair a defect. Dogs with spinal disc injuries will provide a meaningful and ethically derived animal model for developing these strategies.

Other areas of collaborative work will focus our current strengths in epidemiology and infectious diseases on problems in food safety and human health. Our researchers will explore whether the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in animals has an impact on the incidence of antibiotic-resistant infections in human hospitals.

My own goals are to return to a faculty role and to contribute to the teaching, service, and research programs of the College. We are currently short of academic pathologists. In past years, I have assisted in the laboratories for first-year, first-semester histology to get to know the students. I look forward to expanding those duties as I rejoin the teaching of our professional students.

I hope to work in both clinical and anatomic pathology, as I have done in the past. A fertile area of work is getting the cytologists and histologists to listen to each other in the interpretation of tumor biology. I have attended many meetings on hematopathology at medical schools and am applying that information to problems in animals. I am also intrigued by the possibility of applying DNA micro-array chip strategies to fingerprint tumors in animals in order to better determine the normal biology of tumor subtypes and the most effective therapy.

In all these years in academia, I've always been too involved with programs and students to have a real sabbatical leave. Once I get back into the trenches, I'm looking forward to some quiet time to catch up on the chapters I've agreed to write and the book I've been planning for years.

The College is poised to grow and succeed, and I'm looking forward to contributing to that progress in another role.