About the Department

There are currently 29 primary departmental faculty in the Department involved in research, education, and service activities. Research awards, over the last five years (2000 - 2005), total over $29 million and indicate strong interdisciplinary research programs in the areas of cancer, endocrinology, rickettsiology, and retrovirology.

The Department has a graduate program with ~70 students who pursue the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in experimental pathobiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, microbiology, molecular virology, and physiology.

Departmental support facilities are extensive and include BSL-3 containment laboratories; new state-of-the-art research laboratories, a flow cytometry, confocal, and in vivo imaging facility, shared equipment laboratories, four necropsy laboratories, and a genetically modified animal phenotyping service.

The education mission of the Department of Veterinary Biosciences is to organize and teach basic and selected clinical veterinary medical sciences in the professional curriculum. Equally important is the mission to educate graduate students by providing experienced graduate advisors, state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, and programs for graduate education, and to provide medical specialty training. Departmental faculty members have consistently provided leadership in basic sciences education within the professional curriculum.

Many VBS faculty participate in clinical services, which include hematology/cytology, clinical chemistry, surgical biopsy, necropsy, immunohistochemistry, mouse phenotyping, molecular diagnostics, electron microscopy, and flow cytometry. VBS faculty members also contribute their time and effort to a wide variety of professional services, such as grant reviews (NIH, USDA, and NSF), specialty board examination committees, executive boards of professional organizations, editorial boards and editorship for academic journals, and national advisory panels.