First Director of Penn Vet's Neuroscience Program Named
Dean Joan Hendricks appointed Dr. Tracy Bale, assistant professor of neuroscience in the Department of Animal Biology, as the first director of Penn Vet’s neuroscience program. Along with infectious disease, comparative oncology and regenerative medicine, neuroscience is one of Penn Vet’s four translational research focus areas.
2008 Fuller Albright Award
Dr. Kurt D. Hankenson was awarded the Fuller Albright Award by the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). Dr. Hankenson, assistant professor of cell biology, is the first veterinarian to receive this highly prestigious award, given in recognition of meritorious scientific accomplishment in the bone and mineral field to an ASBMR member who has not turned 41 by July of the award year. The ASBMR is an organization with more than 4,000 members and is considered one of the the world's premier organizations devoted to musculoskeletal research.
 Public Relations Office Recognized by the Awards for Publication Excellence
Penn Vet's Office of Public Relations just received two high accolades from Awards for Publication Excellence, an annual competition for writers, editors, publications staff and business and nonprofit communicators. The first is their highest award—a Grand Award, in Design & Illustration—for the school's Admission Brochure 2007–09. Of the almost 4,500 international entries in various categories, only 120 received Grand Awards. The second is an Award of Excellence for Most Improved Magazine or Journal, for Bellwether, the school's newsmagazine, which recently underwent a design and content overhaul.
Grant Awarded
Dr. James Serpell, director, Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society, will be conducting a new study made possible by the Morris Animal Foundation through the generosity of Maddie's Fund, the Pet Rescue Foundation. >>More
Two Penn Vet Students Awarded Research Grants by Howard Hughes Medical Institute
For the first time, veterinary students—two of whom are from Penn Vet—have been award grants to conduct biomedical research full time for a year as part of a $4-million initiative by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Traditionally, only medical and dental students were eligible for the award. Michelle Samuel, V’09, and Abigail Shearin, V’10, were among 110 students from across the country selected to participate in the HHMI-NIH Research Scholars Program, which brings top student-scientists to the National Institutes of Health campus to participate in hands-on biomedical research. Students in this program are also known as Cloister Scholars because they live in apartments and dormitory-style rooms at a refurbished cloister on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda, Md., during their training. They visit several NIH labs before choosing the research project they will pursue with an NIH mentor.
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Peter J. Bruns, HHMI’s vice president for grants and special programs, explained why veterinary students were included this year. “We are acknowledging the biological and scientific relationship between animals and humans,” he said. “Veterinarians play an important role in the future of biomedical research.”
Veterinary students bring a unique approach to biomedical research that complements that of physician-scientists, said Chand Khanna, a veterinarian and pediatric cancer researcher at the National Cancer Institute. “Veterinary students receive training across species and training that embraces diversity in biology,” said Dr. Khanna, who is one of few veterinarians working in the NIH. “This results in students who are comfortable moving not only between different species but between different models and different questions.”
Recent Staff Awards
Dr. Louise Southwood Parente
Dr. Louise Southwood Parente received the Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence at the annual faculty research retreat on June 13, 2008.
Dr. Laura Javsicas is the recipient of the 2008 American Association of Veterinary Clinicians Resident Award.
Drs. Sarah L. Teegarden and Tracy L. Bale were awarded the 2008 Ziskind-Somerfeld Research Award given for the top science paper of the year. The paper, “Decreases in Dietary Preference Produce Increased Emotionality and Risk for Dietary Relapse,” demonstrated that stress contributes to increased consumption of food high in fat and carbohydrates and could possibly increase the risk of obesity.
Dr. David Artis was selected as a 2008 Investigator in the Pathogeneisis of Infectious Disease Award by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. He was one of only 14 awardees from a pool of 152. The selection was based on his proposal's scientific excellence and innovation, the strength of the scholarly environment at Penn Vet, and his accomplishments as an independent researcher.
A new award program to recognize innovation, creativity and leadership in the veterinary profession.
2008 Lindback Award Winner
Dr. Michael Atchison is professor of biochemistry and director of Penn Vet's VMD-PhD Program. He received his PhD in cellular and molecular biology from New York University and his BS from SUNY-Albany. He has overseen the revitalization of the longstanding VMD-PhD program, one of the only such programs in the country, and has greatly increased the participation of students in the NIH/Merck Summer Research Program for Veterinary Students. His students and colleagues call attention to his willingness to give students one-on-one attention connected to both academic success and personal well-being. One student writes, “It seems that his office door is always open and he can be found meeting with students who need his help.” Another student notes, “He not only teaches the material well, he presents the material in a way that is memorable.”
2008 Penn Vet Teaching Awards
The 2008 Penn Vet Teaching Awards recipients can be viewed on-line at the University of Pennsylvania Almanac Web site.
2007 ACVS Veterinary Symposium
Charles W. Raker, V'42, diplomate ACVS, was selected by the ACVS Foundation Board of Trustees to receive the esteemed ACVS Foundation Legends Award. The ACVS Foundation Legends Award recognizes ACVS diplomates who have developed a surgical or diagnostic procedure of significant value, proven by becoming the treatment or test of choice for a given condition.
ACVS established the Outstanding Surgical Resident Awards competition to encourage the development of clinically important research and the dissemination of the results of these investigations, particularly those conducted by surgical residents.
Dr. Evita Busschers, third-year surgery resident at New Bolton Center, won first place for a poster presentation and received the Resident Poster Presentation Award presented by the ACVS. The title of her poster was “The Effect of Glucocorticoids and Interleukin 1-ß on the Expression and Activity of ADAMTS4 and ADAMTS5 in Equine Chondrocytes” by Drs. Busschers, Jeff Holt and Dean Richardson.
Dr. Liberty Getman, lecturer in large animal surgery at New Bolton Center, received second place in the research category of the ACVS Resident’s Forum for the presentation of a scientific abstract. The title of her abstract was “A Descriptive Comparison of the Arthroscopic Anatomy and MRI Contrast Arthrography of the Equine Palmar Lateral Out-Pouching of the Middle Carpal Joint.”