CVM Faculty, Staff, Student and Alumni Accolades

Jessica Cayton, DVM, graduate fellow in veterinary pathobiology at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine recently received an award at the June 2022 BioNexus KC Science2Art Exhibition. The exhibition provides a platform for regional scientists to display and describe their research through visual arts, according to the BioNexus website.

Cayton’s winning image was “painted” by approximately 50 different muscle cells within the right atria of an aged mouse heart using high-speed, high-resolution fluorescent calcium imaging. The heart was under hypokalemic conditions, which is known to trigger cardiac arrhythmia in patients. Different populations of cells were given distinct colors, and using a “pseudo-linescan” approach, the populations of heart cells “painted” the image with time via their calcium signaling events.

Cayton, who is completing her fourth year in the Comparative Medicine Program and her third year as a PhD candidate in area pathobiology at the CVM, is working with the Cardiac Cell Physiology Laboratory within the Department of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology.

Cayton’s art recently sold on the BioNexus auction page for $3,000. According to the site, all proceeds from the Science2Art auction will be donated to STEAM education in KC. Since 2014, BioNexus KC and the Science2AArt program has donated over $120,000 to STEAM programs in the region.

By Nick Childress

The Human Animal Bond Research Institute recently awarded a grant to the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine Research Center for Human Animal Interaction. HABRI’s mission is to advance, through science, education and advocacy, the vital role of the human-animal bond in health and well-being of people, pets and communities. The Service Dog and Autistic Children Grant Award comes in the form of $48,000 that will go toward research that focuses on evaluating the impact of service dogs on children with autism spectrum disorder.

Gretchen Carlisle, PhD, Med, RN, research scientist and adjunct instructor in ReCHAI, serves as the project’s principal investigator on the research project, “Impact of Service Dogs on the Psychosocial Well-Being of Children with ASD, their Parents and their Families.” Carlisle will collaborate with her team at Mizzou, as well as colleagues in France.

“I’m excited to begin this new project which includes international collaboration,” said Carlisle. “Little is known about the impact of service dog acquisition on families of autistic children, so this study will provide crucial information not only for scientists, but also for service dog training organizations and the families of autistic children.”

By Nick Childress

Rajiv Mohan, MS, PhD, a professor of ophthalmology and molecular medicine in the CVM, was recently awarded three separate grants totaling more than $2 million for ongoing research. The National Institutes of Health funded two grants with the third awarded by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

The first award from the NIH supports Mohan’s research as a co-investigator on diabetic retinopathy. The title of the research is, “The Role of S100 Proteins in Diabetic Retinopathy.” This grant provides $500,000 in funding. The second NIH award totaling $429,000 is for Mohan’s research as a co-principal investigator on chemical toxicity to the eye. The title of this research is, “Hydrogen Sulfide Toxicity to the Cornea.”

The third award, a Veterans Affairs Merit Grant, will fund development of nanomedicine for treating corneal scarring. The title of this research is, “Targeted Gene Therapy and Nanomedicine Approaches to Treat Corneal Diseases.” The grant provides funding of $1.1 million beginning in October.

By Nick Childress

Carolyn Henry, DVM, MS, ACVIM (Oncology), dean of the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, was recently inducted into the Delta Omega Honor Society in Public Health. Delta Omega is a national honor society for public health. It was founded at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 1924. Delta Omega recognizes outstanding accomplishment in scholarship, research and practice each year. This year the Gamma Eta Chapter at MU, one of 120 chapters across the United States, inducted Henry as its honorary inductee, along with eight MU students, five alumni, and another faculty member.

Henry said she didn’t expect the induction. “That came as a complete surprise to me,” she said. “It was very rewarding in that Dean Kristofer Hagglund (PhD, ABPP, dean of the School of Health Professions) and I had a shared vision for the Master of Public Health program and really developed the department of public health as a shared department between the CVM and the School of Health Professions. It’s an honor and a surprise, as well as validation that we’ve done something here that’s unique.”

By Nick Childress