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VILP Mentors

Faculty mentors in the Veterinary Investigation & Leadership Program (VILP) represent a wide range of research areas and come from a number of departments within the College and the University.  As an intense summer research experience is the cornerstone of the VILP, it is important that prospective applicants give careful consideration to the faculty mentor with whom they wish to work.  Below is a partial list of previous VILP mentors, featuring only those who are currently active faculty members.

 Faculty Member
Department Affiliation
Research Interests
Carrie Adler

Carrie Adler

Molecular Medicine

Molecular and cellular mechanisms driving organ regeneration; how stem cells produce differentiated cells that coalesce to form functional organs, in an animal where regeneration proceeds without inhibition
Altier

Craig Altier

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Molecular basis of Salmonella pathogenesis; the genetic and environmental control of epithelial cell invasion
Avery August

Avery August

Microbiology & Immunology

Regulation of T-cell activation, development and function; T-cell differentiation; mast cell function and eosinophil function
Adam Boyko

Adam Boyko

Biomedical Sciences

Genomic investigation of dogs as a model of genetic disease and evolutionary genetics
Faculty member

Elizabeth Bunting

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Improving release survival in captive reared endangered salamanders, investigating the potential impact of a newly discovered retrovirus on wild turkeys, reducing mortality from heavy metals and rodenticides in raptors, or developing new diagnostic tools for identifying pathogens in amphibians
Casey Cazer

Casey Cazer

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Epidemiology of zoonotic diseases, evidence-based medicine, and One-Health; developing methods to improve antimicrobial resistance surveillance and track multidrug resistance
Richard Cerione

Richard Cerione

Molecular Medicine

Signal transduction growth factor receptors; protein structure; drug design and chemical biology; signaling cues that direct cell proliferation, differentiation and development
Paula Cohen

Paula Cohen

Biomedical Sciences

Etiology of spontaneous birth defects in mammals; mechanisms of meiotic recombination; DNA repair proteins in meiosis and recombination; germ cell development; ovarian development
Kevin Cummings

Kevin Cummings

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences 

Application of epidemiologic approaches to investigate the ecology and transmission of Salmonella and other foodborne pathogens among a wide variety of hosts
Charles Danko

Charles Danko

Baker Institute for Animal Health & Dept. of Biomedical Sciences

Medical genetics and genomics and cancer biology research
Michelle Delco

Michelle Delco

Clinical Sciences

Investigating how joint injury leads to arthritis in horses and humans by looking at mitochondria, the energy-producing centers of the cell, as a link between cartilage trauma and osteoarthritis.
Diel de Amorim


Mariana Diel de Amorim

Clinical Sciences

Equine theriogenology; equine maternal recognition of pregnancy; equine endometritis
Anushka Dongre

Anushka Dongre

Biomedical Sciences

understanding mechanisms that can potentiate the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade therapy in the context of poorly responding tumors
Felippe

Julia Felippe

Clinical Sciences

Cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in B cell response; neonatal immunology and response to vaccination; immunomodulation using biologic response modifiers; cancer immunotherapy; characterization of primary and secondary immunodeficiencies
Kathryn Fiorella

Kathryn Fiorella

Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences

 

Planetary Health/One Health, fisheries, livelihoods, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, environmental change
Martin Gilbert

Martin Gilbert

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Health-related research that has direct relevance to the conservation of wildlife, particularly carnivores and scavengers
Laura Goodman

Laura Goodman

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Pathogen discovery and surveillance, with focus areas on tick-borne disease and antimicrobial resistance; exploring the underlying mechanisms of infectious disease emergence and identifying biomarkers to detect and prevent emerging threats to humans and animals
Kelly Hume

Kelly Hume

Clinical Sciences

Cancer biology; veterinary oncology; clinical oncology; molecular oncology; DNA damage; chemosensitivity and novel therapeutics
Pic of Renata Ivanek Miojevic

Renata Ivanek

Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences

Epidemiology and ecology of infectious and foodborne diseases; mathematical modeling; spatial epidemiology; risk assessment; public health
Natasza Kurpios

Natasza Kurpios

Molecular Medicine

Tissue morphogenesis; cell shape and architecture; organ development; gut morphogenesis; mammary gland biology; breast cancer
Dr. Cynthia Leifer

Cynthia Leifer

Microbiology & Immunology

Understanding innate immunity from the receptors that detect microbes to how innate immune cells react to changes in their environment during inflammatory processes
Dave Lin

Dave Lin

Biomedical Sciences

Axon guidance; neurodevelopment; epilepsy; autism; genomics
Sabine Mann

Sabine Mann

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Metabolic diseases and insulin signaling; nutrition; epidemiology; metabolic and nutritional immunology
Jessica McArt

Jessica McArt

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Epidemiology of periparturient diseases in dairy cattle; disease economics; on-farm methods for accurate disease diagnosis
Andrew Miller, DVM, DACVP

Andrew Miller

Biomedical Sciences

Studying the mechanisms underlying neurologic disease in animals utilizing both spontaneously arising disease and experimental models in a variety of laboratory animal species
Alexander Nikitin

Alexander Nikitin

Biomedical Sciences

Stem cells and cancer; pathogenesis of ovarian and prostate cancers; modeling of human disease in genetically modified mice and human organoids
Daryl Nydam

Daryl Nydam

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Population & clinical studies; epidemiology of food security/safety issues related to dairy production medicine; study of economically important infectious diseases, particularly zoonoses, subclinical diseases of perapaturient cattle and reproductive efficacy
John Parker

John Parker

Baker Institute for Animal Health & Dept. Microbiology & Immunology

Virology; Feline Calicivirus; mammalian orthoreoviruses; virus-host interactions; effect of viral infection on host cell translation; use of viruses for treatment of cancer; virus entry; broadly neutralizing antibodies; innate immune response to viruses
Parrish

Colin Parrish

Baker Institute for Animal Health & Dept. Microbiology & Immunology

Evolutionary, structural, and functional studies of the determinants of virus host range
Ned Place

Ned Place

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Mammalian physiology and behavior, with a focus on the life history trade-offs associated with the timing of hormone secretion, reproductive effort, and aging
picture of Dr. Heidi L. Reesink

Heidi Reesink

Clinical Sciences

Unravel basic mechanisms underlying the development of orthopedic disease and to pioneer innovative therapies for the treatment of joint injury and arthritis in equine and human athletes
Brian Rudd

Brian Rudd

Microbiology & Immunology

Developmental immunology; host response to infection
Schaffer

Chris Schaffer

Biomedical Engineering

Advanced optical techniques used to observe and manipulate in vivo biological systems with the goal of developing microscopic scale understanding of normal and disease-state physiological processes
Schang

Luis Schang

Baker Institute for Animal Health,

Microbiology & Immunology

Role of cellular protein, lipids, and glycans play in viral infection
Schimenti

John Schimenti

Biomedical Sciences

Genetics of reproduction and germ cell development; cancer genetics; meiosis; DNA repair; genome manipulation in mice; functional genomics
Praveen Sethupathy

Praveen Sethupathy

Biomedical Sciences

Functional genomics; gene regulation; molecular genetics; gastrointestinal physiology; stem cell biology; metabolic disease

Carolyn Sevier

Molecular Medicine

 

Signaling of cellular oxidative stress; molecular mechanisms used by cellular pathways that sense and signal redox imbalances within the cell 
Jeongmin Song

Jeongmin Song

Microbiology & Immunology

Host-pathogen interactions, bacterial toxins, Salmonella Typhi, bacterial pathogenesis
Tracy Stokol

Tracy Stokol

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

The role of tissue factor (coagulation factor III) in hemostasis (particularly thrombotic disorders) and cancer metastasis
Rory Todhunter

Rory Todhunter

Clinical Sciences

Canine hip dysplasia; genetic linkage analysis; osteoarthritis
Alexander J. Travis, VMD, Ph.D.

Alexander Travis

Baker Institute for Animal Health & Dept. Biomedical Sciences

Animal health and fertility as well as efforts to help alleviate poverty and hunger in developing countries, work that indirectly benefits local wildlife
Bettina Wagner

Bettina Wagner

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Immune responses and protective mechanisms in neonates and young foals
picture of Joseph J. Wakshlag

Joe Wakshlag

Clinical Sciences

Obesity management and nutritional intervention for the canine athlete
Robert Weiss

Robert Weiss

Biomedical Sciences

Genome maintenance mechanisms and metabolic
pathways in cancer and other diseases
Andrew White

Andrew White

Biomedical Sciences

Cancer biology; stem cell biology; biochemistry and cell biology
Gary Whittaker

Gary Whittaker

Microbiology & Immunology

Pathogenesis of influenza viruses, corona viruses and arena viruses; host range and receptors; activation of membrane fusion; macrophage- and neurotropism; anti-viral therapeutics; diagnostic tests; virus-bacteria co-infections