10-08-07

CVM This Week
October 8, 2007

CVM This Week is a weekly newsletter for faculty, staff, and students of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Please submit news and calendar items to Sue Kirchoff, editor, at kirch004@umn.edu before noon Friday. To view CVM This Week as a Web page and access back issues, go to http://www.cvm.umn.edu/newsandevents/publications/cvmthisweek/home.html.

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In this issue

• College news

• • Equine Center grand opening set for Monday, Oct. 15

  • Pets in the Crossfire of Family Violence to air Sunday

  • Respectful Workplace training is Oct. 16

  • Veterinary Medical Library to host open house

  • Bringing research to market will be topic of Nov. 2 seminar

  • Community Fund drive begins

  • In memory: Dr. Al Kunkel

• Calendar

• Media coverage

• Faculty and staff news

• • Laura Molgaard makes Rotary presentation

• Student news

• • Cleve Souza successfully defends Ph.D.

• Research news

• • Clinical studies currently enrolling in the VMC

• Needs a home

• • Oliver, a cat

  • Frankie, a Weimaraner

• Links

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College news (top)

Equine Center grand opening set for Monday, Oct. 15
After many years of planning, fund-raising, and anticipation, the grand opening of the University of Minnesota Leatherdale Equine Center will take place on Monday, Oct. 15, from 2:00-4:30 p.m. In addition to a grand opening ceremony to be attended by Governor Tim Pawlenty, University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks, former dean Jeff Klausner, and other VIPs, the event will include demonstrations of --

• Computerized gait analysis and motion-analysis system

• Aqua treadmill and other rehabilitation therapies

• High-speed treadmill

• State-of-the art reproduction wing

• Diagnostic imaging

• Ophthalmology

• The We Can Ride program

Also part of the festivities will be a silent auction featuring paintings by Hercules. Faculty, staff, students, and the general public are invited to attend. Take Gortner Avenue north to Dudley Avenue, turn right, and go three blocks. The Equine Center will be on your left at 1801 Dudley Avenue.

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Pets in the Crossfire of Family Violence to air Sunday
If you missed the first airing of the Twin Cities Public Television's production of Pets in the Crossfire of Family Violence, a  program taped at the Building a Bridge of Hope: Interdisciplinary Conference of Family Violence and Animal Abuse on March 29, the next airing will be Sunday, October 14, from 7-8 p.m. on TPT- Channel 17.

Respectful Workplace training set for Oct. 16
Respectful Workplace training is scheduled for 9 a.m. Oct. 16 in 280 Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. New employees are required to attend this training. To sign up, contact Helen Pederson at 624-8673 or h-pede1@umn.edu.

Veterinary Medical Library to host open house
The Veterinary Medical Library will be having an open house on October 30 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be prizes, give-aways, food, and opportunities to meet the library staff and ask questions. Watch for an upcoming online quiz where you can win a grand prize!

New acquisitions for September can now be seen at http://www.vetmed.lib.umn.edu/news/acquisitions

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Bringing research to market will be topic of Nov. 2 seminar
"From Lab to Market: The Challenges of Bringing Research to the Public through Technology Commercialization" will be the topic of a November 2 professional development seminar to be held from noon-1 p.m. in 280 Veterinary Diagnosic Laboratory. David L. Provence, Ph.D, patent attorney with Mueting, Raasch & Gebhardt, PA, will discuss the controversies and challenges of commercializing university research, including --

• How can researchers best protect their ideas?

• What is our experience in patenting and commercializing inventions relating to isolates, mutants, cell lines, peptides, and the like?

• What is the controversy around patenting genes?

• What patent possibilities and challenges lie ahead in a future of genetic engineering and individualized medicine for animals and humans?

David Provence is a patent attorney practicing in the area of biotechnology, including protein expression and nucleic acid synthesis, agricultural biotechnology, transgenic plants, genetics, structural and functional genomic analysis, microbiology, and general biology. He earned his PhD. in microbiology from Washington University and worked as a post-doctoral research associate in a laboratory at the Washington University School of Medicine before attending law school and earning a J.D. degree from the William Mitchell College of Law.

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Community Fund Drive begins
The University's annual Community Fund drive began Oct. 1 and continues through Oct. 31. This year's goal is a participation rate of 40 percent and a total of $1.25 million for state charities. View the welcome from cochairs Steve Cawley, vice president and CIO for information technology, and Billie Wahlstrom, vice provost for distributed education and instructional technology, at  Minnesota charities count on U.

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In memory: Dr. Al Kunkel
Dr. Alphonse Kunkel, class of 1952, died of lung cancer at his Cold Spring, Minn., home on Sept. 17. Dr. Kunkel was a proponent of organic dairy farming before it was part of the modern agricultural landscape. A few years after graduating from the College, he established a practice in St. Michael, where he became a longtime resident and advocate of more exercise and roughage and less corn for healthier cows. In 1976, he served as president of the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association. In the early 1980s, Dr. Kunkel left veterinary practice to serve as a nutritional consultant for dairy farmers. His work took him to Guyana, Poland, and Russia. Dr. Kunkel is survived by his wife, Joyce, three daughters, a son, three sisters, three brothers, eight grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Services have been held.