Spring, 2009 - University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary ...

Spring, 2009
The VMD-PhD 40 th Anniversary Reunion Symposium Rocked!
The 40 th Anniversary VMD-PhD Reunion Symposium was a fantastic success! Over 150 people assembled
between March 19-21, 2009 to celebrate the Penn Vet Student Research Day and the VMD-PhD 40 th
Anniversary Alumni Reunion Symposium. Fifty percent of VMD-PhD alumni returned, along with all four
previous and current Program Directors, and all 28 current VMD-PhD students, for a celebration that included
alumni talks, student talks, poster presentations, Phi Zeta inductions, and panel discussions. The Reunion
Symposium was punctuated with comments by past Directors Dr. Ralph Brinster, Dr. Richard Miselis and Dr.
John Wolfe, and by current Director, Dr. Michael Atchison. Returning alumni gave academic talks on
neurosciences, regenerative medicine, cancer biology, and infectious disease research, in line with the initiatives
identified by the School as key areas of excellence. Saturday morning included “Breakfast with the Dean” with
a tour of the School’s new facilities and an opportunity to learn what is happening at Penn Vet as well as future
plans for the VMD-PhD Program.
The Symposium included two fabulous parties; one at the Inn at Penn and the other at World Café Live where
the Vet School band, TRIAGE (which includes Dr. Atchison and VMD-PhD students Catrina King, LaTasha
Crawford, and Mary Robinson), entertained the crowd. To view photographs of the reunion, go to
http://www.vet.upenn.edu/CalendarandEvents/PhotoGallery/tabid/357/AlbumID/1617-125/Default.aspx. If you
could not attend, we have mailed you the program directory which includes information on all alumni, current
students, and Program directors. We hope this directory will be of use to you for reconnecting with old friends
and colleagues, as well as with the University.
Some of the Reunion Symposium attendees. Left to right: Michael Atchison, Duncan Ferguson, Bruce Freedman, Jaime Modiano,
James MacLeod, Jenni Punt, Ken Mohn, Todd Strochlic, Avrama Blackwell, Amary Wagner, Hannah Galantino-Homer, Richard
Miselis, Albee Messing, Pat McManus, Robert Kieval, Aimee Edinger, Joan Hendricks, Tom Parsons, Ralph Brinster.
A collage of Symposium photos is at the end of this newsletter.

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Student Research Day VMD-PhD Winners
The VMD-PhD Reunion Symposium overlapped the Penn Vet Student Research Day celebrations that included
posters and talks by Penn Vet students conducting research. Out of dozens of submissions a small number of
students were selected for oral presentations. VMD-PhD students specially chosen for presentations are
highlighted below. The day was capped with a keynote address by Penn alumnus, Michael Kotlikoff,
VMD/PhD, who now serves as the Austin O. Hooey Dean of Cornell University, followed by a reception and
then a dinner for VMD-PhD alumni and current VMD-PhD students.
First Place VMD-PhD Award: Catrina King
Let-7 microRNAs Suppress Tumorogenesis and
Promote Differentiation in the Colon.
Catrina is a 5 th year student performing her thesis research in the
lab of Dr. Anil Rustgi. Her research focuses on let-7 microRNAs
in colorectal malignancy and intestinal differentiation.
Third Place VMD-PhD Award: LaTasha
Crawford
The Increased Intrinsic Excitability of lwDR 5-HT
Neurons may be the Cellular Basis for Stress-Induced
Neuronal Activation
LaTasha is a 6 th year student performing thesis research in
the laboratory of Dr. Sheryl Beck. Her work focuses on
anxiety and depression related disorders that are believed
to be controlled by the serotonin system.
Second Place VMD-PHD Award: Jeffrey
Patterson-Fortin
MERIT40 Controls BRCA1-Rap80-Complex
Integrity and Recruitment to DNA Double Strand
Breaks.
Jeffrey is a 4 th year student performing thesis research in the
laboratory of Dr. Roger Greenberg. His work focuses on
components of the BRCA-1-dependent signaling networks that
repair damage and suppress breast and ovarian cancer.

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Hill Student Inspiration Awards for 2009 include two VMD-PhD students!
The Penn Vet Student Inspiration Awards are presented to currently enrolled Penn Vet students who
demonstrate the potential to significantly advance the frontiers of veterinary medicine. Two awards are given
each year, and both awards this year include current VMD-PhD students.
Left to right: Catherine Brinkley (VMD/PhD Student), Laurel Redding (VMD/PhD Student), Alison Barnstable (VMD Student)
Catherine Brinkley, is a second-year student enrolled in the School’s VMD-PhD program. Her winning
project is entitled “Design for Health.” Her plan blends veterinary medicine with city planning to create a
unified and cross-disciplinary approach to animal care and urban life. “I am honored and beyond thrilled to be
chosen for the Inspiration Award,” she said. “The prospect of bringing Design for Health to life has been a
dream for the past five years for me, and I am greatly indebted to the Hills and Penn Vet for giving me the
chance to make it happen.” Ms. Brinkley also has been accepted into the Urban Planning PhD Program at Penn
to pursue the study of “Design for Health: Planning Animal Facilities to Prevent Infectious Disease Spread.”
Laurel Redding, a second year VMD-PhD student shared an award with Alison Barnstable (a
current second year Vet Student). Their project is entitled “Increasing Agricultural Productivity in Developing
Countries.” The project developed by Laurel and Alison involves a partnership with Heifer International, a
non-profit organization dedicated to helping people produce their own food, with a program that encourages the
development of para-professional veterinary services to ensure the productivity of donated animals. They also
plan to create opportunities for veterinary student volunteerism and research, and to increase the flow of
information concerning the needs of developing countries into veterinary schools in the U.S. “I am truly
honored and thrilled to have received this award,” said Laurel. “The Inspiration Awards are a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity for us to make a contribution to veterinary medicine as students. I am very excited about launching
this project and undertaking a meaningful collaboration with Heifer International in the field of global public
health.” Alison commented, “I am so excited to receive this award, as it creates an opportunity for me to join
the global health community, addressing the issues of health, poverty and hunger. This award will allow us to
create a sustainable veterinary involvement in global health through collaboration with Heifer International. I
hope this work will benefit veterinary students, animal health providers here and abroad and developing
communities. I cannot thank Mr. and Mrs. Hill enough for their generosity.”

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Dr. Frederick A. Murphy Awarded $100,000 Prize as
2009 Penn Vet World Award Recipient
Dr. Frederick A. Murphy has been selected as the 2009 recipient of the
Penn Vet World Leadership Award. Dr. Murphy is the James W.
McLaughlin Professor in Residence, Department of Pathology at the
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. The Penn Vet World
Leadership Award is given annually to a veterinarian who has
dramatically changed the practice and image of the profession and
substantially influenced the lives and careers of others. The award
provides the recipient with $100,000 in unrestricted funding, the largest
monetary award in veterinary medicine, underwritten by the Vernon and
Shirley Hill Foundation.
“As an internationally acclaimed authority in comparative virology, Dr.
Murphy is a pioneering researcher, respected advisor in health policy and
outstanding spokesperson for the veterinary profession, which has led to his unparalleled contributions to
veterinary medicine,” said Dr. Joan C. Hendricks, the Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine. “We are
proud to recognize his vast and impressive achievements with this year's Penn Vet World Leadership Award.”
For more information go to: http://www.vet.upenn.edu/worldaward/
Alumnus Highlight: Dr. Duncan Ferguson VMD, PhD, Diplomate, American College of
Veterinary Internal Medicine and American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology
Current position: Department Head and Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, The University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign College of Veterinary Medicine, Urbana, IL
After completing a degree in Chemistry from Dartmouth College in 1975,
Duncan Ferguson entered the VMSTP in the summer of 1975 with plans to
learn about Penn, its research community and the Philadelphia Phillies.
Working with his VMSTP mentor Bill Lawrence, a virologist, he spent the
summer before vet school learning the ropes of the university, and adapting to
the big city. During subsequent vet school summers, he worked in smooth
muscle physiology with Ronald Coburn, equine endocrinology with
Venkataseshu Ganjam (now at the University of Missouri) at New Bolton
Center, and then settled in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Utiger (recently
deceased), then head of the Endocrine Section of HUP. Duncan then began a
lifelong interest in comparative endocrinology with a focus on the basic and
clinical aspects of the thyroid gland. One year into his Ph.D. studies on thyroid hormone metabolism by the
isolated perfused rat kidney, Bob Utiger moved to the University of North Carolina to take on leadership of
their MD/PhD program. Duncan’s mentor then became Tony Jennings MD, whose work on the isolated
perfused rat liver became a model for Duncan’s Ph.D. More importantly, Tony became a role model as a
clinician investigator. To this day, he wonders why veterinary medicine has not been more successful at
developing training programs such as the subspecialty clinical and basic research fellowships provided in
human medicine.
After completing the VMD/PhD Program in 1981, Duncan performed a residency in small animal internal
medicine, completing his first year as resident in the “old” hospital and the second in the current small animal
teaching hospital, then called just “VHUP.” During this time, he solidified his interest in clinical
endocrinology. Over the study of thyroid function tests in cats using some of Mark Haskins’ colony cats kept in

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gang housing (Duncan still has the scars to prove it), he met and later married Dr. Margarethe Hoenig, then a
resident in small animal internal medicine.
After Margarethe completed her Ph.D. at the Medical School at Penn, they were recruited to Cornell University.
After 3 years in Ithaca, they moved to the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine where two
faculty positions were available in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. Working independently
and in collaboration, they were on the faculty at UGA for over 20 years teaching graduate and professional
courses. Duncan’s research focused on thyroid hormone metabolism in the kidney, the etiopathogenesis of
feline hyperthyroidism, the improvement of thyroid function tests in domestic animals, and collaboration with
Margarethe on studies of the control of insulin secretion and on the obese cat model of insulin resistance.
Bridging the clinical and basic problems in endocrinology always seemed like a natural connection for the two
parts of their training.
During his time at UGA, Duncan was in the first cohort completing board certification by the American College
of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology, later serving as the specialty’s Vice President and on its Examination
Committee. He was a founding member of the Society of Comparative Endocrinology in 1983, also serving as
its Vice President. He served on the advisory board of the Morris Animal Foundation and is currently serving
his second stint on the board. In 1990, he was one of the original founders of Veterinary Information Network,
and later headed VIN’s online Continual Education programs.
On the research front, in the late 1990’s, his focus turned to molecular genetic studies of feline, canine and
equine TSH, cloning and expressing each. He initiated the DVM/PhD program at the University of Georgia and
successfully brought a summer T35 training grant to UGA. Within the last 6 years, he returned to his roots in
comparative thyroid hormone metabolism, joining a team of researchers from the UGA, the University of
Massachusetts and the Enviromental Protection Agency, to study the role of thyroid disruptors in
neurodevelopment.
In 2006, he took the position of Department Head and Professor of Clinical Pharmacology in the Department of
Veterinary Biosciences at the University of Illinois. The strengths of this department reside in reproductive,
endocrine, and developmental toxicology and comparative pharmacology, so he feels quite at home with the
science in his new department. A particular challenge has been to re-establish the historical strengths in
residency training in veterinary clinical pharmacology and veterinary clinical toxicology. In his current role, he
is on the internal steering committee of the University of Illinois Division of Biomedical Sciences, and is on the
steering and admissions committee for the Veterinary Medical Scholars (DVM/PhD) program, and is currently
mentoring a student’s Ph.D. in this program. Current research focuses on the study of the regulatory role of
thyroid hormone uptake and metabolism on thyroid-hormone dependent neurodevelopment using rodent and
human embryonic stem neuroprogenitor models, and collaborative work on the feline model of insulin
resistance.
From the philosophical side, Duncan feels that research training and academic veterinary medicine have
changed greatly in the 34 years since he entered the program. The combined degree training has proven to be
both “a blessing and a curse,” but mostly a blessing because of the many opportunities it has created. Now in
the business of hiring academic scientists to teach in a veterinary school, he recognizes that the broad veterinary
training of the veterinarian is a huge asset in research as well as teaching. “Whole animal” morphologists,
physiologists and pharmacologists, for example, no longer are being trained in Ph.D. programs. The “curse”
might have been associated with his personal interest in maintaining basic and clinical science interests when
the funding opportunities have always been much less for animal-focused disease research. The solution, he
feels, has always been to find the right spontaneous or induced animal models of human disease. Remembering
the day he learned about acceptance to the program as tantamount to winning the Irish sweepstakes, he feels
thankful for the opportunity that the VMSTP provided, and still provides today.

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VMD-PhD Reunion Symposium Photos

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The Future
The Program continues to focus on expansion, which will require sustained efforts in recruitment, retention, and
fund raising. Exciting new opportunities are developing. Watch for further announcements in the coming
months.
For Further Information Contact:
Michael Atchison, Ph.D.
Director, Veterinary Medical Scientist Training Program
School of Veterinary Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
3800 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
vmstp@vet.upenn.edu
On the Web at www.pennvetphd.org or www.vet.upenn.edu/research/programs/vmstp/