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The University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine participated in what may be the largest-ever clinical research program in veterinary cancer diagnostics. In May, PetDx, a San Diego-based company, announced the launch of OncoK9 at select sites. According to PetDx, OncoK9 is a first-in-class multi-cancer test that allows early detection of the disease in dogs with a simple blood draw. OncoK9’s clinical validation involved collecting blood samples from more than 1,600 dogs across more than 50 clinical investigation sites spanning four continents. The MU CVM was one of the sites selected to participate in the study, which exemplifies precision medicine….

When Ram Raghavan heard from a former colleague at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that a 7-year-old girl had died from Rocky Mountain spotted fever as the result of a tick bite, he thought of his own daughter, also 7 years old at the time, and the potentially fatal danger posed to vulnerable populations by tick-borne diseases. Now a professor at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine and School of Health Professions, Raghavan is an epidemiologist studying how ticks, mosquitos and other arthropods spread disease that impact people, pets and livestock over time in various geographical…

Researchers at the University of Missouri have created a low-cost, portable device that can apply non-invasive bioluminescent imaging technology to many uses in animals, humans. A biochemical reaction between an enzyme called luciferase and oxygen causes fireflies to glow and is considered one of the most well-known examples of bioluminescence in nature. Now, an international team of researchers led by Elena Goun at the University of Missouri is working to harness the power of bioluminescence in a low-cost, noninvasive portable medical imaging device that could one day be applied to many uses in biomedical research, translational medicine and clinical diagnoses….

In the ongoing battle to find ways to treat cancer, a team at the University of Missouri is addressing the problem from multiple angles, but with a precision approach.

In 2016, the World Health Organization called the Zika virus epidemic a “public health emergency of international concern” due to the virus causing birth defects for pregnant women in addition to neurological problems. Since then, researchers have wrestled with different strategies for controlling the spread of Zika virus, which gets transmitted to humans from female mosquito bites. One approach, which was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency in May, will release more than 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes into the Florida Keys in 2021 and 2022. These “suicide mosquitoes” are genetically-altered to produce offspring that die before emerging into adults…

As a former school nurse in the Columbia Public Schools, Gretchen Carlisle would often interact with students with disabilities who took various medications or had seizures throughout the day. At some schools, the special education teacher would bring in dogs, guinea pigs and fish as a reward for good behavior, and Carlisle noticed what a calming presence the pets seemed to be for the students with disabilities. Now a research scientist at the MU Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction (ReCHAI) in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, Carlisle studies the benefits that companion animals can have for families. Although there…

Blood draws will detect COVID-19 antibody presence over time Scientists conducting an interdisciplinary research project at the University of Missouri are taking blood draws of MU students, faculty and staff who have previously tested positive for COVID-19 to examine their antibody levels over a period of time. The project is designed to better understand how the human body’s immune system responds to COVID-19 post-infection. “We have learned a lot about this disease over the past several months, but there is more that needs to be understood – for instance, how do different members of the population – particularly the younger,…

Multidisciplinary research project aims to examine coronavirus antibody prevalence in MU community.

MU researchers team up with 8th grader, MU undergrad to identify mutations in virus that may be causing its high infectivity. When Saathvik Kannan’s father, a faculty member at the University of Missouri, saw his friend, Kamlendra Singh, a research professor at MU, on television being interviewed for his research identifying possible treatments for COVID-19, he called Singh to congratulate him on his work. After learning that his friend’s son, Saathvik, had experience with and a passion for computer programming, Singh invited the 8th grader, who was a student at West Middle School in Columbia, Missouri, at the time, to…