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
	Craig Altier Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences	Molecular basis of Salmonella pathogenesis; the genetic and environmental control of epithelial cell invasion
	Doug Antczak Baker Institute for Animal Health	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
	Rick Cerione Molecular Medicine	Signal transduction growth factor receptors; protein structure; drug design and chemical biology; signaling cues that direct cell proliferation, differentiation and development
	Jon 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
	Bethany Cummings Biomedical Sciences	Use of mouse modeling, molecular biology, biochemistry and genomics approaches to understand the molecular underpinnings of cardiometabolic and gastrointestinal disease
	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
	Lisa Fortier Clinical Sciences	Osteoarthritis and the link between insulin-like growth factor-I and the small G-proteins, Cdc42, Rac, and Rho
	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
	Katie Kelly Biomedical Sciences	Pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease; effects of inflammation on cardiac function; comparative pathology
	Michael Kotlikoff Biomedical Sciences	Muscle biology; mouse genetics; molecular imaging; ion channels; physiological genomics; cellular signaling; genetic cell sensors; conditional gene targeting
	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
	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
	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
	Kristy Richards Biomedical Sciences	Immuno-oncology, monoclonal antibodies, genetic mechanisms of resistance, personalized medicine, comparative oncogenomics, novel therapeutic development
	Mark Roberson Biomedical Sciences	Regulation of pituitary-specific gene expression by gonadotropin-releasing hormone
	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
	Holger Sondermann Molecular Medicine	Structural biology; cell signaling; biochemistry; biophysics
	Jeongmin Song Microbiology & Immunology	Host-pathogen interactions, bacterial toxins, Salmonella Typhi, bacterial pathogenesis
	Tracy Stokol Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences	The role of tissue factor (coagulation factor III) in hemostasis (particularly thrombotic disorders) and cancer metastasis
	Patrick Stover Nutritional Science	The fundamental mechanisms underlying the regulation of folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism and its role in mitochondrial and nuclear genome methylation and stability; the role of folate and vitamin B12 in nuclear de novo thymidylate synthesis, and its impact on human pathologies including neural tube defects, colon cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders
	Elia Tait Wojno Baker Institute for Animal Health & Dept. Microbiology & Immunology	Immunology of infectious disease; allergy; mucosal immunology; innate immune cells; cytokines; prostaglandins
	Rory Todhunter Clinical Sciences	Canine hip dysplasia; genetic linkage analysis; osteoarthritis
	Alex 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
	Martin Wiedmann Food Science	Develop and communicate the scientific knowledge needed to prevent and control foodborne and zoonotic diseases caused by bacteria

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