Valerie Johnson

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.

October 2016