Penn Veterinary Medicine | University of Pennsylvania

Description of Research Expertise

Clinical Genetics, Hematology, Transfusion Medicine, Animal Models of Human Disease

Description of Clinical Expertise

Clinical Genetics, Hematology, and Transfusion Medicine in Companion Animals

Description of Other Expertise

Urs Giger received his veterinary degree from the University of Zürich, Switzerland, where he also pursued his initial clinical training in small animal medicine and surgery and a doctoral thesis on the orthopedic correction of canine hip dysplasia. In 1981, he moved initially as a postdoctoral fellow to the United States, where he subsequently completed a residency in small animal internal medicine at the University of Florida.
He then joined the faculty of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and has been over the years a clinician in the Medicine, Oncology, and Pediatrics/Genetics Service. He is currently the Charlotte Newton Sheppard Professor of Medicine and was the Head of Medical Genetics until 2008. He has a secondary professorship in internal medicine at the University of Zürich as well as a joint professorship in hematology at the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a diplomate of the American and European College of the Veterinary Internal Medicine as well as a diplomate of the European College of Clinical Pathology. He is a clinician in medicine, hematology, pediatrics, and genetics and is heading the Pediatrics and Genetics Clinic, the Metabolic Genetics Laboratory, the Josephine Deubler Genetic Disease Testing Laboratory (PennGen), and the Transfusion Medicine Center at the University of Pennsylvania. His clinical and research expertise and interests are in hereditary and hematologic disorders of small animals (including transfusion medicine) and are reflected in over 150 original research publications as well as many more reviews, chapters, and scientific abstracts. He also coedited the book "The Dog and Its Genome" from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Among others awards, he was the recipient of the 2002 International Scientific Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Small Animal Veterinary Association and the 2007 International Bourgelat Award from the BSAVA and is a frequently invited speakers at national and international conferences.

Selected Publications

Margaritis P, Roy E, Aljamali MN, Downey HD, Giger U, Zhou S, Merricks E, Dillow A, Ezban M, Nichols TC, High KA.: Successful treatment of canine hemophilia by continuous expression of canine FVIIa. Blood 113(16): 3682-9, 2009.

Gerber, K., Harvey, J.W., D’Agorne, S., Wood, J., Urs Giger, U. : Hemolysis, myopathy and cardiac disease associated with hereditary phosphofructokinase deficiency in two whippets. Vet Clin Pathol 38(1): 46-51, 2009.

Becker M, Moritz A, Giger U.: Comparative clinical study of canine and feline total blood cell count results with seven in-clinic and two commercial laboratory hematology analyzers. Vet Clin Pathol 37(4): 373-84, 2008.

Sabina RL, Woodliff JE, Giger U: Disturbed erythrocyte calcium homeostasis and adenine nucleotide dysregulation in canine phosphofructokinase deficiency Comp Clinical Pathol 17: 117–123, 2008.

McCully K, Giger U: Using near infrared spectroscopy coupled to magnetic resonance spectroscopy to evaluate canine muscle oxygen saturation: evaluation and treatment of M-type phosphofructokinase deficiency International textbook of in vivo imaging in vertebrates Page: 265-269, Tavitian, B., A. Leroy-Willig, V. Ntziachristos (eds.). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. London, 2007.

Sewell AC, Haskins ME, Giger U: : Inherited metabolic disease in companion animals: Searching for nature's mistakes. Vet J. 174: 252-9, 2007.

Blais MC. Berman L. Oakley DA. Giger U.: Canine Dal blood type: A red cell antigen lacking in some Dalmatians. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 21(2): 281-6, Mar-Apr 2007.

Pontius JU, Mullikin JC, Smith DR; Agencourt Sequencing Team, Lindblad-Toh K, Gnerre S, Clamp M, Chang J, Stephens R, Neelam B, Volfovsky N, Schäffer AA, Agarwala R, Narfström K, Murphy WJ, Giger U, Roca AL, Antunes A, Menotti-Raymond M, Yuhki N, Pecon-Slattery J, Johnson WE, Bourque G, Tesler G; NISC Comparative Sequencing Program, O'Brien SJ: Initial sequence and comparative analysis of the cat genome Genome Res. 17: 1675-89, 2007.

Fyfe JC, Kurzhals RC, Hawkins MG, Wang P, Yuhki N, Giger U, Van Winkle TJ, Haskins ME, Patterson DF Henthorn PS: A complex rearrangement in GBE1 causes both perinatal hypoglycemic collapse and late-juvenile-onset neuromuscular degeneration in glycogen storage disease type IV of Norwegian forest cats. Molec Gen Metab 90: 383-392, 2007.

Weinstein, Nicole M. Blais, Marie-Claude. Harris, Kimberly. Oakley, Donna A. Aronson, Lillian R. Giger, Urs.: A newly recognized blood group in domestic shorthair cats: the Mik red cell antigen. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 21(2): 287-92, Mar-Apr 2007.

Tcherneva E, Giger U. : Molecular base of coagulation factor XI deficiency in Kerry Blue Terrier. Bulg J Vet Med 10 (4): 247-255, 2007.