SyndicateMizzou

Working Together to Find a Cure

(Tammy Ritterskamp) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 05:00:00 GMT

When asked to describe the field of comparative oncology, Carolyn Henry says, “You would probably get a different definition depending on who you ask that question, [but] when we think of comparative oncology here at the Vet School, we think of treating animals that develop cancer on their own just like people do and finding ways to treat that cancer better and that may translate into better treatments for people as well.” Henry’s interest in oncology began while she was working in private practice as a veterinarian. “It seemed like the cancer patients were the ones I found the most interesting and the most rewarding to treat,” she explains of her decision to pursue training and certification in veterinary oncology.

Performing the Self

(LuAnne Roth) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:00:00 GMT

M. Heather Carver is framed by her clown shadow—a black mannequin head wearing a pink camouflage hat and red clown’s nose—as she joyfully begins to describe her place at MU. “I come from a background of performing,” the Associate Professor of Theatre offers. “As a means of studying something, we perform it.” As a way of studying autobiography, for example, Carver performs autobiography.

A Bacon of Hope

(Sean Powers) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Take a good, hard mental image of a long line of people stretched for blocks. If you expand the line to roughly 100,000, this is the number of people waiting for an organ transplant. The imbalanced patient-to-organ ratio leaves many to die while waiting their turn. In response, some researchers try to tap into animal organs to save human lives, but those organs do not always work. Research in the University of Missouri’s Division of Animal Sciences may help solve this medical debacle by using genetic modification. When an organ goes from one animal to another (like to a human), preexisting antibodies in the human bind to the organ’s sugar molecules and kill the organ, making it useless. “When you take a pig cell and transfer it to a human, the molecule is immediately recognized as foreign,” explains MU’s Animal Science Professor, Randall Prather. “Within minutes you’ll get hyperacute rejection, and the cells will be destroyed.”