PATHways - American College of Veterinary Pathologists

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V o l u m e 3 , I s s u e 2 P a g e 2 DISCOVERING “DISCOVERY PATH” Contributed by Keiko Petrosky, PhD, Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine As veterinary students, we think of patients in terms of species: small animal v. large, exotic v. laboratory animals. It’s easy to forget the impact veterinarians can have on the human species, too. During my summer internship at Amgen, a biotech company that specializes in proteins as therapeutic agents, I met veterinarians who work to serve human patients, from laboratory animal veterinarians to veterinary pathologists, each playing an important role in the preclinical stage of the drug development pro- cess. I encountered veterinary pathologists who work in “discovery,” working as much on target validation and preclinical assay development as on efficacy and toxicity profiles. My particular projects were to develop a quantitative, immunoassay- based method to measure phosphosignal and to use proximity ligation to detect immune complexes from preclinical samples. I spent as much time doing bench work as reading slides! Along the way histologists taught me immunohistochemistry, multicolor immunofluorescence, and morphomet- ric analysis, the traditional tools of a veterinary pathology laboratory. With summer events like kayaking on the Charles River to the Boston Har- bor and a trip to Fenway Park, the Amgen internship program coordinators fostered a sense of fun alongside a strong sense of mission to serve patients.
V o l u m e 3 , I s s u e 2 DISCOVERING “DISCOVERY PATH” , Cont. Assay development allowed me to flex the molecular muscles that I developed as a graduate student in bio- physics and biochemistry at UCSF. It was there that I encountered laboratory veterinarians for the first time. After completing my PhD, complete with then- governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature, I spoke with every veterinary pathologist and laboratory animal vet I could find to learn more about veterinary careers in biomedical research. Intrigued, I worked as a biologist at Novartis before enrolling in Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine with the express purposes of becoming a veterinary pathologist. At Tufts, I’m currently working on eval- uating grading schemes for common canine neo- plastic diseases, a unique opportunity to work with both pathologists and clinicians on applied research. Veterinary pathology is a way for me to combine my lifelong love of animals (and dead things) with research. From diagnostic pathology, toxicologic pathology, and discovery pathology, to regulatory careers, veterinary pathology is a career with options for every interest. For the scientific and research- minded, and for those who want to have an impact on human as well as animal medicine, a career as a veterinary pathologist in industry might be for you, that is if you are willing to occasionally swap your micro- scope for a pipette, and your gross necropsies for a laboratory bench top! Dr. Keiko Petrosky “For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner ... on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that” - Carl Sagan P a g e 3
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PATHways - American College of Veterinary Pathologists

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