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the human forms of the projections have been shown in the laboratory to stop most hiv strains from infecting human cells and to protect animal models from infection which occurs when the antibody projection binds to the gp120 antigen of the virus that it uses to attach to the host white blood cell

using this research as a frame of reference and noticing how cow antibodies have this much much longer extension criscitiello and his team postulated that this hcdr3 loop could possibly bind to the virus more effectively

in a nutshell the cow can make an antibody that can reach a part of the virus that our antibodies normally cant criscitiello said

in order to test the theory that these broadly neutralizing antibodies (which include the hcdr3 loop) could potentially serve as a pathway to produce an immunological therapy or possibly even a vaccine for hiv researchers would need more of these broadly neutralizing antibodies and they would need them to be produced rapidly at a scale suitable for widespread distribution

so criscitiello and a team at texas a&m went to work immunizing cows with a protein designed to mimic an hiv surface protein to see if the cow would produce an immunological response creating antibodies with these hcdr3 loops

what was exciting was that we found that the cows didnt just make a good antibody; they made lots of antibodies and those antibodies bound not just some hiv very well but they were broadly neutralizing all different forms of the virus from all over the world criscitiello said

in addition the cattle produced those antibodies a lot faster than the team had anticipated

usually it takes six to eight months (to see an immunological response) because we give them boosters the way you do with some vaccines criscitiello said but we actually had really good antibodies in a couple months

since the team published their results medical engineering companies have picked up the research using dna cloning that attempts to take the part of the cattle gene that produces the hcdr3 loops and put that piece of dna into a human antibody-heavy chain

the result he says would likely be a therapy to serve as first line of defense but the therapy would be an immunological therapy instead of a medical treatment a lot of testing will go into the clinical intervention stage but criscitiello says the research is promising

this is exciting for our lab as our work is generally on more fundamental immunology questions and takes longer to be applied into therapeutic interventions criscitiello said

taking the bull by the horns

following their success criscitiello and his team returned to their basic science approach of research re-examining the cows immune system to delve deeper into the genetics behind their immunity

but because the team had been tinkering with other diseases in similar projects (including one on ebola) before the hiv breakthrough when scripps research collaborator vaughn smider shared with criscitiello that the scripps team was working on a project on breast cancer they wondered if what had worked in their hiv study could potentially work with smiders project

the hiv project excited us to try for more things and in this case its kind of a personal story criscitiello said vaughns wife had died of this particular kind of breast cancer triple-negative and so looking for new avenues for immune-therapeutics for that disease was high on his priority list

a particularly tricky form of cancer triple-negative breast cancer derives its name from testing negative for three important receptors that are usually good handles for clinical interventionestrogen progesterone and her2 about 10 to 20 percent of breast cancers that are diagnosed in the united states are found to be triple-negative

this is a particularly bad diagnosis if youre triple-negative the prognosis is much worse and if its metastatic disease the median survival is less than a year he said its a bad subset of breast cancer

while the hiv project received funding from the national institutes of health (nih) this project is not yet funded but this team plans to take the same approach as in the previous studyimmunizing cattle with the triple-negative cancer cells in hopes that the cattle produce the same hcdr3 response the team will also analyze the different proteins produced to see what happens

hopefully the cows immune system will go ‘oh this is foreign this is weird lets make some immune responses to these different proteins that were seeing criscitiello said

while the hiv response produced the right antigens within a couple of months for this project the team will have to wait and see theyre hoping to see the results theyre looking for within a year

ours is a discovery science kind of approach where we know the cow weve proven that the cow can do some neat tricks with its antibodies and we know that there are targets on triple-negative breast cancer that we havent been able to get a good handle on so far he said so were going to let the cow immune system do its magic and then analyze the cells that are making those antibodies and try to pull out the ones that bind the triple negative breast cancer

we know that some will bind; whether some will use their special hcdr3 loop to bind well enough to make an immune-therapeutic monoclonal antibody to treat at the cancer clinic thatll be the question he said

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note: this story originally appeared in the 2019 spring edition of cvm today

for more information about the texas a&m college of veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences please visit our website at vetmedtamuedu or join us on facebook instagram and twitter

contact information: jennifer gauntt interim director of communications media & public relations texas a&m college of veterinary medicine & biomedical science; jgauntt@cvmtamuedu; 979-862-4216

farrier jason maki has been the recipient of many on-the-job horse kicks but a recent encounter stands out as more memorable than the restbecause it may have saved his life

story by jennifer gauntt

over the years jason maki the farrier at the texas a&m college of veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences (cvm) large animal hospital (lah) has sustained dozens of injuries

the one that actually put me out of work the longest was when i tore my groin muscle because i couldnt work around it maki said ive torn my hamstring broken my finger broken my wrist broken my foot and broken my ankle i detached my tricep tendon ive been kicked through a wall twice and had a donkey kick me in the head and knock me out cold

danger he says is part of the job

so in september 2018 when maki was kicked just under his right ribcage while shoeing a large friesian-type horse he reacted as he normally wouldby gasping coughing and trying to walk it off

some people saw that i looked pretty gray and noticed that i couldnt breathe so they took me to the occupational health doctor he said the doctor looked at me and said ‘were sending you to the emergency room

when the emergency room doctor ordered a cat scan maki was disappointed to realize that he may have broken a couple of ribs and when the doctor ordered more tests maki began to worry that he may have ruptured something

the doc came back in and said ‘well as far as the trauma goes you have a bad contusion bruising and youre going to be sore for a while but you have a renal cell carcinoma on your right kidney… and i was like ‘excuse me thats literally what i said maki said im lying there and he repeated what he had said like that would clarify things for me

still reeling maki began further testing he learned that the cancer had a 97 percent survival rate and that luckily all that would be required was to remove his right kidney because the cancer hadnt spread

long but scary story short the cancer was all in the kidney and now my kidneys gone he said literally when i was in there after my two-week appointment the doctor read that (prognosis) to me and he said ‘so basically that means youre healed

saddling up

farrier wasnt the career field maki thought he would pursue growing up the oldest of four farm kids in ashtabula a tiny very rural town in northeastern ohio

while his family raised arabian horses and brittany spaniels and he grew up riding and showing horses maki went to college to double major in political science and history with the intention of going to law school

by the time i had a constitutional law course i realized i didnt want anything to do with any of that so i have a very liberal liberal-arts education he said

maki had learned farrier skills as a way to pay for law school so after trying out several career options including the military (which was ended after an injury) and working at a manufacturing plant he decided to attend horseshoeing school

he operated his own farriery for more than 10 years when he found that his profits were dwindling and he was literally working myself to death a friend emailed him a link for a job at texas a&m looking for its first full-time farrier and the rest as they say is history

a stable environment

today maki is one of only a few full-time farriers at veterinary colleges across the united states (five other veterinary schools have farriers)

after 10 years at texas a&m maki still lights up when he talks about his job he loves that each day brings something different that he has been able to cultivate his own client base and most importantly that he gets to be a part of the collaborative spirit that is embraced by the cvm faculty clinicians students and administrators

the beautiful thing about veterinary medicine at large and in my particular small role in taking care of horses feet is that theres always work to be done maki said theres always something new to learn and theres always a new way to look at somethingmultiple perspectives multiple modes of inputso its multifactorial; you never run out of things to think about

in addition to learning maki also has the opportunity to teach while there is no fourth-year rotation for farriers maki interacts with students through the cases that require his skills as well as a two-hour third-year skills lab he teaches that requires students to work on foot models by applying and removing shoes

we want to be proud of our didactic abilities and our knowledge we want to share our knowledge and we want to engage and make people answer their own questions he said but i have found the less i say in a physical lab the more they learn because im simply showing students what i want them to do why i want them to do it and then let them go (practice)

students will remember what they teach themselves so i give them a parameter to work within and offer tips when they encounter issues they struggle with he said they teach themselves how to physically do something and then they remember

working with so many people from such diverse backgrounds on a variety of cases and being exposed to new and changing technology also have allowed him to become better at his job

i am so lucky in the things that im exposed to the knowledge that i have been able to gain and the professionals i work with maki said i mean for any question i have there are two to three world-renowned experts at arms length so the educational opportunities are unending you absolutely cant beat it; youre forced to work collaboratively which makes the outcome better for everyone

socially everyone is treated respectfully and theres a much more open exchange of ideas up and down the food chain he said i love that about this place; i actually really enjoy that openness

looking for lessons

throughout the process of learning about and being treated for his cancer maki devoted a lot of time to researching its cause and inwardly contemplating what he was supposed to derive from his experience

i had a lot of time to think and i kept trying to figure out what the lesson was maki said before my diagnosis i was essentially having the conversation with myself that if i dont feel a horse is absolutely trustworthy im not going to work on it

well if i hadnt worked on that horse like the other one that i had declined earlier that week because i didnt feel that it would sedate well i never wouldve found out (about the cancer) he said

that lesson was compounded by what he concluded may have led to his cancerexposure to chemicals now known to cause kidney cancer without wearing a respirator at his manufacturing job all those years ago

its ironicthat bulldog mindset built the life that i have but it almost took it away as well; it wouldve killed me maki said so ive decided that has to be the lessoni have to realize that as a person and as an intellect i have value beyond what i can do; thats what i learned out of this

he also learned the value of familyhis lah family who offered him unending support during his recovery; his brotherhood of farriers who stepped in to help manage his caseload while he was out; and the family he goes home to every nighthis wife heather and daughters kelsey and carly his 19-year-old son ryan is a criminology major at cleveland state

i wouldnt trade those girls and heather for the world we have a wonderful life together all of us we always have fun and we always challenge each other to see new things he said i couldnt write a story to make my life any more perfect on that front

and then when it came right down to it and things got really scary my family was right thereto talk to to think about who always… he paused mid-thought you could see the terror in heathers face but she always responded rationally and reasonably and if i was getting too far out in left field she would bring me back in; she was the last face i saw before i went to sleep and the first one i saw when i woke up

i am the most blessed guy in the world maki concluded i have an amazing place to work i am blessed to be here and i am blessed to have the people around me that i do i wouldnt trade any of it for anything

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note: this story originally appeared in the 2019 spring edition of cvm today

for more information about the texas a&m college of veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences please visit our website at vetmedtamuedu or join us on facebook instagram and twitter

contact information: jennifer gauntt interim director of communications media & public relations texas a&m college of veterinary medicine & biomedical science; jgauntt@cvmtamuedu; 979-862-4216

dr ivan rusyn a professor in the college of veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences (cvm) department of veterinary integrative biosciences (vibs) is one of texas a&m universitys first five faculty members to be bestowed the title of university professor

the designation of university professor recognizes faculty who have demonstrated significant and sustained accomplishments in their discipline earning national and international recognition the award also highlights the recipients commitment to inclusivity accountability climate and equity in their department college and throughout their service at texas a&m

we are extremely proud that dr ivan rusyn has been selected for this distinguished recognition said dr eleanor m green the carl b king dean of veterinary medicine at texas a&m dr rusyn is an established national and international authority on complex problems in environmental health and human health assessments and is greatly deserving of an inaugural university professorship designation

as part of the award the holder also has the opportunity to name the professorship for retired emeritus or deceased texas a&m faculty member who has had an impact on their career and scholarship rusyn selected to name this professorship after the late professor kc donnelly former department head of environmental and occupational health at the school of public health at texas a&m who passed away on july 1 2009

this is a humbling honor rusyn said i am indebted to all of my current and past trainees and colleagues for their hard work and encouragement and feel that this honor is shared by all of them i also wish to recognize the legacy of kc donnelly one of the pioneers of environmental health and toxicology at texas a&m kc was and remains a role model and inspiration to many toxicologists who work to protect public health in texas united states and worldwide

kc donnelly was an environmental scientist who played a major role in the texas a&m university superfund project which is now directed by dr rusyn said dr stephen safe a distinguished professor in the cvms veterinary physiology & pharmacology (vtpp) kc was a wonderful colleague and mentor to students at this university and his many contributions to superfund research were recognized by the national institute of environmental health sciences (niehs) which annually awards kc donnelly externships for graduate student trainees to establish collaborations with other superfund centers thanks to dr rusyn and niehs for their recognition of kc

rusyn received his doctor of medicine degree from ukrainian state medical university in kyiv and his doctor of philosophy degree in toxicology from the university of north carolina at chapel hill where he was professor of environmental sciences and engineering until coming to texas a&m in 2014

in 2017 rusyn was awarded a five-year $10-million niehs grant for the establishment of the texas a&m superfund research center though which he and scientists from across texas a&m are conducting four environmental research projects that work to translate science into the practice of mitigating the health and environmental consequences of exposure to hazardous chemical mixtures

rusyns areas of research include toxicology and environmental health sciences especially developing highly mechanistic approaches to study the potential effects of environmental pollutants and other anthropogenic stressors on human health he also focuses on the mechanisms of action of environmental toxicants the genetic determinants of the susceptibility to toxicant-induced injury and computational toxicology

recipients of the university professor honor receive an annual stipend for three years and as faculty members in good standing they retain the title of university professorship throughout their career at the university

nominations for the distinction were submitted by department heads or deans and the finalists were selected by a university committee and approved by the provost

other recipients include: vladislav yakovlev biomedical engineering college of engineering; bhimanagouda patil horticultural sciences college of agriculture & life sciences; deborah bell-pederson biology college of science; and wendy jepson geography college of geosciences

for more information about the honorees and their professorship namesake visit the dean of faculties website

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for more information about the texas a&m college of veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences please visit our website at vetmedtamuedu or join us on facebook instagram and twitter

contact information: jennifer gauntt interim director of cvm communications texas a&m college of veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences; jgauntt@cvmtamuedu; 979-862-4216

through a variety of projects focusing on reproductive science‚ dr charles long works to expand horizons in large animal research in a way that will benefit animals‚ industry‚ and humans

story by vandana suresh

dr charles long a professor in the department of veterinary physiology & pharmacology (vtpp) in the college of veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences (cvm) has dedicated his career to expanding the scope of reproductive science research at texas a&m university

since starting his own research group 15 years ago he has worked on a variety of projects to satisfy his intellectual curiosity tackling diverse topics that range from developing assisted reproductive techniques for livestock to investigating early embryonic development

long was always certain he wanted a career in animal sciences growing up on a small dairy farm in southern missouri he developed a close understanding of animal agriculture at a young age

dairy farming cattle operations pig operations i worked on all of those things he said

hence when it came time to pick a major for his undergraduate degree at the university of missouri he was quick to choose animal sciences

during his undergraduate years courses on reproductive biology and genetics piqued longs interest to explore his newfound interest further he applied for a work-study position in a research laboratory that was studying the genetics of reproduction

this research experience made a lasting impression on long

the whole idea of experimental design and doing experiments that no one else had donethat was pretty fascinating to me he said

although long greatly enjoyed research the decision to pursue it at the graduate level was made on his behalf

i was in the lab and my adviser comes in and says ‘i signed you up for grad school today youve got to take your gre and some other things but you will start graduate school as soon as you are done with your undergrad he said

for his masters project long studied the genetic mechanisms that control uterine size in mice he also picked up a new experimental technique following graduate schoolcloning

i was really excited about the potential of cloning he said my background in genetics allowed me to see the potential of using clones and assisted reproductive technologies to improve livestock particularly cattle sheep goats and pigs

shortly after obtaining a masters degree he joined granada biosciences a cattle-cloning company during his time at the company long became interested in the biological underpinnings of cloned animals particularly the environmental factors that affect their embryonic development

however he found it difficult to pursue these questions in industry thus he decided to go back to academia for his doctoral project at the university of massachusetts-amherst he investigated the differences in the development of embryos produced from cloning versus normal fertilization

after his phd long spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow at the united states department of agriculture then after spending another six years in industry long decided to leave it for good and join a research-driven academic institution