VIP Mentors

Faculty mentors in the Veterinary Investigator Program 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 VIP, it is important that prospective applicants give careful consideration to the faculty mentor with whom they wish to work. Below is a list of previous VIP mentors.

Note that you are not limited to the list of mentors below, but can select any mentor at the College of Veterinary Medicine. More information about our faculty and the research they conduct can be found here: Research Specialties
When you submit your VIP application, you will need to identify three (3) prospective faculty mentors with whom you wish to work. This does not guarantee the student will be matched with a faculty member they choose.
If you have any specific questions, the Program Director, Dr. Robert Weiss, can assist you in identifying faculty with interests compatible with yours.

Previous VIP Mentors

	Faculty Member Department Affiliation	Research Interests
	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
	Craig Altier Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences	Molecular basis of Salmonella pathogenesis; the genetic and environmental control of epithelial cell invasion
	Hector Aguilar-Carreno Microbiology & Immunology	Viral entry such as receptor binding, fusion triggering, hemifusion, fusion pore formation, and syncytia formation on cells and on virions; viral egress, immune responses and vaccine development, antivirals
	Douglas Antczak Baker Institute for Animal Health & Dept. Microbiology & Immunology	Pregnancy immunology; immunogenetics; equine immunology
	Avery August Microbiology & Immunology	Regulation of T-cell activation, development and function; T-cell differentiation; mast cell function and eosinophil function
	Erica Behling-Kelly Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences	Lipoproteins as markers and modulators of disease in domestic species, vascular biology, hemostasis and thrombosis, molecular determinants of aggressive biological behavior in neoplastic cells.
	Adam Boyko Biomedical Sciences	Genomic investigation of dogs as a model of genetic disease and evolutionary genetics
	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
	Margaret Bynoe Microbiology & Immunology	Cellular and molecular medicine; infectious diseases; molecular basis of antigen-induced immune suppression; modulation of innate immune system response in immunity against cancer
	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 Molecular Medicine	Signal transduction growth factor receptors; protein structure; drug design and chemical biology; signaling cues that direct cell proliferation, differentiation and development
	Jonathan Cheetham Clinical Sciences	Regenerative medicine; peripheral nerve injury and repair; laryngeal function
	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
	Scott Coonrod Baker Institute for Animal Health & Dept. Biomedical Sciences	Reproductive physiology; molecular and cellular physiology; epigenetic reprogramming during the egg-to-embryo transition; mechanisms by which specific histone modifications are dynamically regulated during hormone-dependent gene transcription in breast cancer cells
	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 Baker Institute for Animal Health & Dept. of Biomedical Sciences	Medical genetics and genomics and cancer biology research
	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.
	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 Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences	Planetary Health/One Health, fisheries, livelihoods, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, environmental change
	Joseph Fetcho Neurobiology & Behavior	Control of movements by the hindbrain and spinal cord
	Martin Gilbert Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences	Health-related research that has direct relevance to the conservation of wildlife, particularly carnivores and scavengers
	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
	Yrjo Grohn Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences	Veterinary epidemiology; production medicine; public health; epidemiological and economic methods; risk analysis, communications, and policy
	Kelly Hume Clinical Sciences	Cancer biology; veterinary oncology; clinical oncology; molecular oncology; DNA damage; chemosensitivity and novel therapeutics
	Heather Huson Animal Science	Improving overall dairy cattle performance; Criollo cattle ancestry and trait improvement; African goat improvement project
	Renata Ivanek Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences	Epidemiology and ecology of infectious and foodborne diseases; mathematical modeling; spatial epidemiology; risk assessment; public health
	Ursula Krotscheck Clinical Sciences	Elbow dysplasia pathophysiology and treatment modalities; Cranial cruciate disease treatment modalities; Forceplate gait analysis, specifically for evidence-based medicine, joint and lameness evaluation
	Natasza Kurpios Molecular Medicine	Tissue morphogenesis; cell shape and architecture; organ development; gut morphogenesis; mammary gland biology; breast cancer
	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 Biomedical Sciences	Axon guidance; neurodevelopment; epilepsy; autism; genomics
	John Loftus Clinical Sciences	General research interests include immunology and nutritionally responsive diseases; current research projects include investigation of vitamin D in dogs with immune-mediated disease and metabolomic investigation of hepatocutaneous syndrome
	Sabine Mann Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences	Metabolic diseases and insulin signaling; nutrition; epidemiology; metabolic and nutritional immunology
	Jessica McArt Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences	Epidemiology of periparturient diseases in dairy cattle; disease economics; on-farm methods for accurate disease diagnosis
	Angela McCleary-Wheeler Clinical Sciences	Companion animal models of cancer; hedgehog signaling; epigenetics; novel therapeutics
	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 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 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 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
	Colin Parrish Baker Institute for Animal Health & Dept. Microbiology & Immunology	Evolutionary, structural, and functional studies of the determinants of virus host range
	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
	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 Microbiology & Immunology	Developmental immunology; host response to infection
	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
	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 Microbiology & Immunology	Host-pathogen interactions, bacterial toxins, Salmonella Typhi, bacterial pathogenesis
	Michael Stanhope Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences	Primarily concerned with the application of molecular evolutionary biology principles and techniques to issues of epidemiology, comparative genomics, and population genomics within various groups of bacterial pathogens
	Tracy Stokol Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences	The role of tissue factor (coagulation factor III) in hemostasis (particularly thrombotic disorders) and cancer metastasis
	Rory Todhunter Clinical Sciences	Canine hip dysplasia; genetic linkage analysis; osteoarthritis
	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
	Gerlinde Van de Walle Baker Institute for Animal Health & Dept. Microbiology & Immunology	Focused on finding drugs suitable for eliminating mammary cancer and ocular herpevirus infections in small companion animals, and evaluating the effectiveness of stem cell therapies for treating skin wounds in horses – all of which may also be used in humans and other animals
	Bettina Wagner Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences	Immune responses and protective mechanisms in neonates and young foals
	Joe Wakshlag Clinical Sciences	Obesity management and nutritional intervention for the canine athlete
	Robert Weiss Biomedical Sciences	Genome maintenance mechanisms and metabolic pathways in cancer and other diseases
	Andrew White Biomedical Sciences	Cancer biology; stem cell biology; biochemistry and cell biology
	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

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VIP Mentors

Previous VIP Mentors