Lillian Aronson, VMD, edited the new textbook
Small Animal Surgical Emergencies, published by Wiley-Blackwell last December. Four years in the making,
Small Animal Surgical Emergencies is a practical reference to soft-tissue and orthopedic emergencies commonly encountered in small animal practice.
Darryl Biery, DVM, Emeritus Professor of Radiology, received the prestigious ACVR Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 ACVR Annual Scientific Meeting in Minneapolis. This award is given to members of the American College of Veterinary Radiology who have made an outstanding contribution in the form of service, teaching, or research to the College and represents the ACVR’s highest honor.
Ashley Boyle, DVM, spoke at the 2015 Northeast Association of Equine Practitioners Symposium last September in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her talks included Update on Strangles and Managing Outbreaks; Strangles – Unusual Cases and Effective Treatments; and Diagnosis and Treatment of the Sick Foal on the Farm. She published the following: Duffee LR, Stefanovski D, Boston RC, Boyle AG. Predictor Variables for Streptococcus equi subs equi Diagnosis and Complications in Horses: 108 cases (2005-2012), JAVMA. 2015 Nov 15;247(10): 1161-8.
Allison Bradbury, PhD, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the lab of Charles Vite, DVM, PhD, was selected to receive the WORLDSymposium Young Investigator Award for 2016. The award is a partial scholarship towards attendance at WORLDSymposium 2016, and recipients are recognized at the closing banquet and award ceremony.
Dorothy Cimino Brown, DVM, gave a presentation last June entitled Spontaneous Animal Models: Unsung Heroes in Bone Cancer Pain at the 2015 American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Forum in Indianapolis. In September, she gave three presentations entitled Targeted Neurotoxins for Chronic Pain Relief; Chronic Pain Assessment; and Designing, Mentoring, and Reporting Clinical Research Projects at the 21st International Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society Symposium in Washington, D.C. Also in September, Brown was part of an expert panel that discussed Bridging the Gaps between Pain Research and Osteoarthritis Research at the International Workshop on Osteoarthritis Pain at theNobel Forum, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Last October, she discussed Clinical research design, interpretation, and biostatistics for the practicing specialty veterinarian in the Resident’s Review Workshop at the Veterinary Cancer Society Annual Conference in Vienna, Virginia.
Stephen Cole, VMD, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Clinical and Molecular Microbiology, published two case studies (co-author: Shelley Rankin, PhD) under the AAVMC/APTR One Health Interprofessional Education Working Group. The first was entitled Care of immunocompromised individuals: the role of companion animals in mental health. The second, Lead Poisoning: From the Backyard to the Community, was co-authored by Peter Rabinowitz, MD, MPH, of the University of Washington. In recognition of this accomplishment, Cole was named an AAVMC One Health Scholar and received two $1,000 stipends. He also presented his work Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Species in Companion Animals from across the United States at the annual American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians meeting; Rankin was co-author.
Emily Daignault-Salvaggio, Medicine Secretary at New Bolton Center, and her horse Gin Joint won the Field Hunter division in the 2015 TCA Thoroughbred Makeover event last October at Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. The event is presented by the Retired Racehorse Project, which aims to facilitate the placement of retired Thoroughbred racehorses in second careers.
Jamie DeFazio, VTS-EVN, CVT, lectured at the 104th annual Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association Meeting/42nd Mid-America Veterinary Conference last September in Louisville, Kentucky. DeFazio’s topics were IV catheter placement and maintenance, disseminated intravascular dissemination, and neonatal nursing.
Raimon Duran-Struuck, DVM, PhD, presented on Treatment approaches and clinical parameters predictive of CMV disease and resolution in immunodeficient cynomolgus macaques– a clinically relevant large animal model at the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, last November. He published the following manuscript: Privileged to work with animals. Duran-Struuck R. Lab Anim (NY). 2015 Oct 20;44(11):453. He also published: Miniature Swine as a Clinically Relevant Model of Graft-Versus- Host Disease. Duran-Struuck R et al. Comp Med. 2015;65(5):429- 43. In addition, he published: Effect of Irradiation on Incidence of Post-Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disorder after Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in Miniature Swine. Duran-Struuck R. et al Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2015 Oct;21(10):1732-8. doi: 10.1016/j.bbmt.2015.07.017. He published the following book chapter: “Biology and Diseases of Swine” by Kristi Helke, Paula Ezell, Raimon Duran-Struuck and Michael M Swindle. Biology In: Laboratory Animal Medicine. Third Edition. Academic Press. Elsevier. 2015. In addition, he published the following book chapter: “Xenotransplantation and Transgenic Technologies” by Raimon Duran-Struuck and Bram V. Lutton. In Swine in the Laboratory. Third Edition. CRC Press, 2015.
Amy Durham, VMD, received the American College of Veterinary Pathologists’ Presidential Award last October at the American College of Veterinary Pathologists/American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology/Society of Toxicologic Pathology Combined Annual Meeting in Minneapolis.
Robert Greenberg, PhD, published the following: Song, J., Liu, C., Bais, S., Mauk, M.G., Bau, H.H., Greenberg, R.M. (2015) Molecular detection of schistosome infections with a disposable microfluidic cassette. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 9, e0004318. He also published: Bais, S., Churgin, M.A., Fang-Yen, C., Greenberg, R.M. (2015) Evidence for novel pharmacological sensitivities of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels in Schistosoma mansoni. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 9, e0004295.
Ronald Harty, PhD, was an invited seminar speaker lastSeptember at Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend. His seminar was entitled Ebola Virus: Can We Nip it in the Bud? Along with Bruce Freedman, VMD, PhD, he was the co-corresponding author on the following publication: Han, Z., Madara, J.J., Herbert, A., Prugar, L.I., Ruthel, G., Lu, J., Liu, Y., Liu, W., Liu, X., Wrobel, J.E., Reitz, A.B., Dye, J.M., Harty, R.N., and Freedman, B.D. 2015. Calcium Regulation of Hemorrhagic Fever Virus Budding: Mechanistic Implications for Host-Oriented Therapeutic Intervention. PLoS Pathogens 11(10): e1005220.
Mark Haskins VMD, PhD, lectured on Where we have been, where we are, and where we are going (including large animal models) at The Glycoproteinoses: Fourth International Conference on Advances in Pathogenesis and Therapy in St. Louis, Missouri. He also delivered a lecture on Where we were, where we are, and where we are going in treating lysosomal storage diseases in the Department of Translational Medicine at The University of Naples Federico II in Naples, Italy. In addition, he received an International Society for Mannosidosis and Related Diseases Award for “a lifetime of service and knowledge of lysosomal storage diseases.”
Jessica Johnston, DVM, is a third-year laboratory animal medicine resident in the University Laboratory Animal Resources department at Penn Vet. Last November, at the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science National Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, her poster entitled Validation of a Cage-side Glycosylated Hemoglobin Test (HbA1C) for Cynomolgus Macaques (Macaca fascicularis) won first place in the laboratory investigations category.
Meryl Littman, VMD, was a member of the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Task Force for Lyme Disease and Related Tick-Borne Diseases. She spoke for nine hours at the New York State Spring Veterinary Conference in Rye Brook, New York, last May on Protein-losing Nephropathy (PLN), Leptospirosis, and Tickborne Diseases (Lyme Disease, Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Bartonellosis, Cytauxzoonosis, Ehrlichiosis, Mycoplasmosis, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever). She also spoke at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) 33rd Annual Medical Forum in Indianapolis last June on the Lyme Update Panel; at the Theriogenology Conference in San Antonio, Texas, last August on Tickborne and Other Stealth Pathogen Reproductive Concerns, and Genetic Counseling for Inherited Kidney and Urinary Tract Diseases; and at the ECVIM - Companion Animals Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, last September on Genetic PLN: Genetic Testing in Combination with Blood Pressure Measurement, and Investigation of Dogs with Suspected Glomerular Disease: What is the Current State-of-the- Art?
Carolina Lopez, PhD, published the following, which was featured by Penn News: Sun Y, Jain D, Koziol-White CJ, Genoyer E, Gilbert M, Tapia K, Panettieri RA, Hodinka RL, and López CB. (2015). Immunostimulatory Defective Viral Genomes Promote Strong Innate Antiviral Responses During Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection in Mice and Humans. PLOS Pathog 11(9): e1005122. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1005122. PMID: 26336095 PMCID: PMC4559413. She also published: Xu J, Mercado-López X, Grier J, Kim W, Chun L, Irvine EB, Del Toro Y, Kell A, Hur S, Gale M, Raj A, and López CB. (2015). Identification of a Natural Viral RNA Motif that Facilitates Viral Recognition by RIG-I-Like Receptors. mBio 6(5):e01265-15. doi:10.1128/mBio.01265-15.
Kathryn Michel, DVM, was awarded a Master’s of Science in Education degree (MSEd) by the Penn Graduate School of Education last summer.
Lisa Murphy, VMD, was invited to join TriState Bird Rescue as the veterinarian seat on their Board of Directors, effective January 2016.
Cynthia Otto, DVM, PhD, was featured on Going Deep with David Rees on the Esquire Network.
Virginia Reef, DVM, received the American Association of Equine Practitioners 2015 Distinguished Educator – Academic Award, which honors an individual who has demonstrated a significant impact on the development and training of equine practitioners. She was recognized last December during the President’s Luncheon at the AAEP’s 61st Annual Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. Reef completed her internship and residency in large animal medicine in 1982 at Penn Vet, where she has served on the faculty ever since.
Alexander Reiter, Dr med vet, Dipl. Tzt., gave invited presentations and laboratories in dentistry and oral surgery at the SCIVAC International Congress in Rimini, Italy, last May; the European Congress of Veterinary Dentistry in Ghent, Belgium, last June; the Veterinary Dental Continuing Education Center at Accesia in Halmstad, Sweden, also in June; the North American Veterinary Conference in Orlando, Florida, in July; the Annual Meeting of Small Animal Practitioners in Salzburg, Austria, in September; the Swedish Veterinary Dental Society in Stockholm, Sweden, in October; and the Annual Veterinary Dental Forum in Monterey, California, in November. He published the following: Jennings MW, Lewis JR, Soltero-Rivera MM, Brown DC, Reiter AM. Effect of tooth extraction on stomatitis in cats: 95 cases (2000-2013). Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 2015; 246: 654-660. He also published: Soltero-Rivera M, Engiles JB, Reiter AM, Reetz J, Lewis JR, Sánchez MD. Benign and malignant proliferative fibro-osseous lesions of the oral cavity in dogs. Veterinary Pathology 2015; 52: 894-902. In addition, he published: Fink L, Reiter AM. Assessment of 68 prosthodontic crowns in 41 pet and working dogs (2000-2012). Journal of Veterinary Dentistry 2015; 32: 148-154.
Dieter Schifferli, PhD, Dr med vet, published the following: Yue M, Han X, De Masi L, Zhu C, Ma X, Zhang J, Wu R, Schmieder R, Kaushik RS, Fraser GP, Zhao S, McDermott PF, Weill FX, Mainil JG, Arze C, Fricke WF, Edwards RA, Brisson D, Zhang NR, Rankin SC, Schifferli DM. 2015. Allelic variation contributes to bacterial host specificity. Nat Commun doi: 10.1038/ncomms9754. He also published: Zhu C, Yue M, Rankin S, Weill FX, Frey J, Schifferli DM. 2015. One-step identification of five prominent chicken Salmonella serovars and biotypes. J Clin Microbiol doi:10.1128/JCM.01976-15. In addition, he published: Matthews TD, Schmieder R, Silva GG, Busch J, Cassman N, Dutilh BE, Green D, Matlock B, Heffernan B, Olsen GJ, Farris Hanna L, Schifferli DM, Maloy S, Dinsdale EA, Edwards RA. 2015. Genomic Comparison of the Closely-Related Salmonella enterica Serovars Enteritidis, Dublin and Gallinarum. PLoS One 10:e0126883.
Deborah Silverstein, DVM, was elected as Vice President of the American College of Veterinary Emergency and CriticalCare. She is also the Scientific Program Committee Chair.
BJ Turek, VMD, a third-year resident working with the Penn Vet Diagnostic Lab Team, won the CL Davis Scholarship Award at the American College of Veterinary Pathologists/ American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology/Society of Toxicologic Pathology Combined Annual Meeting last October in Minneapolis.
Obituaries
Kathleen Lundy Dunn passed away peacefully in Austin, Texas, on October 9, 2015. Kathleen was a psychiatric social worker at Penn Vet and helped countless clients get through difficult times. The grief support group she founded was recognized as the first of its kind in a university veterinary teaching hospital and provided emotional support for clients of Ryan Hospital as well as clients of other veterinarians. She also brought her beloved dogs to cheer patients at Ronald McDonald House and area cancer centers.
Joseph James McGrane, Jr., passed away peacefully on November 22, 2015, at his residence in Palmyra, New Jersey, surrounded by his family. Born in Philadelphia, Joe had just celebrated his 70th birthday. Joe was employed for 52 years as a lab technician in the Department of Pathobiology at Ryan Hospital. Memorial contributions may be made to
Esophageal Cancer Awareness, P.O. Box 55071 #15530, Boston, MA 02205.
When I Think of Joe, an Encomium, by Richard (Mo Rich) Aucamp
Such an informed, precise, and sustaining presence throughout my vet school journey beginning 45 years ago. So very many the thoughts taught and serviceable ways of doing, even unto being. Not a man readily given to sentiment, but strong and sure and steadfast to the end. Yes, that's Joe. Miss him every day here.
Grants
Gary Althouse, DVM, PhD, received a one-year, $10,253 grant from Merck Animal Health for the ReproPig Continuing Education Course.
Tracy Bale, PhD, received a $1,731,398 NIH/NIMH grant for Paternal Stress epigenetic programming of offspring neurodevelopment (R01). The grant spans from August 1, 2015, to May 31, 2020.
Daniel Beiting, PhD, received a two-year, $200,000 grant from the Margaret Q. Landenberger Research Foundation for The role of the microbiome in treatment and remission of inflammatory bowel disease. The grant spans from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2017.
Ashley Boyle, DVM, received a one-year, $15,000 Annual Advancement in Equine Research Award from Boehringer Ingelheim for Validation of a point of care self-heating, microfluidic cartridge for isothermal nucleic acid amplification of Streptococcus equi subsp equi. Project collaborators include Penn Vet’s Shelley Rankin, PhD, and Haim Bau, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics in Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Allison Bradbury, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the lab of Charles Vite, DVM, PhD, received a grant of $216,000 (direct) from The Legacy of Angels Foundation for Lentiviral-mediated Hematopoietic Stem Cell Gene Therapy for Canine Globoid Cell Leukodystrophy. The grant spans from 2015 to 2018. She also received an F32 grant from NIH for $142,796, also spanning from 2015 to 2018.
Dorothy Cimino Brown, DVM, received a one-year, $318,669 grant from Regeneus Ltd. The study, which commenced last November, will assess pain and dysfunction in 80 clientowned dogs with osteoarthritis. Dogs will be treated with CryoShot Canine, a proprietary “off-the-shelf” allogeneic stem cell therapy, via intra-articular injection, or a control, and will be assessed by validated questionnaires and forceplate analysis. The results of the trial will be used to finalize the design of a pivotal U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) trial.
Zhengxia Dou, PhD, received a one-year, $44,930 grant from the University Research Foundation for Household food waste composition and recovery assessment.
David Galligan, VMD, MBA, and faculty in the Center for Animal Health and Productivity received a three-year, $339,750 China Research and Engagement Fund grant from the Office of the Provost. The grant is for the project Improving the productive and health efficiency of the Chinese Dairy Industry. The project will focus on developing an integrated training program for upper level dairy managers over a three-year period of time with three specific focus areas: (Year 1) Nutritional Production Efficiency; (Year 2) Reproductive Efficiency; (Year 3) Animal Health and Milk Quality. Each focus area will be addressed by a three-day training seminar at the Wharton China Center in Beijing, covering key production indices for upper management. Additionally, a five-day training program will be provided each year at New Bolton Center. Project collaborators include James Ferguson, VMD, and Zhengxia Dou, PhD.
Karina Guziewicz, PhD, received a two-year, $959,074 grant from the Foundation Fighting Blindness for Leading the collaboration as PD/PI AAV-mediated therapy for Best Vitelliform Macular Dystrophy.
David Holt, BVSc, received the $30,000 Mari Lowe Pilot Award for Near-Infrared Imaging of Spontaneous Canine Tumors Accurately Delineates Tumor Margins and Detects Lymph Node Metastases. The award spans from July 1, 2015, through May 31, 2016.
Christopher Hunter, PhD, received a $1,125,000 NIH/NIAID grant for Immunopathogenesis of Toxoplasmic encephalitis (R01). The grant spans from September 2, 2015, to February 29, 2020.
Leszek Kubin, PhD, Research Professor of Physiology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, was awarded a four-year research grant by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, for $1,000,000 total direct cost. Beginning May 1, 2015, the award will support another four years of the research program entitled Premotor Control of Upper Airway and REM Sleep Atonia that Kubin initiated in the department 23 years ago. This segment of the project will use transgenic rodent models and the technique of optogenetics to selectively stimulate the neurons in the brain that produce the neuromodulator norepinephrine. The goal is to determine whether activation of these neurons can help maintain the airway open during sleep. As such, the study will explore whether activation of norepinephrine-containing neurons can ameliorate sleep-disordered breathing in patients with the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.
Christopher Lengner, PhD, received the $30,000 Mari Lowe Pilot Award for Identifying markers for the prospective isolation of quiescent stem cells. The award spans from July 1, 2015, through May 31, 2016.
Carolina Lopez, PhD, received a two-year NIH R21 AI109472 grant to study innate immune response to influenza virus infection. The grant is for $250,000 total direct cost.
Michael May, PhD, received a $269,501 NIH/NHLBI grant for Targeting NF-kB in Athersocierosis (R56). The grant spans from September 15, 2015, to August 31, 2016.
Cynthia Otto, DVM, PhD, received a $11,340 grant from AKC-CHF to fund the 15th year of monitoring the health and behavior of the search and rescue dogs that responded to 9/11. There are two surviving responders and one control. The grant spans from December 1, 2015, through November 30, 2016.
Alexander Reiter, Dr med vet, Dipl. Tzt., received a $9,000 grant from the Center for Human Appearance (CHA) for Craniofacial disfigurement from a One Health perspective. The grant spans from 2015-2016, and project collaborators include Maria Soltero-Rivera, DVM, and Diana Sweeney, parent liaison in the Division of Plastic Surgery at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Deborah Silverstein, DVM, received a $5,000 grant from Frankie’s Friends for Comparison of Two Methods of Blood Sampling and Two Anesthetics on Extended Database Values. The grant spans from August 1, 2015, to July 31, 2017.
Regina Turner, VMD, PhD, received a one-year, $84,000 grant from Irvine Scientific for Evaluation & Optimization of Media for In Vitro Maturationi (IVM) of Mammalian Oocytes and Culture Media for Embryos. She is collaborating with Victor Absalón-Medina, Director of New Bolton Center’s Large Animal Gamete & Embryo Manipulation Laboratory.
Charles Vite, DVM, PhD, received a two-year, $100,000 grant from the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation to study Postsymptomatic cyclodextrin therapy. He also received a five-year, $791,300 grant from Biomarin for Intrathecal recombinant GALC administration to treat canine Krabbe disease. Additionally, he received a one-year, $38,013 grant from Biomarin for a 26-week or longer Intracerebroventricular (ICV) Infusion Study of BMN 250 Administered Biweekly in a Canine Model of Mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIB (MPS IIIB).
Student News
Sarah Colmer, V’17, was selected as one of five inaugural recipients of a $5,000 scholarship through the Merck Animal Health/American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) Foundation scholarship program. The scholarships were presented on December 7 during the Frank J. Milne State-of- the-Art Lecture at the AAEP’s 61st Annual Convention in Las Vegas. The Merck Animal Health/AAEP Foundation scholarship program rewards second- and third-year veterinary students dedicated to equine medicine for their academic excellence, leadership in their school and AAEP student chapter, and their long-term goals. Colmer has worked in the Laminitis Lab and also did an NIH-Merial summer research fellowship with Hannah Galantino-Homer, VMD, PhD. Additionally, Colmer is the recipient of a 2015-2016 New Jersey Veterinary Foundation Education Grant ($1,000).
Ashley Klein, V’16, won the Society of Toxicologic Pathology Student Poster Award for The Effect of PI3K Gamma KD and PI3K Delta KD on Intestinal Lesions in Mice with DSS-Induced Colitis, along with A. Guy, J. Vegas, F. Schoetens, J. E. McDuffie, W. Fung-Leung, T. Rao, B. Zimmerman, and C. Lou.
Matthew Lanza, V’17, and Ayla Musciano, V’16, along with Amy Durham, VMD, and Richard Dubielzig, DVM, won the American College of Veterinary Pathologists (ACVP) Veterinary Student Poster Award (Clinical Case Report/Series) for Clinical and Pathological Classification of Canine Intraocular Lymphoma at the 2015 ACVP/ASVCP/STP Combined Annual Meeting last October in Minneapolis.
Meghana Pendurthi, V’17, was elected to the position of SAVMA Secretary-elect at the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Convention 2015 in Boston. She has represented Penn Vet for the past two years at national Student AVMA (SAVMA) meetings, and she will spend the next two years on the Executive Board, representing the student body as a whole. She will be following in the footsteps of Ilana Yablonovich, V’16, who is the current SAVMA Secretary.