Signature Programs Link Research and Practice to Improve Animal and Human Health

By Kristine McComis

Ohio State's College of Veterinary Medicine has grown in numerous ways over the years. The campus quadrant has expanded with a new academic building that looms four stories high. The College's first year class increased from 135 to 140 students last year. Faculty and staff numbers are at all time highs, as evidenced by a scramble to find office space for new arrivals and parking lots jammed full of cars during academic quarters. The College has extension branches in Wooster and Marysville.

College growth means more business for the teaching hospital, more resources for students, and more avenues of research being conducted. The down side of a large college is that many faculty, staff and students do not interact with those in other departments or extension campuses. Many will attest that their days repeat the same pattern--walking inside from parking lot, sitting in private offices, teaching or doing lab work in one particular space, and then going home. Often employees do not ever encounter people from a different department even if it is located just on the opposite side of the building.

Slowly, however, that scenario is changing. Right now, the buzzword on campus is collaboration. We've seen it practiced in other programs such as the College's oncology program. But many other subject matters need exploration, and a key one is the subject of infectious diseases.

Founding Member of the Infectious Disease Signature Program

Dr. Mary Jo Burkhard received both her undergraduate and DVM degrees from Michigan State University . She then worked for three years in a small animal/avian practice in northern Indiana. She was lucky to see many interesting and unique cases there, as it was located halfway between Purdue and Michigan State and operated much like a referral center. However, she always intended to go back to school for an academic career. She enjoyed treating the disease but wanted to know why the disease occurs. She went to Colorado State to complete a combination residency/PhD degree program in veterinary pathology. She is board certified by the American College of Veterinary Pathologists.

From there, Dr. Burkhard taught at NC State University for several years and focused on extending her work studying the immunopathogenesis of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection. The private practice experience gave her a great base from which to start, for when teaching, she could justify to the students why "you need to know this" for their future in private practice. She arrived at Ohio State in February 2004.

Shortly after her arrival, Dr. Burkhard had an interest in starting an immunology group, but the number of people at the College of Veterinary Medicine with expertise in that particular area was fairly limited. She sent out an email, broadening the scope, asking for those with an interest in infectious diseases to participate in the formation of a signature program. The response was even greater than she anticipated and the Infectious Disease Signature Program was formed. Dr. Burkhard has taken a grass roots approach with the group's format, letting the program develop based on the views and interests of those who participate and are active. The faculty participation reaches across multiple disciplines, including virology, microbiology, immunology, clinical medicine, and epidemiology. Currently, there are 27 faculty participants from the Columbus campus and seven participants from the Wooster campus. The main campus participants come from the Departments of Veterinary Biosciences, Clinical Sciences, and Preventive Medicine, with about equal representation from each. Additionally, about 15 graduate students, staff and veterinary students participate. About 30-50 percent of the faculty regularly participate.

What is a "Signature Program?"

To be considered a signature program, several criteria should be met. In a signature program, a crucial number of faculty, usually at least three, work collaboratively as a team and are supported by sponsored research. There should be evidence of interdisciplinary interaction to promote nationally recognized scholarly activity, such as sponsorship of seminars, regular meetings, national awards and recognition, and a website or newsletter for communication. A signature program makes programmatic efforts to obtain grants or other funding to promote interdisciplinary efforts and synergy among the investigators. The team should make organized efforts to promote the training of graduate students, post-doctoral scientists or research scientists by participating in interdisciplinary graduate programs, fostering successful student fellowship applications, and developing mentoring programs. The group should provide platforms to compete for university and state funding for new faculty positions, such as the Academic Enrichment Program at OSU.

Beside the work-related benefits to clinical and research faculty, establishment of signature programs enhances a college's research support as well as educational efforts that will produce the eminent investigators of the future. Dr. Michael Lairmore, professor and chair of the Department of Veterinary Biosciences commented, "The signature programs provide examples for junior faculty and students to learn how interdisciplinary research is conducted and brings together the people and infrastructure to tackle complex problems. Above all else, we see the signature programs benefiting animal health; this is one of the founding principles for each program to gain support from the College."

Organization

At the first meeting of the Infectious Disease Signature Program, the broad scope of everyone's strengths was impressive but initially overwhelming. To give the group a fundamental structure, participants' interests and expertise were condensed into three focus areas: Population Health, Host Response, and Structure/Function.

As seen in the diagram*, topics which fall into these categories can overlap into other focus areas. For example, anti-microbial resistance is a big component of the pathogen itself but also is a key factor in population health, such as resistance in food animals and distomial infections in hospitals. Dr. Burkhard explained, "The best way to build programmatic growth is when you take people who come at the same problem from very diverse and different angles. You have a natural collaboration and can expand what you're doing without competing and add and accentuate onto what you're doing."

Meeting bi-weekly, the group's sessions are split into two parts. During the first half of the meeting, a faculty member speaks about his or her interest area. This not only informs other colleagues at the College about their work and level of expertise but also can expose opportunities for collaboration. Presentations have included Dr. Stefan Niewiesk, who spoke about the measles virus, Dr. Jeff Lakrtiz, who presented his research regarding lung inflammation, and Dr. Julie Funk who spoke about food-borne disease and antimicrobial resistance. The second part of the meeting targets specific topics for discussion, such as development of a mission statement or choosing external speakers.

Since it just started in June 2004, the group is still in its early stages of design. However, much has been accomplished in this relatively short period of time. They received funding for an external seminar series, having committed several guest speakers outside the College of Veterinary Medicine to present to the group. About 20 people were nominated as speakers and the group voted on those who they thought would provide tools or translational science that will help bridge existing areas of infectious disease study within the College. The speakers vary from a "senior" person who can give the group advice about growing a program, to a junior/mid-level person who can present certain tools they use and let the Infectious Disease Signature Program visualize how someone with the same expertise could fit into the development of our own infectious disease program. The first speaker in the series was Dr. Corrie Brown who presented a talk on "Emerging diseases and the blurring interface between animal and human health." A professor of veterinary pathology at the College of Veterinary Medicine , University of Georgia , Dr. Brown is an internationally renown authority on infectious diseases of food producing animals, foreign animal diseases, and emerging diseases. Her lecture drew great attendance including individuals from parts of campus outside the veterinary community, such as the molecular genetics department.

Plans for Collaboration and Improvement

According to the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition 2000, the word synergy is defined as follows: 1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects. 2. Cooperative interaction among groups, especially among the acquired subsidiaries or merged parts of a corporation, that creates an enhanced combined effect.

For a mean of gaining synergy among various investigators, the Infectious Disease Signature Program is planning on collaborating with several institutions, including the Center for Microbial Interface Biology (CMIB). The director of the CMIB, Dr. Larry Schlessinger, has provided the infectious disease group advice about how to grow a program. They are also looking forward to informally sharing information regarding population health with his group, and vise versa, and are in discussions about diagnostic testing issues. Dr. Burkhard remarked, "We currently are trying to identify what diagnostic tests are available at the Animal Diseases Diagnostic Lab in Reynoldsburg . Do we need more diagnostic capabilities at the College or should we tap into other labs? Is there a way to centralize and streamline so resources are not being wasted?" ADDL talked to the Infectious Disease group about these issues, and in turn, several members attended the lab's open house in October. Volunteers have developed an ad hoc committee to discuss these needs. Since this action was generated after a discussion about equine herpes virus, it shows how such discussions provide the initial synergy for program development.

Dr. Catherine Kohn, professor of veterinary clinical sciences, gave that particular presentation on the equine herpes virus, referring to the outbreak that occurred in the Veterinary Hospital in February 2003. In her presentation, she tossed around ideas of what could we have done better, as far as screening for the virus and other testing issues. The group has great relevance for her, since a large percent of her caseload in the equine hospital is related to infection, such as salmonella, pathogenic diarrhea and Potomac fever. "There are a number of biosecurity issues that may become relevant from a research point of view," Dr. Kohn commented, "so whether they are risks to biosecurity like salmonella or tuberculosis, or whether they are principals of prevention, those issues fit under the infectious disease umbrella of the signature group."

By attending the meetings, Dr. Kohn can bring her clinical questions to this group and listen to others with different input. The group provides interactions she never would have had before, as everyone's schedules are so mutually exclusive. "We can approach clinical problems with the fire power of all those basic scientists," Dr. Kohn stated, adding, "Already I know folks in biosciences who I would not have had the opportunity to know otherwise." She is hoping the group will become a sounding board so if she had a question that she thought should be developed into a research hypothesis, she could present it to the group and ask for advice in designing a set of relevant experiments and what basic issues should be evaluated. Also, she reiterated the fact that the College can't afford to duplicate resources, so if more researchers can work together and use common resources, they will be much more efficient.

Future Goals

As a guide, the Infectious Disease Group has developed the following mission statement: The mission of the Infectious Disease Signature Program is to benefit animal and public health by fostering infectious disease education and collaborative research. Future plans and goals have been outlined as follows:

• Mucosal immunology workshop to be developed in conjunction with the Wooster campus faculty, who hold expertise in this area.
• Development of a training grant in a relevant area of infectious disease. Initial discussions have focused on microbiology.
• Recruitment of a research-intensive faculty member with specific targeting towards an infectious disease immunologist working at the level of the innate immune response to acquired bridge.
• Programmatic efforts to obtain sponsored research. These include organized team efforts to obtain grants, contracts, or other funding mechanisms to promote interdisciplinary efforts or synergy among the investigators.

Plautus once said, "No man is wise enough by himself." (Light from Many Lamps , Lillian Eichler Watson, editor). The Signature Programs at Ohio State's College of Veterinary Medicine have embraced this concept, and the community looks forward to the resulting achievements in the years ahead.