CVM This Week
December 18, 2006
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 for next week's issue to Sue Kirchoff, editor, at kirch004@umn.edu before noon Friday. To view CVM This Week online and access back issues, go to http://www.cvm.umn.edu/newsandevents/publications/cvmthisweek/home.html
In this issue
College news (top)
Linear accelerator project moves forward
On Dec. 7, the Facilities Committee of the Board of Regents approved a request for the Veterinary Medical Center to purchase a linear accelerator for the oncology program. It was a wish come true for Dean Jeffrey Klausner, VMC director David Lee, and many others at the College.
"Our linear accelerator will be the only one for veterinary use in the Upper Midwest," says Dr. Lee. "With its computer-mapping capabilities, it will not only greatly improve the quality of care we provide but help us build the University of Minnesota's veterinary oncology service into the center of excellence we’ve envisioned."
An extensive fund-raising campaign is underway to help pay for the linear accelerator and necessary shielding for the facility. The project is expected to be complete by next summer.
Sometimes referred to in shorthand as a "linac," a linear accelerator is the device most commonly used for external beam radiation treatments for patients with cancer. It delivers a uniform dose of high-energy X-ray to the region of the patient's tumor. These X-rays can destroy the cancer cells while sparing the surrounding normal tissue.
A thank-you from the dean's office
The dean's office thanks everyone who brought desserts to the year-end luncheon on Dec. 14. More than 700 faculty, staff, and students were served!
Speaker to discuss Latin American animal health and food safety
Dr. James G. Butler, deputy director general of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) will discuss animal health and food safety opportunities and challenges in Latin America on Tuesday, Dec. 19, at noon in 280 Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. The IICA's purpose is to promote agriculture and rural development throughout the 34 countries in the Western Hemisphere. Pizza will be served, and everyone is welcome.
Donate to Second Harvest Heartland through Friday
The College will be collecting donations for Second Harvest Heartland through Friday. Bins are available near the dean's office on the fourth floor of the Veterinary Medical Center and the lobby area of Animal Science/Veterinary Medicine. Bring a non-perishable donation to help restock local food shelves.
U of M Libraries now offer Foundation Directory online
The University of Minnesota Libraries now offer access to a premiere research tool, the Foundation Directory Online. The directory offers full-text search capability across a comprehensive array of documents and data about U.S. grantmaking. More than 80,000 unique sponsor profiles organize the latest foundation news, RFPs, job openings, publications, and key staff affiliations. Program details and guidelines for funding applications are provided, as well as links to foundation Web sites. The Foundation Directory Online is updated weekly. For access and more information, go to http://www.lib.umn.edu/get/fdo. Access is available for the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities only.
Calendar (top)
Monday, December 18
New Employee Orientation
8:30 a.m.-noon
458 Veterinary Medical Center
Tuesday, December 19
Ph.D. Thesis Defense Seminar
Studies on the Function and Regulation of a Novel Gene Cluster Associated with Iron Transport in Escherichia coli
Presented by Zhiming Ouyang
Advisor: Dr. Richard Isaacson
8:30 a.m.
215 Veterinary Science
Everyone is welcome to attend.
Animal Health and Food Safety Opportunities and Challenges in Latin America
Presented by Dr. James G. Butler, deputy director general, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture
Noon
280 Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
Pizza will be served.
No Seminar in Comparative and Molecular Biosciences today
Wednesday, December 20
Master's Thesis Defense Seminar
Evaluation of Diagnostic Tools to Detect and Characterize Johne's Disease in Dairy Herds
Presented by Natalia Cernicchiaro
Advisor: Dr. Scott Wells
9 a.m.
215 Veterinary Science
Everyone is welcome to attend.
Thursday, December 21
No Veterinary Clinical Sciences Grand Rounds today
Friday, December 22
Hematology/Cytology Rounds
8 a.m.
280 Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
No Large Animal Grand Rounds today
Monday, December 25
Christmas holiday (University closed)
Tuesday, December 26
Christmas holiday (University closed)
What's ahead
New Year's holiday (University closed): Jan. 1
Mather Lecture Series- Controversies in Internal Medicine: Jan. 4, 7-8:30 p.m., 135 Animal Science Veterinary Medicine. Topics will include "Lepto, Lepto Everywhere?" presented by Dr. Jane Armstrong,"Trilostane Versus Lysodren in the Treatment of Canine Cushing's Syndrome," presented by Dr. Jen Myers, and "Immune-Mediated Thrombocytopenia: Current Perspectives on Causes and Therapy," presented by Dr. Domenico Bianco. For more information about the Mather Lecture Series, go to www.cvm.umn.edu/outreach/events/mather.html.
Hill's pet food orders due: January 12, noon
Hill's pet food distribution: January 24, 7-7:50 a.m. and noon-12:50 p.m., Large Animal Hospital by the Gortner Avenue dock
Hill's pet food distribution: January 25, 7-7:50 a.m. and noon-12:50 p.m., Large Animal Hospital by the Gortner Avenue dock
Hill's pet food distribution: January 26, 7-7:50 a.m. and noon-12:50 p.m., Large Animal Hospital by the Gortner Avenue dock
Media news (top)
Shaun Kennedy, co-director of the National Center for Food Protection and Defense and associate director of the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety, was interviewed for a story about E coli on Minnesota Public Radio on Dec. 14. The story is online at http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/12/14/ecoli/.
Faculty and staff news (top)
Get ready for spring semester; submit your material to the library
With spring semester coming soon, instructors are invited to submit their syllabi or other lists containing library materials to Lisa Berg at m-berg@umn.edu. Lisa will insert the call numbers for all the library items to help students locate the materials quickly and send the list back to you. If you have PowerPoint presentations or other electronic data that you'd like to put on class reserve for the spring, please fill out the form available at http://www.lib.umn.edu/pdf/eressubform.pdf and bring the materials to the library by January 2.
Other news from the library
RefWorks now offers a RefGrab-It plug-in under the Tools menu. This plug-in allows you to capture urls to cite specific Web pages in your papers. If you need help in learning to use it or would like a one-on-one RefWorks tutorial, e-mail Andre Nault at naulta@umn.edu.
Student news (top)
Dileepan Thamotharampillai successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis, "Defining the Molecular Basis of Species-Specific Susceptibility to RTX Toxins from Mannheimia haemolytica and Aggregatibacter (Actinobacillus) actinomycetemcomitans," on Dec. 12. Dileepan's advisors were Dr. Sam Maheswaran and Dr. Mathur Kannan. Dileepan will be working with Dr. Pat Cleary and Dr. Marc Jenkins as a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
Jennifer Johnson successfully defended her master's thesis, "The Effect of Different Colostrum Management Strategies on Passive Transfer of Cellular and Humoral Immune Parameters in Holstein Calves," on Dec. 11. Jen's advisor was Dr. Sandra Godden. Jennifer is now working on her Ph.D. in Comparative and Molecular Biosciences under the guidance of Dr. Pratima Pakala in the Medical School's Department of Surgery.
Research news (top)
Clinical studies currently enrolling in the VMC
For more information, contact the clinicians named below or Kathy Stuebner in the Clinical Investigation Center (CIC) at 4-2485 or pager 612-534-2493. Visit the CIC Web site at http://www.cvm.umn.edu/cic/current.
- Breeds at high risk for transitional cell carcinoma study: Need purebred beagles, Scottish terriers, Shetland sheepdogs, and West Highland white terriers with and without bladder cancer. Contact Alexa Hart, 612-624-5695, http://www.cvm.umn.edu/acc/home.html.
- Cats with urinary tract disease. Feline idiopathic cystitis (FIC) study. We want adult cats with non-obstructive cystitis due to uroliths, infections, or active interstitial cystitis. Contact Dr. Jody Lulich 612-625-7277, lulic001@umn.edu; or Kellie Strand, 612-625-8242.
- Chow/Akita stomach cancer study. Need purebred chows and Akitas, both healthy and affected. Contact Alexa Hart, 612-624-5695, http://www.cvm.umn.edu/acc/home.html.
- Effect of renal insufficiency on serum cardiac troponin I levels in dogs. Seeking 100 healthy dogs and 100 dogs in renal insufficiency (creatinine levels equal or higher than 3.0 mg/dl and urine specific gravity between 1.030 -1.007). If your dog or your client's dog meets the criteria, please contact Dr. Inese Berzina at berzi008@umn.edu or 612-626-5322 or Dr. Leslie Sharkey at 612-624-6171.
- Equine aural plaques: horses with aural plaques wanted for a study using imiquimod. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Sheila Torres: 612-625-3715 or torre009@umn.edu and/or Dr. Erin Malone: 612-625-6700 or malon001@umn.edu.
- Human intravenous immune globulin in dogs with primary immune-mediated thrombocytopenia (IMT). Seeking dogs with acute IMT that have not been on corticosteroids for more than 24 hours. Contact Dr. Domenico Bianco, 612-625-5244, bianc037@umn.edu.
- Improved management of advanced kidney disease in dogs using an intestinal-based probiotic therapy. Seeking dogs with chronic kidney disease for one-year study. Contact Dr. David Polzin, 5-4254, polzi001@umn.edu.
- Mammary tumor study. Need purebred German shepherd dogs, English springer spaniels, cocker spaniels, boxers, and poodles with a diagnosed mammary tumor. Contact Alexa Hart, 612-624-5695, http://www.cvm.umn.edu/acc/home.html.
- Osteosarcoma study of large-breed dogs. Need purebred dogs with pedigrees, both healthy and affected dogs. Alexa Hart, 612-624-5695, http://www.cvm.umn.edu/acc/home.html.
- Squamous cell carcinoma study: Need cats with oral squamous cell carcinoma for a one-week experiemental treatment. Contact Alexa Hart, 612-624-5695, http://www.cvm.umn.edu/acc/home.html.
- Thyroid reference ranges. Healthy, purebred Alaskan malamutes, American collies, English setters, golden retrievers, keeshonds, Samoyeds, and Siberian huskies to participate in a study to establish breed-specific reference ranges for thyroid hormone levels. Contact Dr. Rebecca Davies at 612-626-0168 or rdavies@umn.edu or Dr. Sheila Torres at 612-625-3715 or torre009@umn.edu.
Applications sought for postdoctoral training program
The College is accepting applications from veterinarians seeking state-of-the-art research training in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) postdoctoral training program in Comparative Medicine and Pathology. The application deadline is Feb. 1, 2007. For details, go to http://www.cvm.umn.edu/about/humanresources/employment/Postdoc.html.
Need a foster home (top)
Veterinary Medical Center blood donors
The Veterinary Medical Center has a small number of dogs and cats that live in the hospital and provide life-saving blood products for patients. Rescued from area shelters, these in-house donors are young, healthy, fully vaccinated, neutered, temperament-tested animals that donate blood about once a month and serve as blood donors for about two years years. While they are blood donors, they are “owned” by the Companion Animal Blood Donor program, which takes care of minor medical problems they may have while in foster care. Foster parents are needed to provide them a loving, safe, home while they are donors and bring them back once a month for blood donation. The foster family is then the first on the list to be able to adopt them permanently. These blood donors need foster homes:
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Chili
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Tracker
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| Chili, a neutered male black lab/husky cross, 3-4 years old, with one blue and one brown eye. Smart and sweet, he likes to run and play ball, but is a bit shy. He came from the Crossroads Animal Shelter. |
Tracker, a neutered male coonhound , is 1-2 years old and likes to bay like a beagle when he is excited. He loves people and playing with other dogs. He will need to stay on leash or in a fenced yard at all times given his tracking tendancies. With a little obedience training and lots of TLC, he will make someone a great friend.
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If you are interested in providing a foster home for Chili or Tracker, please contact Dora or Beth at 612-625-9726, extension 2, and leave a message or stop by the Intensive Care Unit.
Links (top)
CVM This Week
Back issues of CVM This Week, from June 2004 to today's issue, are at http://www.cvm.umn.edu/newsandevents/publications/cvmthisweek/home.html.
Hills pet food distribution program
For more information about the Hill's Pet Food Distribution program, contact Melissa Caid at caid0002@umn.edu or Jaime Nett at nett0049@umn.edu.
Housing
For information about student and off-campus housing, including a housing and roommate search service, go to http://www.housing.umn.edu/.
Job openings
For information about positions available at the College, visit www.cvm.umn.edu/About/HumanResources/Employment /. For detailed information about current job openings, how to apply, and application materials, go to the University of Minnesota Office of Human Resources at http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/employment/index.html.
The VMC Pulse
Issues are available online by logging in at http://www.cvm.umn.edu/vmc/staffresources/Pulse.html.
Veterinary conferences
Dates, places, and links for national and international veterinary conferences are on the College Web site at http://www.cvm.umn.edu/newsandevents/conferences/home.html.
Veterinary Medical Library
For information about the Veterinary Medical Library, including new acquisitions, visit http://www.vetmed.lib.umn.edu/news.
Veterinary Practice News
Did you know that you can get a free subscription? Subscribe (or renew) online at www.vetpracticenews.com.
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 for next week's issue to Sue Kirchoff, editor, at kirch004@umn.edu before noon Friday.
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
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