|
|
 Ronald R. Minor, V.M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Pathology . Faculty . Contact Us . | |
 Phone: 607 253 3319 Fax: 607 253 3357 E-mail: rrm1@cornell.edu |
Dr. Ronald R. Minor, Professor of Pathology, joined the College of Veterinary Medicine in 1976. He came to Cornell from the University of Pennsylvania Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, Departments of Anatomy and Pathology. For his Ph.D., Dr. Minor received an NIH fellowship in experimental pathology with Dr. John T. McGrath, and he studied embryonic induction and chondrogenic differentiation of somite mesoderm with Dr. James W. Lash. Subsequently, he received NIH support for the following studies: 1) Synthesis and deposition of basement membrane collagen in collaboration with Drs. Nicholas Kefalides and Charles Clark, 2) Embryonic lung development with Dr. Joel Rosenbloom, and 3) Heritable diseases of collagen in domestic animals with Drs. Donald Patterson, Darwin Prockop and Joyce Wootton. In addition, he has received research support from the USDA, The Harold Wetterberg Foundation, The Harry M. Zweig Foundation and the IAMS Company.
Research Interests We have two major areas of research. The major project is a real-time RT PCR study of the effects of diet on fibroblast and keratinocyte gene expression in dog skin. The second area involves studies of heritable diseases of collagen and other extracellular matrix components in domestic animals. These diseases are homologs of the Ehlers Danlos syndrome (EDS), osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), dentinogenesis imperfecta (DI), and chondrodysplastic dwarfism syndromes. Specifically, we use nucleic acid and protein chemistry to characterize the primary and secondary defects in collagens, and light and electron microscopy to characterize defects in the packing of collagen in fibrils and fibers. In collaboration with Dr. James MacLeod and Bonnie Campbell, we identified and characterized a mutation in both canine type I collagen genes that cause different variants of OI and DI in dogs. In collaboration with Nena Winand and Ann Rashmir we are studying a variant of the EDS in the Quarter Horse. In another small project we conducted microscopic, X-ray diffraction and biochemical studies of collagen in 11,200 year old Columbian mammoth bone and tooth. These tissues were remarkably well preserved, and the results show that mammoth type I collagen is similar to that of modern elephant, horse and human bone. Our goal is to understand the primary and secondary mechanisms underlying structural and functional abnormalities in collagen in both bone and fibrous connective tissues. Selected Publications
|
|
