October 2024

Fall Semester is Underway!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I hope all of you have had a great start to the semester and are enjoying fall in Wisconsin! In September, I wrapped up my initial SVM listening sessions with students, staff, and faculty. The sessions reminded me of the strengths of our community – values such as compassion, excellence, and respect. I also heard from many of you about strong desires to continue to improve on everything from our teaching hospital to our learning environment to how we communicate.

I plan to share more information about what I heard in these sessions, along with some actionable follow up items, in the near future. I really appreciate all the honest and thoughtful input and how it will help chart our course as we begin to develop our strategic plan.

I had another opportunity to join campus officials in celebrating the University’s 175th anniversary, this time with a road trip to La Crosse. As part of that event, we visited Central Animal Hospital, an innovative companion animal clinic owned by SVM alumni Doug (DVM’98) and Kim Kratt (DVM’00). It was great to hear the story of how they developed their practice, while supporting clients and future veterinarians and technicians. WXOW-TV covered the day’s activities.

Finally, for those who have not heard, the SVM was announced as a participant in the UW-Madison RISE-THRIVE initiative, which will bring new tenure track faculty positions to the school. RISE-THRIVE will focus on strengthening UW-Madison’s investments and leadership in two distinct yet complementary areas: the science of immunology and the study of the healthspan. This is a significant and exciting reinvestment in our academic environment and we’re grateful to the Chancellor and Provost for their support.

On Wisconsin!

Jon

We were thrilled to welcome students, faculty and staff to the annual SVM picnic on September 13. Thanks to everyone who joined the fun and helped start the fall semester on a great note together.

UW Veterinary Care News

Update from Chris Snyder, director, UW Veterinary Care, and associate dean for clinical affairs

Happy fall! We love the energy that arrives at UWVC with the start of a new semester as residents and interns continue to get settled in their rotations and a whole new group of future veterinarians kick off their DVM journey at the School. With the new season, we are also pleased to welcome:

– Jensen Christensen, Libby Krull and Sara Snell join as veterinary nurse assistants in our emergency department

– Megan Helfand Berge joins as a veterinary nurse in special species

– Taylor Jones joins our client services team as a client care liaison in the emergency department

– Mark Nipper joins the anesthesiology team as a veterinary nurse

We are thrilled to have these new team members on board and, as always, we appreciate the patience of our staff, clients and partners as we continue to make progress on the ongoing renovations to SVM South.

DEI News

Update from Richard Barajas, assistant dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion

There are many great opportunities coming up to engage with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives around the SVM and across the UW-Madison campus. We encourage you to check out these offerings and join if you can!

The UW School of Medicine and Public Health and UW Health, along with the Office of Diversity and Equity Transformation, are presenting the 2024 Diversity Summit, Thursday, October 10 from 3-6:30 p.m. in the Health Sciences Learning Center. This year’s theme is “Advancing Disability Rights: Perspectives and Progress,” with a keynote address from Anjali Forber Pratt, PhD — director of research at the American Association on Health & Disability, a

disability activist and a two-time Paralympian.

The Health Sciences Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Lunch and Learn sessions are returning! These sessions are planned and coordinated by the associate and assistant deans and DEI managers at the Schools of Nursing, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, and Medicine & Public Health, and UW Health. The topic for October 16 is “Reducing Implicit & Unconscious

Bias in Health Professions.” Check out the full academic year schedule and register here.

Mark your calendar for the Health Sciences Multicultural Reception Wednesday, October 23 from 4-5:30 p.m. in the School of Nursing Courtyard, hosted by the SVM along with the Schools of Nursing, Pharmacy, and Medicine & Public Health. This event is a wonderful opportunity to connect, celebrate diversity, and support one another within our

community. Register here by October 16.

Veterinarians as One Inclusive Community for Empowerment (VOICE/PRIDE SVM) is a student-run organization founded in 2004 with a mission is to increase awareness, respect and sensitivity to differences among all individuals and communities in the field. Anyone interested in joining the email list to stay up to date on club happenings can complete this

form.

School News

Congratulations to Serena George, graduate student, Veterinary Medicine and Molecular and Environmental Toxicology, for being one of the winners in UW-Madison’s Cool Science Image Contest 2024. The image (below) shows sheets of cells migrating away from the edge of four scales taken from fathead minnows.

Two UW SVM students were honored this year with the Merck Animal Health Bovine Veterinary Student Recognition Award! Matthew Vander Poel and Cady McGehee were selected for this prestigious scholarship based on their academic achievements, career goals, work experience and interest in veterinary medicine. This award was recognized at the 2024 American Association of Bovine Practitioners Annual Conference. Congratulations!

Peter Halfmann (’01 PhD’08; Department of Pathobiological Sciences) was awarded $4.5 million in funding as part of the FDA’s Animal and Veterinary Innovation Center initiative to support the BRAVE (Building Resistance Against Viral Entities) Innovation Center at the SVM’s Influenza Research Institute. The primary focus of the center is to create chickens that are resistant to infections caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses, including the current H5N1 strain.

Kavi Mehta (Department of Comparative Biosciences) published a paper with Tony Goldberg (Department of Pathobiological Sciences) identifying a brand-new papillomavirus in monkeys that has oncogenic potential in monkeys and humans.

Congratulations to veterinary student Krista (Yiyao) Li, pictured (below) with her dog, Phoebe, for receiving a 2024 Humane Society VMA Compassionate Care Scholarship. Krista served as treasurer, then president, of the HSVMA student chapter here at the SVM. She is passionate about advocating for inclusivity and founded an Anti-Racism Forum Committee to address systemic racism in the veterinary medical profession.

Troy Hornberger’s (Department of Comparative Biosciences) team received new funding from ‘Solve FSHD” to address whether resistance exercise can serve as effective intervention for people that are suffering from facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. In addition, he and Hector Paez recently received a 4-year award to support Hector’s post-doctoral training in the Hornberger lab. Finally, the Hornberger lab also published a paper in EMBO Reports, “Satellite cell-derived TRIM28 is pivotal for mechanical load- and injury-induced myogenesis.”

Nick Burgraff (Department of Comparative Biosciences) was recently featured for an article in The Physiologist Magazine about how to “Look for the Positive in Negative Research Results.”

Abbey Williams (DVMx’28; Department of Pathobiological Sciences), under the mentorship of Lisa Arendt (’98 DVM’02 PhD’07) successfully defended her PhD in July and just started the DVM program. Her PhD work advances our understanding of the connections between obesity, T cell dysfunction, with breast cancer risk, progression, and metastasis. During her PhD, she was awarded a prestigious HHMI Gilliam Fellowship. She also received the Ronald Schultz Excellence in Immunology Award and a Wisconsin Initiative for Science Literacy Award. Congratulations and good luck!

Congratulations to Kim Keil Stietz (PhD’14; Department of Comparative Biosciences) – along with Walid Farhat (UW Health Urology) and collaborator Chad Vezina – for being awarded a CAIRIBU Interactions Core Collaboration Award for her project, “Genetic origin of incontinence linked to Shh signaling,” to investigate a new mouse model of urinary incontinence.

The Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education (IPHE) has issued a survey to help create actionable framework related to One Health in veterinary education. Participation in the survey is voluntary; all responses will be de-identified and reported only in the aggregate. Participants will have an early opportunity to see the data. Direct any questions to Dr. Andy Hoffman at hoffman018@vet.upenn.edu.

Congratulations to McLean Gunderson (Department of Comparative Biosciences) for launching a new online resource for building and deploying innovative instructional models in veterinary education.

SVM in the News

A recent example of the tremendous importance of collaboration between public health agencies, WVDL played a key role in the investigation and mitigation of a recent salmonella outbreak linked to eggs supplied by a Wisconsin poultry farm.

Wirecutter has a guide of all the factors to consider when traveling with pets this fall, no matter your mode of transportation, with input from UWVC veterinarians Jill Caviness and Molly Racette (both of the Department of Medical Sciences).

Calico Schmidt (’88 DVM’92; Department of Pathobiological Sciences) shared her thoughts with Inverse in a recent news article about whether it is safe for cats to sleep in bed with their humans.