Studies of reproduction, wildlife, and public health to create healthier animals and humans

Dr. Alex Travis’s research explores a diverse set of subjects related to One Health, which is interdisciplinary work that links the functions and wellbeing of people, animals, and the environment. His interests include animal health and fertility as well as efforts to help alleviate poverty and hunger in developing countries, work that indirectly benefits local wildlife. Dr. Travis serves as Associate Dean of International Programs and Public Health at the College of Veterinary Medicine, and is founding Director of Cornell’s new Master of Public Health Program.

• Male infertility, assisted reproduction. Poor sperm function is a common cause of infertility in animals and humans alike, but there are currently few easy and accurate tests for diagnosing the problems involved. Building on his expertise in sperm biology, Dr. Travis and his team have developed a male fertility test that scores the likelihood that a man’s sperm will be able to successfully fertilize an egg. For humans, this result can help doctors direct a couple seeking to have a child to the assisted reproduction approaches that can serve them best. 
   
• Puppies born by in vitro fertilization help dogs, wildlife. Dr. Travis and his colleagues and students welcomed the first puppies born by in vitro fertilization on July 10, 2015 at the Baker Institute. The births are the first time this assisted reproduction technique, in which ova and sperm are brought together in a test tube to create embryos, has been successfully accomplished in a dog. This advancement could provide new strategies for preventing human and canine genetic diseases. To assist wildlife conservation efforts, the techniques are now being applied to help endangered canid species reproduce in captivity. 
   
• Rapid diagnosis of stroke, other disorders. Minutes count when treating stroke or other brain injuries, but current diagnostics take as long as three hours – during which time patients may be suffering from irreversible brain damage. Copying a molecular design they discovered in the sperm tail, Travis and his colleagues, including Baker Institute Research Scientist Dr. Roy Cohen, have developed a device that can diagnose stroke in less than ten minutes using less than a drop of blood. Having demonstrated proof of principle, Travis and Cohen are now expanding the technology to diagnose other conditions in humans and animals, including traumatic brain injury (concussion), some forms of dementia, and even some types of cancer and heart disease.
   
• Getting sperm tail enzymes to do important work. Sperm are interesting because of their role in reproduction, but the Travis lab is also putting components of the long sperm tail to work for other purposes. Building on their past studies of sperm’s energy-making enzymes, Dr. Travis and his colleagues have mimicked the way these enzymes are organized in the tail, called a “flagellum”, to create enzyme machines powered by sugar. If the work can be enhanced to be a net producer of energy, these molecular engines could enable a number of practical applications in nanobiotechnology. For example, these tiny powerhouses could be integrated into implanted hybrid biological/mechanical medical devices, which would diagnose or treat disease, fueled by the sugars available in a patient's bloodstream. 
   
• Wildlife conservation and fighting poverty and hunger. In developing nations, Dr. Travis and his team focus on landscape-scale, business-based interventions that fight human poverty and hunger. Currently, he is mentoring a student who is designing, implementing, and testing economically and environmentally sustainable interventions to improve rural poultry production. Together with the non-profit business COMACO, Dr. Travis and his student are developing egg layer facilities in remote rural communities in Zambia in an effort to make chicken eggs more available in areas with persistent poverty and hunger. To evaluate whether the program is successful they are measuring the impacts this local egg production might have on the health and nutrition of mothers and children.

University of Pennsylvania:

2000-2002 Research Associate

1999-2000 Post-doctoral Fellow Center for Research on Reproduction and Women’s Health mentor: Stuart B. Moss

1991-1999 Veterinary Medical Scientist Training Program (V.M.D./Ph.D.), NIH training grant #5T32GM07170

Graduate Program in Cell & Molecular Biology: Ph.D. 1999, G.P.A. = 3.92, dissertation title: “Characterization, Targeting, and Functional Analyses of Male Germ Cell-Specific Isoforms of Type I Hexokinase in the Mouse”, dissertation advisor: Gregory S. Kopf
School of Veterinary Medicine: V.M.D. 1995, G.P.A. = 3.89, externships: University of Florida Veterinary School, Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, Glen Rose, TX

Monash University, Australia:

1990 Diploma of Reproductive Science

Mentors: Roger V. Short, F.R.C.V.S., Ph.D., currently Wexler Professorial Fellow, Department of Perinatal Medicine, Royal Women’s Hospital, University of Melbourne and Marilyn B. Renfree, Ph.D., currently Professor of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, and Department Head of Zoology, University of Melbourne

Princeton University:

1985-1989 A.B. major-Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, G.P.A. = 3.59

Cornell University:

1/2015 - present: Associate Dean for International Programs and Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine
                           Director, Master of Public Health training program

1/2017 - present: Collaboration Lead, Environmental Defense Fund, Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future 
                           Collaboration Lead, Smithsonian Institution, Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future

7/2013 - 12/2016: Faculty Director, Environment, Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future

11/2008 - present: Associate Professor of Reproductive Biology & Wildlife Conservation

11/2007 - present: Director of the Cornell Center for Wildlife Conservation                 

12/2002 - 2008: Assistant Professor of Reproductive Biology at the Baker Institute for Animal Health, and the Department of Biomedical Sciences

Links and abstracts for all of Dr. Travis’s publications can be found at PubMed.

1. Cardona, C; Neri, QV; Simpson, AJ; Moody, MA; Ostermeier, GC; Seaman, EK; Paniza, T; Rosenwaks, Z; Palermo, GD; Travis, AJ. (2017). Localization Patterns of the ganglioside GM1 in human sperm are indicative of male fertility and independent of traditional semen measures. Molecular Reproduction and Development, 84(5), 423-35. 

2. Moody, MA; Cardona, C; Simpson, AJ; Smith, TT; Travis, AJ; Ostermeier, GC. (2017). Validation of a laboratory-developed test of human sperm capacitation. Molecular Reproduction and Development, 84(5), 408-22.

3. Mukai, C; Gao, L; Nelson, JL; Lata, JP; Cohen, R; Wu, L; Hinchman, MM; Bergkvist, M; Sherwood, RW; Zhang, S; Travis, AJ. (2017). Biomimicry Promotes the Efficiency of a 10-Step Sequential Enzymatic Reaction on Nanoparticles, Converting Glucose to Lactate. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 56(1), 235-38.

4. Dumas, S E; Lungu, L; Mulambya, N; Daka, W; McDonald, E; Stuebing, E; Lewis, T; Backel, K; Jange, J; Lucio-Martinez, B; Lewis, D; Travis, AJ. (2016) Sustainable smallholder agriculture and poultry interventions to promote food security and social, agricultural and environmental resilience in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia. Food Security, 8(3), 507-20. Abstract.    

5. Mukai, C; Gao, L; Nelson, JL; Lata, JP; Cohen, R; Wu, L; Hinchman, MM; Bergkvist, M; Sherwood, RW; Zhang, S; Travis, AJ. (2016). Biomimicry promotes the efficiency of a 10-step sequential enzymatic reaction on nanoparticles, converting glucose to lactate. Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, 56(1), 235-38. Abstract. 

6. Cohen, R; Lata, JP; Lee, Y; Hernández, JC; Nishimura, N; Schaffer, CB; Mukai, C; Nelson, JL; Brangman, SA; Agrawal, Y; Travis, AJ. (2015). Use of Tethered Enzymes as a Platform Technology for Rapid Analyte Detection. PLOS One, 10(11).

7. Nagashima, JB; Sylvester, SR; Nelson, JL; Cheong, SH; Mukai, C; Lambo, C; Flanders, JA; Meyers-Wallen, VN; Songsasen, N; Travis, AJ. (2015). Live Births from Domestic Dog (Canis familiaris) Embryos Produced by In Vitro Fertilization. PLOS One, 10(12).
 

Research:

• State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities (2012)
• NIH Pioneer Award (2009-2014; no-cost extension through 2015)
• Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine (2006)
• Bayard T. Storey Prize for Excellence in Research, Center for Research on Reproduction and Women’s Health, University of Pennsylvania (2001)

Veterinary:

• Graduated summa cum laude, University of Pennsylvania Leonard Pearson Prize (school's highest honor for student best representing both research and clinical veterinary medicine)
• Pennsylvania Veterinary Foundation--Dr. A. Wayne Mountan Memorial Scholarship
• Phi Zeta honorary society for veterinary research
• Graduate: Isabel Mountain Scholar, Physiology Summer Course, Marine Biological Laboratories, Woods Hole, MA
• United Imaging Corporation Scholarship for post-course research, Physiology Summer Course, MBL, Woods Hole, MA

Collegiate:

• Graduated magna cum laude, Princeton University
• Rotary International Graduate Fellowship (one year of international graduate study)

• American Society for Cell Biology
• Society for the Study of Reproduction American
• Society of Andrology
• American Veterinary Medical Association