CVM Faculty, Staff and Student Accolades

Marquis Who’s Who has presented Jorge Ribas, DVM, with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. Ribas, an alumnus of the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, is a native of Ecuador who came to the United States in 1963 with limited knowledge of English. Upon his arrival, he attended Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, as well as Southwest Missouri State University, now known as Missouri State University, in Springfield, Missouri. After graduation he moved on to the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, where he earned a doctorate in 1971.

The Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, according to the Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement website, recognizes individuals who have achieved greatness in their industry. These individuals have excelled in their field for at least 20 years.

Now residing in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Ribas was honored by the Marquis Who’s Who organization for his numerous accomplishments in the fields of medical science, business, and community activism. Some of his most significant imprints on the medical community were his efforts in planning and implementing congressionally mandated programs for Gulf War Syndrome, drug addiction in Vietnam Veterans, and HIV infection and AIDS. He has served as the president of multiple healthcare and nonprofit organizations, and co-founded and was named the first president of the Mid Atlantic Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

By Nick Childress

Sarah Young, DVM, graduate fellow, has been selected as a presenter for the 2021 Crohn’s and Colitis Congress for her poster submission. The Crohn’s and Colitis Congress is a partnership of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation and the American Gastroenterological Association. The congress brings together and empowers a multidisciplinary community of health care practitioners and researchers to transform inflammatory bowel disease care.

The title of her project is “Evaluating the Role of Goblet Cell Associated Antigen Passages (Gaps) in the Development of Mucosal Immune Tolerance in the CFTR KO Intestine.” This work was named a poster of distinction for presentation and the submission scored in the top 10 percent of poster abstracts. The Crohn’s and Colitis Congress will take place virtually and is scheduled for Jan. 21-24, 2021.

Ten students in the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine have been named recipients of college Phi Zeta research grants. Phi Zeta is the national honor society of veterinary medicine. The recipients will be awarded funds that will support their individual proposed projects, which will be presented at the CVM Research Day on May 7, 2021.

The recipients are as follows:

Carley Allen, whose faculty sponsor is Brian Flesner, for her project called “Investigating the Effects of SHIP Inhibition on Canine Osteosarcoma Cell Migration and Colonization.”

Kourtney Dowler, whose faculty sponsors are Elizabeth Giuliano and Aaron Ericsson, for her project, “Commercially Available Sterile Intraocular Lenses Commonly Used in Canine Cataract Surgery: A Microbiome Investigation.”

Elisabeth Fox, whose faculty sponsor is Bryan Torres, for her project, “The Evaluation of Commercially Available Paw Traction Products for Dogs.”

Samantha Haw, whose faculty sponsors are John Middleton and Pamela Adkins, for her project, “Identifying Putative Bacterial Pathogens Isolated from the Milk of Jersey Dairy Cows that were Unidentifiable Using Our Current Laboratory Methods.”

Lyndsey Hayden, whose faculty sponsors are Megan McCracken, Aaron Stoker and Philip Johnson, for her project, “Hyperosmolar Irrigation Compared with a Standard Solution in an Equine Stifle Arthroscopy Model.”

Gabrielle Hofmann, whose faculty sponsors are David Kline and Eileen Hasser, for her project, “The Effects of Vagotomy on Cardiorespiratory Function and Glutamate Regulation in the Brainstem Nucleus Tractus Solitarii.”

Christa Jackson, whose faculty sponsor is Charles Brown, for her project, “The Role of Annexin A1 in Resolution of Murine Lyme Arthritis.”

Kristen McCurdy, whose faculty sponsors are Tamara Gull and Megan McCracken, for her project, “The Effect of Intra-Articular Morphine on Amikacin Antimicrobial Activity and Concentration.”

Lauren Ross, whose faculty sponsor is Angela McCleary-Wheeler, for her project, “Correlation of HDAC3 Activity and PD-L1 in Canine Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma.”

Sarah Young, whose faculty sponsor is Lane Clarke, for her project “Evaluating the Fecal Microbiome of an Intestinal Specific Ctfr Knockout Mouse Model of Cystic Fibrosis.”