VETERINARY PATHOBIOLOGY (VTPB)

Veterinary Pathobiology (VTPB) focuses on advancing animal and human health through innovative research, preparing next generation veterinary and biomedical professionals and scientists through impactful teaching, and supporting animal health care through expert clinical laboratory service.

Our faculty teach in the undergraduate, graduate, and veterinary professional programs of the school. The department is home to post-DVM residency programs in anatomic pathology, clinical pathology, and laboratory animal medicine. The department has a T32 NIH training grant for post-DVM doctoral students. The research emphases of our faculty and students are in the areas of infectious diseases & immunology; genetics & genomics; wildlife health & conservation; and pathology. Research programs of the faculty are supported by extramural funding from several federal and state agencies such as NIH, USDA, NSF, DTRA, and Texas Parks and Wildlife, as well as from industry and nonprofit research organizations/foundations.

Highlights from FY22 include:

New Faculty

• Dr. Jessica Hokamp, Associate Professor, Clinical Pathology

• Dr. Lauren Stranahan, Clinical Assistant Professor, Anatomic Pathology

• Dr. Yvonne Wikander, Clinical Assistant Professor, Clinical Pathology, VERO

Achievements/Awards

Faculty

• Dr. Jessica Galloway-Peña: Outstanding Young Faculty Research Award, Texas A&M VMBS

• Dr. Robert Valeris-Chacin: ADVANCE NCFDD Faculty Success Fellow; Faculty Mentoring Fellow; Selection as CRWAD program committee member for the area of Population Health.

• Dr. Yvonne Wikander: Attended Transforming Teaching & Learning Conference (College Station, TX), Veterinary Educator

• Collaborative Conference (Manhattan, KS), and the Beef Cattle Short Course Conference (zoom); Obtained microcredential in Designing Learner-Centered & Equitable Courses (Association of College & University Educators) and Certificate for Diversity & Inclusion in Veterinary Medicine (Purdue University CVM)

• Dr. Gui Verocai: Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital Clinical Service Award; Academic Board Member, National Center for Veterinary Parasitology; Sponsored VMSRTP students Sasha Adams and Jordan Gomez

• Dr. Sara Lawhon: 2022 Boehringer Ingelheim Research Mentorship Award for the Veterinary Medical Scholars Research Training Program.

• Dr. Mary Nabity: Biomarkers of Glomerular Diseases” COHA Glomerular Diseases Summit, Boston, MA, April 4-5, 2022; Alport dogs: Promoting animal and human health” MPHY/ CVRI Seminar, Texas A&M University, April 20, 2022; “Urinary Biomarkers in Dogs and Cats”, Requested seminar for Small Animal Clinical Sciences residents and interns, Texas A&M University, June 8, 2022

• Dr. Zhilong Yang: Provided expert opinions in Cell (Voice article) https://www.sciencedirect. com/science/article/pii/S0092867422009837?via%3Dihub). Journal of Medical Virology (https:// onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmv.27884); Invited to serve as the Associate Editor of Journal of Medical Virology and the co-Editor-in-Chief for the “Monkeypox virus and related poxviruses” special issue.

• Dr. Ramesh Vemulapalli: Bridges Teaching & Service Award

• Dr. Jeffrey Musser: Tizard, IR, and Musser, JMB, Great American Diseases: Their Effects on the Course of North American History, Elsevier Science, January 2022

• Dr. Ian Tizard: Tizard, IR, and Musser, JMB, Great American Diseases: Their Effects on the Course of North American History, Elsevier Science, January 2022; Tizard, IR, Allergies and Hypersensitivity Disease in Animals, Elsevier Health Sciences, November 2021

• Dr. Tom Ficht, Garry Adams, Angela Arenas, and Alison Ficht – “Controlled release vaccines and methods for treating Brucella diseases and disorders” – Patent #10,940,193

• Dr. Luc Berghman – “Compositions and methods of enhancing immune responses to enteric