College News

VACCINE TRAINING

Dr. Justin Brown, assistant teaching professor in veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine, was among College of Veterinary Medicine faculty, residents and fourth-year professional students who administered COVID vaccines at Iowa State University’s mass vaccination clinics held last spring. Prior to the clinic, Brown and 40 other veterinary medicine personnel underwent training on giving the vaccines to humans. Photo: Christopher Gannon

Marc Kinsley Named LVMC Executive Director

Kinsley has been named the executive director of the Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center, while Esser will serve as a clinical assistant professor of veterinary clinical sciences. Both appointments are effective January 3, 2022.

Dr. Marc Kinsley, associate professor of large animal surgery at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, and Dr. Melissa Esser, assistant professor of large animal internal medicine at Michigan State, have been appointed to the faculty in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

A faculty member at Michigan State since 2014, Kinsley was also on the faculty at Oregon State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He worked in private practice in a New York veterinary clinic after graduating from Cornell University in 2008 with his DVM. Kinsley is a diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Surgery and his research focuses on osteoarthritis and developmental orthopedic diseases.

Esser received her DVM from Oregon State University in 2008 and is a diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. She previously served as a clinical instructor for large animal internal medicine at the University of Minnesota.

“Marc and Melissa are wonderful additions to our college team,” said Dr. Dan Grooms, the Dr. Stephen G. Juelsgaard Dean of Veterinary Medicine. “Both are accomplished clinicians, educators and leaders who will build on the college’s reputation for excellence. I am confident they will work effectively with veterinarians and clients across the state who share our passion for animal health.”

Dr. Marc Kinsley, Executive Director of the Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center

Dr. Melissa Esser, Clinical Assistant Processor, Veterinary Clinical Sciences

CVM Receives High Ratings in International Rankings

The College of Veterinary Medicine is 17th internationally and second in the United States in the 2021 ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects for veterinary sciences.

Only the University of California-Davis is rated higher than Iowa State in these rankings among U.S. veterinary colleges. Ghent University is ranked number one overall.

ShanghaiRanking ranks institutions in 54 subjects including veterinary sciences. To be included in the ranking, the universities need to have a minimum number of research publications from 2015-19.

Miller Named VMPM Chair

Dr. Cathy Miller has been appointed the chair of the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine. She has served as the department’s interim chair for the past year after replacing Dr. Michael Wannemuehler.

A faculty members at Iowa State since 2006, Miller also served as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. She holds a PhD in molecular microbiology and immunology from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine.

Miller’s research focuses on the interface between viruses and the cells they infect. Her lab is also involved in a number of projects examining the molecular mechanisms involved in influenza A virus pathogenicity and immunology in both swine and humans.

Dr. Cathy Miller, Chair of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine

McGill Appointed as Salsbury Chair

Dr. Jodi McGill, associate professor of veterinary microbiology and preventive medicine has been appointed as the John G. Salsbury Endowed Chair in Veterinary Medicine.

A faculty member at Iowa State since 2018, McGill earned her Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Iowa. She is a member of the American Association of Immunologists. Prior to joining Iowa State’s faculty, McGill was an assistant professor at Kansas State University and served as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Animal Disease Center in Ames.

Since coming to Iowa State, McGill has quickly established herself and her lab as one of the most productive on campus. Her lab has identified important roles for IL-17 in bovine respiratory disease and the importance of Vitamin A in the mucosal immune response to respiratory syncytial virus in calves. She is quickly becoming a world expert in regulation of the immune response to infection and vaccination against respiratory diseases in cattle.

PROGRESSING RIGHT ALONG

Work is well underway on the construction of Phase 1 of the new Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory just south of the main College of Veterinary Medicine campus. The $75 million project is anticipated to be completed in 2023. Photo: Dave Gieseke

RESEARCH ROUNDUP

• The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust of Muscatine, Iowa, has committed $400,000 to help expand the microscopy capabilities in the Department of Biomedical Sciences with the purchase of a stimulated emission depletion (STED) super-resolution microscopy system.

“Advances in technology often provide substantial improvements in research capabilities, but seldom is there an advancement that literally opens new vistas of research for a wide range of disciplines, including human, animal, plant and microbial research alike,” said Dr. Michael Kimber, professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences.

Examples of research that will benefit from the STED microscopy system include research to treat parasitic diseases such as malaria, the discovery of new therapeutic targets for inflammatory diseases, improve vaccine development, test how to overcome drug-resistant pathogens such as tuberculosis and COVID-19, and better understand birth defects, neurological disorders, male infertility in humans and animals.

• Dr. Michael Cho, professor of biomedical sciences, is studying how to develop COVID-19 vaccines that target SARS-CoV-2’s receptor-binding domain, or the part of the virus that docks with the host cellular receptor. This docking process allows the virus access to the host’s cells, which leads to infection.

Cho was the lead author of a study detailing the ability of a vaccine to induce antibodies in mice that target the virus’s receptor binding domain. The antibodies produced by the experimental vaccine attack the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the virus.

“The spike glyocoprotein is the key that opens the lock, and the region of the key with all the peaks and valleys and grooves in the RBD,” Cho said. “If antibodies attack the RBD, then the key won’t work and the door will stay locked, preventing infection. We don’t really need to make antibodies against the entire spike protein, which is more difficult to make. We can just focus on the RBD portion.”

• A new grant will help Dr. Gregory Phillips, professor of veterinary microbiology and preventive medicine, figure out how the microbiome, or all the microorganisms that live inside and on human systems, affects immunity and the effectiveness of vaccines.

Phillips’ research group has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study how the microbiome could be modified to make vaccines more effective. The estimated total award of the grant is $1.6 million over three years.

Researchers are focusing on gut bacteria that have adapted to live in the human digestive system. These bacteria interact with the host systems to promote health in various ways.

“They’ve got an environment in our guts where they can thrive and grow and utilize what we feed them, and they help our digestive system by converting some of the food we eat that we don’t have the capacity to break down,” Phillips said.

CVM Hosts National Research Symposium

The College of Veterinary Medicine virtually hosted the National Veterinary Summer Scholars Symposium last August. The symposium was originally scheduled to be held on the Iowa State campus but was moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The annual conference showcased research accomplishments by veterinary students completing summer research internships. A record number of attendees participated this year in the symposium, co-sponsored by the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges. Dr. Jim Roth, Clarence Hartley Covault Distinguished Professor of Veterinary Medicine and director of the Center for Food Security and Public Health, was one of the event’s keynote speakers.

Faculty and Staff Notes

• Dr. Tim Day, professor of biomedical sciences, has been elected to a one-year term as president of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association. Day has served as Iowa State’s Faculty Athletics Representative to the NCAA and the Big 12 Conference since 2010.

• Dr. Dan Grooms, the Dr. Stephen G. Juelsgaard Dean of Veterinary Medicine, has been recognized by The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine with their Distinguished Alumni Award. Grooms earned both his DVM (’89) and PhD (’97) from Ohio State.

• Dr. Pat Halbur, chair of the Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine and executive director of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, has been named the 2021 recipient of the E.P. Pope Award. The Pope Award is the highest award bestowed by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) and recognizes individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the AAVLD and the field of veterinary diagnostic laboratory medicine.

• Dr. Kristen Obbink, lead public health veterinarian in the Center for Food Security and Public Health, has been elected vice president of the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association.

• Dr. Paul Plummer, professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine and the Anderson Chair of Veterinary Sciences, has been recognized as an Honorary Diplomate of the American Veterinary Epidemiology Society.

• Dr. Jodi Smith, associate professor of veterinary pathology, has been named the CVM recipient of the 2021 Zoetis Award for Veterinary Research Excellence.

GOODBYE & HELLO

Just a couple of months after graduating 148 members of the Class of 2021, a pair of White Coat ceremonies were held for the classes of 2024 and 2025. The Class of 2024 ceremony was delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photos: Dave Gieseke