Infectious Diseases and Immunology 

The immune system of human beings and domestic animals has evolved to protect the body from microbial infections. Vaccination is aimed at mobilizing the immune defense mechanisms and is one of the most successful medical interventions. It has led to the eradication of small pox in people and rinderpest in cattle, and almost complete eradication of polio. Yet, infectious diseases continue to plague human and animal populations. The majority of emerging infectious diseases that affect human beings originate in animals emphasizing the need to control infections in both domestic animals and wildlife populations.

Research in the College of Veterinary Medicine is aimed at the control of infectious diseases that affect humans and animals through improved diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccination. Some of the work includes the development of new diagnostic tests for infectious diseases; development of new antibiotics against Salmonella, Listeria and MRSA; recombinant adenoviral vectors for effective influenza vaccines; the study of influenza and other viral diseases in poultry and swine; and epidemiologic studies of zoonotic infectious diseases.

While the immune system is necessary for the defense against infections, abnormal functioning of the immune system can cause life-threatening and debilitating diseases often associated with chronic inflammation. Such diseases affect both humans and domestic animals, and research in the College of Veterinary Medicine is aimed at the development of novel therapies. Examples of diseases that are being investigated include inflammatory bowel disease, chronic dermatitis, prostatitis, and allergic airway disease in horses.

Faculty

Infectious Diseases:

Diagnostics

• Messick, Joanne (CPB) - hemotropic mycoplasmas
  
• Pillai, Deepti (CPB/ADDL) - antimicrobial resistance; BRD and other bacterial pathogens
• Robinson, J. Paul (BMS) - food safety; spectral imaging
  
• Santos, Andrea (CPB)
• Weng, Hsin-Yi (CPB) - epidemiology
• Wilkes, Rebecca (CPB) - molecular and viral

Epidemiology

• Moore, George (CPB) - infectious diseases of companion animals

Pathogenesis

• Guptill, Lynn (VCS) - Bartonella henselae
• Dangoudoubiyam, Sriveny (CPB) - ascarids of zoonotic and discovery of novel anthelmintics
• Konradt, Christoph (CPB) - Toxoplasmosis and Neosporosis
• Messick, Joanne (CPB) - hemotropic mycoplasmas
• Rice, Christopher (CPB) - parasitology, amebic infections
• Thangamani, Shankar (CPB) – host-microbiome interactions, Candida infections
• Wilkes, Rebecca (CPB) - viral diseases

Therapeutics

• Narayanan, Sanjeev (CPB)
• Rice, Christopher (CPB) - parasitology, amebic infections
• Thangamani, Shankar (CPB) – host-microbiome interactions, Candida infections
• Townsend, Wendy (VCS) – infectious diseases of the eye 

Vaccines

• HogenEsch, Harm (CPB) – adjuvants
• Lin, Tsang Long (CPB) – viral diseases of poultry
  
• Mittal, Suresh (CPB) – recombinant adenovirus vectors; pandemic influenza

Immunology:

• Couetil, Laurent (VCS) – inflammatory airway disease in horses
• Elzey, Ben (CPB) – role of platelets in inflammation
  
• HogenEsch, Harm (CPB) – pathogenesis of chronic inflammation
  
• Konradt, Christoph (CPB) - immune responses in the vascular compartment and the placenta
• Ratliff, Tim (CPB) - prostatitis and prostate cancer
  
• Taylor, Sandy (VCS) – septicemia in foals