VETERINARY PHYSIOLOGY & PHARMACOLOGY (VTPP

VTPP is a multidisciplinary basic science department that strives to shape the future of research and education in human and veterinary medicine. Research in VTPP is expansive and incorporates excellence in toxicology, reproductive and developmental biology, cardiovascular biology, regenerative sciences, bone biology, and pharmacology. The high level of cooperation among the various departments within the CVMBS and the Texas A&M University scientific community produces an unparalleled research and teaching environment.

VTPP faculty are integral to many of the leading research centers both on and off the Texas A&M University campus. The department contributes to the Interdisciplinary Faculty of Toxicology and the Interdisciplinary Faculty of Reproductive Biology, as well as being home to the Michael E. DeBakey Institute for Cardiovascular Science and Biomedical Devices.

VTPP maintains a scientific community that fosters excellence in teaching and research in an effort to train the next generation of biomedical professionals through the efforts of faculty, students, and staff. Collaboration is the essence of the VTPP faculty and drives our commitment to excellence in a highly interactive, collaborative, and multidisciplinary teaching and research environment.

There were 65 faculty peer-reviewed publications and 44 external grant submissions with 5 awarded in 2019.

Dr. Ivan Ivanov

Highlights from FY20 include:

Promotions

• Dr. Ivan Ivanov, Clinic Associate Professor to Clinical Professor

New Faculty

• Dr. Marissa Cisneros, Lecturer • Dr. Charity Cavazos, Instructional Assistant Professor • Dr. Margarita Stankova, Adjunct Associate Professor • Dr. Luciana Relly, Adjunct Associate Professor • Dr. Guichun Han, Adjunct Assistant Professor • Dr. Marcel Brun, Adjunct Assistant Professor

New Staff

• Ms. Mille Mattox, Research Specialist IV

Study Abroad

• VTPP continues excellence in study abroad with the Bonn Germany physiology program continuing as the premier study abroad program at Texas A&M

University, led by Dr. Jeremy Wasser. VTPP also launched the new Bulgaria study abroad program in 2019, led by Dr. Ivan Ivanov.

International

• VTPP faculty member Dr. Charles Long (Indo-US GETin visiting fellow ICAR-

Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes (CIRB), Hisar, Haryana, India, through

Nov 2019) represented Texas A&M University at the Association of American

Veterinary Medical Association (AAVMC) and Association of Public and Landgrant Universities (APLU) symposium in Washington D.C., on “Gene Editing in

Livestock: Looking to the Future.”

National

• Dr. Michael Golding, PI, was awarded an NIH R01 (1R01AA028219-01) entitled

“Heritable, epigenetic effects of paternal alcohol use on FASD phenotypes.”

This is an innovative new award that will unravel the unknown mechanism(s) of alcohol use by fathers on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). • Dr. Jayanth Ramadoss, PI, was awarded an NIH R01 (2R01AA023520) entitled

“A novel mechanistic framework for FASD etiology” to continue research on

FASD and will identify novel etiological molecular pathway(s) for FASD cardinal outcomes using integrative physiologic approaches. • Dr. Charles Long and his former MSc student Carlos Pinzon- Arteaga (now

PhD student at UTSW) had studies published in Scientific Reports. In this breakthrough work, Dr. Long’s team was able to use the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system to correct an autosomal recessive mutation responsible for

Glycogen Branching Enzyme Deficiency (GBED) in the horse. The disease is an

inheritable glycogen storage disease that affects American Quarter Horses and American Paint Horses. Approximately 9% of all Quarter Horse and Paint Horse lineages are heterozygotic carriers of the mutation. GBED carriers have only 50% of the normal Glycogen Branching Enzyme activity and appear asymptomatic. The homozygous mutation is the cause of second and third-trimester abortion and significant foal mortality in the American Quarter Horse. The human form of the disease is called glycogen storage disease type IV. In the reported studies, the causal mutation (GBE1102C>A) was corrected in primary fibroblasts derived from an affected stallion. The next phase of the work will involve generation of a cloned animal that maintains the genetic merit of its predecessor and is free of the GBED mutation.

College

Three VTPP trainees received awards for outstanding presentations (voted on by CVMBS Faculty): • Trevor Self (Dr. Cristine Heaps, mentor) on outstanding poster. • Yu-Lieh (Ray) Lin (Dr. Ken Muneoka, mentor) on outstanding poster. • Yudi Bedi (Dr. Michael Golding, mentor) for a stellar platform presentation.

Departmental

• Dr. Steve Safe, Distinguished Professor, was announced as a 2020 Texas A&M Association of Former Students (AFS)

Distinguished Award Recipient. • Dr. Katrin Hinrichs was VTPP Faculty Mentor of the Year. • Raine Lunde-Young was VTPP Graduate Student of the Year. • Cathy Green was the inaugural winner of the VTPP Staff Member of the year. • The Aggie Research Program (ARP) (Developed by VTPP faculty member Dr. Christopher Quick) serves 6.4% of all Texas

A&M students and accounts for 24% of all undergraduate (UG) researchers, at a cost of $75/student. The program currently has 2,061 UG research opportunities created by the ARP since it started four years ago. It has been growing 33% per year.

The goal is to grow ARP so that 50% of all UG researchers participate, making team-based research the norm at Texas A&M

University and our UG research program the largest in the nation. • The DeBakey Executive Leadership Program provides elite leadership training across campus and is entering its second semester. • Drs. Virginia Fajt and Shannon Washburn are 2 of the 10 campus-wide recipients of the inaugural Provost Academic

Professional Track Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards. These are the first installments of the awards that recognize and celebrate faculty who provide students with meaningful learning experiences, embrace effective teaching approaches and value student-centered learning. • VTPP sponsors two awards (for the past 5 years) named after Dr. J.D. McCready for the best VTPP student presentations.

Winners were: • Rebecca Harlow (Dr. Ranjeet Dongaonkar, mentor) • Kalen Johnson (Dr. Cristine Heaps, mentor) • Pierre Ferre (Dr. Tracy Clement, mentor) • Presidential Transformational Teaching Grant (PTTG) awards to VTPP: Dr. Jayanth Ramadoss’ proposal entitled “Sophomore

Success Program” and Dr. James Herman’s proposal entitled “Development Of An Open-Source Learning Resource For

Students In Biomedicine” were both funded. Congratulations to both PI’s and their VTPP Co-Investigators (James Herman grant: Drs. Shannon Washburn, Carly Patterson, Amanda Davis) (Jayanth Ramadoss grant: Larry Suva). • The beloved CC, the world's first cloned cat, passed away at the age of 18. CC was a major milestone for Dr. Duane Kraemer and our faculty colleagues. • VTPP was in force at the Darwin Day celebration in February informing the people of Bryan-College Station of the importance of physiology and science! • Dr. Alice Blue-McLendon was a part of the VET deployment to Polk County, Texas, following the April 23, 2020, tornado.