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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 PhotoFaculty Member
Department Affiliation
Research Interests
Headshot of 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
Headshot of Craig Altier

Craig Altier

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

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

Avery August

Microbiology & Immunology

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

Adam Boyko

Biological Sciences

Canine genomics, including understanding the mechanisms and consequences of inbreeding, drift, and adaptation in populations undergoing natural and artificial selection
Sarah Caddy (left) with her black and white dog (right)

Sarah Caddy

Microbiology and Immunology

Viruses, Immunology, Canine, Antibodies
Headshot of Casey Cazer

Casey Cazer

Clinical Sciences 

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

Aimee Colbath

Clinical Sciences

Therapeutic interventions for musculoskeletal disease including osteoarthritis, fracture repair and tendon/ligament disease
Headshot of Kevin Cummings

Kevin Cummings

Public & Ecosystem Health

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

Charles Danko

Baker Institute for Animal Health & Dept. of Biomedical Sciences

Medical genetics and genomics and cancer biology research
Headshot of Arunika Das

Arunika Das

Biomedical Sciences

Genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of chromosome inheritance and aging during meiosis and early development
Headshot of Mandi de Mestre

Mandi de Mestre

Biomedical Sciences

Molecular mechanisms at maternal-fetal interface, genetics of miscarriage, immunobiology placentation
Headshot of Diego Diel

Diego Diel

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Molecular mechanisms underlying virus-host interactions, focusing on the mechanisms underlying viral immune evasion that contribute to virus virulence and disease pathogenesis
Headshot of 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
Headshot of Jacquelyn Evans

Jacquelyn Evans

Biomedical Sciences

Hereditary diseases in dogs to identify genetic variants contributing to disease development
Headshot of Julia 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
Headshot of Kathryn Fiorella

Kathryn Fiorella

Public & Ecosystem Health

Planetary Health/One Health, fisheries, livelihoods, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, environmental change
Headshot of Andrew Flyak

Andrew Flyak

Microbiology and Immunology

Antibody response to viral pathogens, vaccine development
Headshot of Deborah Fowell

Deborah Fowell

Microbiology and Immunology

Regulation of T cell function in inflammatory and infectious disease
Headshot of Amandine Gamble

Amandine Gamble 

Public & Ecosystem Health

Ecological drivers of pathogen dynamics, wildlife epidemiology, pathogen dynamics at the wildlife-human interface, quantitative ecology 
Headshot of Laura Goodman

Laura Goodman

Public & Ecosystem Health

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
Headshot of Brandon Hedrick

Brandon Hedrick

Biomedical Sciences

Functional morphology of a wide variety of vertebrate groups, including sensory, musculoskeletal, and reproductive systems, using micro-computed tomographic imaging, contrast-enhanced imaging (e.g., diceCT), evolutionary and biogeographical modeling, and geometric morphometrics
Headshot of Gunther Hollopeter

Gunther Hollopeter

Molecular Medicine

Cell biology, identifying additional mediators of endocytosis and determining their function at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels, with long-term goal to understand how the endocytic machinery influences the form and function of multicellular systems, and structural biology
Headshot 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
Headshot of Mason Jager

Mason Jager

Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences

Viral pathogenesis, hepatopathology, viral discovery, hepatitis
Headshot of Toshi Kawate

Toshi Kawate

Molecular Medicine

Membrane proteins, Chronic pain, Cell biology, Biochemistry, Biophysics
Headshot of Natasza Kurpios

Natasza Kurpios

Molecular Medicine

Tissue morphogenesis; cell shape and architecture; organ development; gut morphogenesis; mammary gland biology; breast cancer
Headshot of Colleen Lau

Colleen Lau

Microbiology & Immunology

Immune memory, natural killer cells, cytokine signaling, epigenetics
Headshot of Dave Lin

Dave Lin

Biomedical Sciences

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

Sabine Mann

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

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

Jessica McArt

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Epidemiology of periparturient diseases in dairy cattle; disease economics; on-farm methods for accurate disease diagnosis
Headshot of Mandy McGeachy

Mandy McGeachy

Microbiology and Immunology

Th17 cell regulation and functions during infection and autoimmune disease
Headshot of Andrew Miller

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
Headshot of Raina Plowright

Raina Plowright

Public and Ecosystem Health

Transmission of pathogens between species, links between land-use change and pathogen spillover, dynamics and drivers of viral pathogens in reservoir host populations, and Implementation of science for the protection of ecosystem and human health
Headshot of Brian Rudd

Brian Rudd

Microbiology & Immunology

Developmental immunology; host response to infection
Headshot of Richa Sardana

Richa Sardana

Molecular Medicine

Protein quality control, membrane trafficking
Headshot of Praveen Sethupathy

Praveen Sethupathy

Biomedical Sciences

Functional genomics; gene regulation; molecular genetics; gastrointestinal physiology; stem cell biology; metabolic disease
Headshot of Carolyn Sevier

Carolyn Sevier

Molecular Medicine

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

Glenn Simmons

Biomedical Sciences

Cancer Biology, role of lipids in the regulation of inflammatory and other immunological processes in tumor microenvironment, in vitro tumor models for testing various therapeutic approaches in non-small cell lung carcinoma
Headshot of Kenneth Simpson

Kenneth Simpson

Clinical Sciences

Gastrointestinal and pancreatic physiology and pathophysiology across species, interactions between the enteric microenvironment (microbial, dietary, and chemical) and the GI tract in health and disease (inflammation and IBD), and the application of culture-independent methods to detect bacteria in clinical samples
Headshot of Tracy Stokol

Tracy Stokol

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

The role of tissue factor (coagulation factor III) in hemostasis (particularly thrombotic disorders) and cancer metastasis
Headshot of 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
Headshot of Brian VanderVen

Brian VanderVen

Microbiology and Immunology

Mycobacterial diseases, understanding how M. tuberculosis acquires and utilizes nutrients during acute and chronic phases of disease and applying this understanding to discover new anti-TB drugs, using chemical-genetics, genomics, and biochemical approaches to discover and characterize the novel M. tuberculosis proteins and pathways required during infection. 
Headshot of Bettina Wagner

Bettina Wagner

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Immunity/host; antibody mediated immune mechanisms in infectious disease and vaccination; allergic diseases; neonatal tolerance and allergy predisposition; strategies to develop allergy treatments
Headshot of Robert Weiss

Robert Weiss

Biomedical Sciences

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

Andrew White

Biomedical Sciences

Cancer biology; stem cell biology; biochemistry and cell biology
Headshot of 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
Headshot of Matthias Wieland

Matthias Wieland

Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences

Udder health, calf management