The College of Veterinary Medicine welcomes Sreekanth Puttachary, a new Assistant Professor of microanatomy and embryology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences.
Dr. Puttachary’s research focuses on developing novel drug targets to slow down/prevent the progression of epilepsy. He will also be teaching microanatomy, begining this fall. Dr. Puttachary won two teaching excellence awards when he was at Iowa State University.
Two models recently created on the new 3-D printer.
When Dr. Jennifer Warnock, orthopedic surgeon in the OSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital, has a complex surgery ahead, she often uses 3-D models of her patient’s bones to help plan the procedure.
Thanks to a generous donation from Steve and Rebecca Camden, Dr. Warnock can now get those models from a laboratory down the hall, and they cost $20 instead of $200.
A newly ‘printed’ model of a bone awaits processing in a bath to reveal details. Data from a CT scanner was fed into the printer to create the model.
Dr. Susanne Stieger-Vanegas is OSU’s Camden Endowed Professor, and she recently purchased a Stratasys 3-D printer. She is working with Dr. Warnock to study the best way to use the hospital’s 64-slice, high-speed CT to generate the data needed for optimal models. “I can tweak the details in the model, by taking slices [on the CT] from one-quarter millimeter to two millimeters,” she says, “but there is a point at which it is too fine.”
Dr. Stieger-Vanegas is also looking at creating models that can be sawn into peices by Dr. Warnock.
The OSU Veterinary Hospital has several clinical trials that are currently enrolling dogs. One example:
Canine Fasting and Chemotherapy Study
Canine cancer patients treated with chemotherapy may have gastrointestinal side effects such as poor appetite and vomiting. Short-term fasting may decrease the risk of such side effects. We are recruiting dogs that will be administered chemotherapy (vincristine or carboplatin) as part of their cancer treatment. Research funding supports much of the expense of two chemotherapy treatments including exam fees, complete blood counts and chemotherapy administration fees
Veterinarians with patients who qualify, may call Dr. Katie Curran or Dr. Shay Bracha at 541-737-4812. Other clinical trials may be found online.
The 2017 Davis-Thompson Foundation Descriptive Veterinary Pathology Course will be held at Magruder Hall, June 26 – 30, 2017.
The course includes lectures, active learning exercises, & mock exams on:
Attendees will have an opportunity to meet course lecturers, get individual feedback, and mingle with other trainees from around the world. Register online.
For more information, contact Christiane.Loehr@oregonstate.edu.
Dr. Manoj Pastey, Noah Lawler, Donna Mulrooney, and Andree Hunkapillar.
From the outside, the OSU Veterinary Research Laboratory (VRL) doesn’t look like a high-tech center of advanced disease testing, but behind the drab, cement-block walls, are highly-trained experts and hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of state-of-the-art equipment.
There are several teams working in the VRL, which is managed by the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (OVDL). On the Molecular Diagnostic (MD) team are Section Head Manoj Pastey, Supervisor Donna Mulrooney, and Microbiologists Andree Hunkapiller and Noah Lawler. They use DNA to find the causes of disease in all kinds of critters, from chickens to llamas. “Basically we are looking for specific gene sequences that identify a pathogen – a virus, bacteria or parasite – in a sample,” says Mulrooney. “The sample can be anything from a piece of lung, to fecal samples, to blood,” she says.
Most of the customers for the lab are Oregon veterinarians, many of whom work in the OSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital, but there are also customers from other states. “We have tests that are unique to our lab, so we get samples from across the U.S.,” says Mulrooney. “For instance we have a test for Mycoplasma haemolamae, a blood parasite that can cause severe anemia in alpacas and llamas.” That test was developed right here at the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine by Dr. Susan Tornquist and Dr. Chris Cebra
The molecular diagnostics lab also works with state and federal agencies. They receive weekly samples from Oregon’s state veterinarian for screening of avian influenza. “We test samples from the live bird market in Woodburn,” says Mulrooney. Avian influenza is a serious problem for farmers because it spreads very quickly and is deadly to poultry.
The OVDL is a member of a national surveillance network, under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, that works to respond quickly to disease outbreaks. That means the MD team has to be prepared to take on heavy loads of extra testing on a moment’s notice. “In the event of a multi-state outbreak of something like avian influenza, we have to cancel vacations and work long hours,” says Hunkapiller.
The radiographic anatomy teaching software that Dr. Sarah Nemanic and her research group designed is now available online. The program is free and covers canine, feline and equine radiographic anatomy. Avian software is under development.
Take a spin through it and feel free to share it with anyone who might be interested. You’ll have to use a Google login to get access (the one from your Gmail account will work). The login allows students to keep track of their quizzes.
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
