Baker Institute for Animal Health Annual Report 2008
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Baker Institute To Improve for Animal Health Animal Health Annual Report Through Basic and 2008 Applied Research 1 Table of Contents 4 Research 15 Publications 16 Faculty Accomplishments 17 Laboratory Overview 21 News and Events 24 Volunteer and Donor Highlights 26 Memorial Gift Program 28 Honor Roll of Giving 41 Financial Summary 42 Advisory Council 43 Faculty, Staff and Student Directory 2 Director’s Message Dear Friends, This report marks the end of my third and final five-year term as Baker Institute Director. This tenure has given me the chance to give back to an institution that nurtured me during the early days of my career as a veterinary scientist. It has been a great privilege to serve the Insti- tute, its faculty, staff, and students. There have been many positive developments over the past fifteen years. We have strength- ened the Institute’s infrastructure with new construction and renovation of older facilities, and through the acquisition of sophisticated scientific instruments and equipment. This environ- ment has attracted outstanding new faculty members and top-flight students at all levels of training, from talented Cornell undergraduates hoping for a career in veterinary medicine, to At the McConville Barn with Twilight, a five-year-old advanced post-doctoral scientists ready to make their marks in research. During this period Cornell-bred Thoroughbred, who was selected as the DNA the Institute has continued to make practical advances in animal health and, through its donor for the horse genome sequencing project in 2006. fundamental research programs, to lay the foundation for future breakthroughs in preventive medicine, diagnostics, and treatment of uncontrolled diseases. The Baker Institute is now on the cusp of the sixtieth anniversary of the its founding in 1950. It is a time for celebration, but also for reflection and planning. During the past fifty years the Institute has developed what has been called a “tradition of innovation.” The Institute has shown the capacity to evolve, and to meet changing needs in animal health, while maintain- ing the highest standards of scientific inquiry. Thus, the Institute’s initial focus on infectious disease has now been broadened to include genetics, reproduction, and cancer biology. Driven by high technology, the Institute has been a site for significant innovations in biomedi- cal research, but our direction has been set by a compass that points towards important prob- lems in animal health. As we move into the next phase of the Institute’s development, I am confident that the Baker Institute will continue to be one of the world’s premier institutions for veterinary medical research. For more than fifty years, donors to the Baker Institute have helped to keep the Institute on course. My time as Baker Institute Director provided me with the opportunity to get to know a great many wonderful people in the private sector who share a passion for animals and who understand how they enrich our lives. I will treasure those memories. D. F. Antczak, VMD, PhD Thank you for your continued support. Director 3 Finding the genes Dr. Acland’s collaborations analyzing results, partner- “We have been choosing with researchers at Cornell ships across Cornell and the diseases that are relatively behind blindness and beyond are finding Baker Institute make this straightforward to start with, and other diseases the causes for a variety of work possible. but we are now advancing genetic diseases. His efforts to address more complicated Another strategy used to have even helped to cure a disorders,” says Dr. Acland. combat blindess: gene form of blindness in dogs Furthermore, Dr. Acland therapy, holds promise for and people. has expressed an interest in people who were born with Gregory M. Acland, BVSc studying cancer genes, and Already, Dr. Acland and his a genetic disease. Several Professor of the complex question of why collaborators have identified years ago, Dr. Acland and his Medical Genetics animals behave the way the genes for fifteen differ- collaborators were able to they do. ent diseases and, for many cure a dog named Lancelot of them, developed tests of congenital night blindness. A member of Dr. Acland’s that breeders can use to Now, with Lancelot still alive lab, Anna Kukekova, began tell which animals carry the and enjoying clear vision, studying animal behavior gene. Because of this work, the technique is being used through the mapping of the he says, “several of these in humans. About a dozen genetic pedigrees of tame diseases no longer exist in people worldwide have had foxes, looking for differences the world.” their sight restored in the between these animals and same way as Lancelot. their more aggressive cous- The team uses state-of-the- ins. “Fox behavior is clearly art technology called asso- “We are repeating the gene a complex trait,” says Dr. ciation mapping. “We take therapy in a larger number Acland. “We know there’s DNA from a dog and apply it of dogs to follow what not a single gene that causes to a chip that’s built in much happens in the long term,” all the difference between the same way as computer says Dr. Acland, both to keep tame and aggressive foxes.” chips are built, except that an eye out for possible side Hip dysplasia and mast cell it sorts DNA into tiny frag- effects and to study how the tumors are among the other ments that a computer can brain learns to process visual complex traits that the lab read,” explains Dr. Acland. information after a lifetime is studying. “The computer can tell you of blindness. Meanwhile, where the DNA of affected the team is extending gene dogs differs significantly from therapy to other diseases all the non-affected dogs.” that were once untreatable, That difference points to the including a type of day gene at the root of the dis- blindness that affects both ease. From collecting samples dogs and humans. to crunching numbers and 4 New discoveries The horse genome project DNA variation present in fragments are spaced more has come a long way since the diverse horse breeds or less evenly throughout from the Horse a mare from Dr. Doug found around the world. the equine genome. Testing Genome Project Antczak’s herd at Cornell was Nevertheless, Twilight’s 2.7 a horse’s DNA with the SNP chosen to be the project’s billion base pair sequence chip provides a sophisticated DNA donor. Twilight is a provides a critical standard profile of the animal’s DNA Thoroughbred who carries for assessing genetic varia- variation that can be com- the genes of several genera- tion among horses. pared with the profiles of tions of horses bred for stud- other horses. By comparing The equine genome sequenc- ies of pregnancy immunology groups of horses, for exam- ing project discovered that at the Baker Institute. Her ple, that do or do not suffer there is less variation among complete genome sequence, from a suspected inherited breeds of horses than the decoded at MIT’s Broad Insti- condition, researchers can huge differences other re- tute in 2006 with funds from use the SNP chip to pinpoint searchers have found among the US National Institutes of the location in the genome breeds of dogs. “The dog is Health, is now freely avail- that carries the mutation probably the exception, and able in the public domain responsible for the disease. the horse is more like other as a resource for scientists This approach may help to species of mammal,” says and equine clinicians. This uncover the source of still Dr. Antczak. Another surpris- advance in equine genomics mysterious genetic diseases. ing finding is that domestic provides a wealth of possibili- horses are very closely related One such disease is Lavender ties for improving the health to the Przewalski horse, a Foal Syndrome. The fatal of the horse. wild Russian horse that was condition affects Arabian The term “complete genome long considered to be a sepa- foals, giving them neurologi- sequence” is a bit of a mis- rate species. cal defects and a character- nomer for two main reasons, istic pale color. The disease is The completed genome proj- says Dr. Antczak. First, some rare and poorly understood, ect is only the beginning of parts of the DNA genetic but Dr. Antczak and his col- applications in equine genet- code are more difficult to laborators believe that with ic investigation. One of the determine than others. the SNP chip they will find new tools now available to Therefore, even in a complete the responsible gene. Identi- equine researchers is a Single sequence it is estimated that fication of the Lavender Foal Nucleotide Polymorphism, or about fifteen percent of the mutation would enable the SNP chip. Pronounced “snip DNA code remains unknown. development of a diagnostic chip,” this device contains Second, because there is test. Such tests can be used thousands of DNA fragments variation among horses, as by horse breeders to select from the horse genome. there is for other animals, breeding pairs of stallions Each fragment includes a including humans, Twilight’s and mares that will produce short DNA sequence that Douglas F. Antczak, VMD, PhD complete genome sequence foals free of this disease. can vary among horses. The Dorothy Havemeyer McConville does not reflect all of the Professor of Equine Medicine 5 Parasitic worms Although billions of people The worms are large—up and pigs are commonly its worldwide suffer from to a millimeter long—and carriers, but in other climates offer insights into chronic infection with para- destroying them could be the parasite infects crocodiles immune function sitic worms, not enough is devastating to the host and even polar bears.