About
I am a critical care veterinarian and postdoctoral research fellow at the Colorado State
University Veterinary Teaching Hospital. In addition, I am a part-time staff veterinarian at the Wild Animal Sanctuary. Over the past five
years, I have been working in regenerative medicine utilizing mesenchymal
stem cells (MSC) as a therapeutic modality for various disease processes
including multidrug resistant infections, immune mediated disease and arthritis.
We recently conducted a trial in dogs
with severe arthritis using force plate gait analysis and examining joint
fluid to evaluate their pain before and after intravenous MSC inections.
These dogs were treated with 3 injections of adipose derived MSC from unrelated
donors. No adverse effects were noted in any animal and all dogs were
reported to improve substantially even after withdrawal
from nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications for the 6 month period of
observation (publication in progress).
Regenerative
medicine is a promising new avenue for treatment of chronic age related degenerative diseases. I have
safely treated several species with cells grown in the laboratory including a
mountain lion, tiger, wolf, coyote and an elephant. We have
successfully modified a protocol utilized in other species to grow MSC from
blood and are confident that this procedure could be used for multiple species
precluding the necessity for sedation and a surgical procedure.
I am interested in advancing medical care for species which currently
have limited therapeutic options and investigating the potential of
regenerative medicine in these animals. I believe my experience in
regenerative medicine and working with cells from multiple different species
puts me in a unique position to develop more efficient and effective methods
for treating these valuable animals.
Joined
October 2016
