BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 21ST 2013 (CUOPM) – An accomplished biologist and equine medicine specialist, has joined Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine (RUSVM) as a senior scientist in the research department.
Dr. Michel Vandenplas has assumed overall responsibility for establishing an enhanced research facility to support high-quality and impactful research activities at RUSVM.
“Together we will form a team focused on strengthening our research programme, an essential requirement for our current and future graduates,” said Dr. Vandenplas, who shares the vision of the Dean, faculty, staff and students to increase research efforts at the our university focusing on tropical veterinary medicine and zoonosis.
“I will contribute to this vision through discussions with my fellow researchers and students interested in investigating veterinary research as a potential career path. Together we will form a team focused on strengthening our research program, an essential requirement for our current and future graduates,” said Dr. Vandenplas.
Dr. Vandenplas comes to RUSVM from the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine, where he led research efforts focused on the role and regulation of innate immune responses in equine colic and lameness, the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in horses.
He served as a molecular and cellular biology technical advisor to clinician researchers in the Departments of Large and Small Animal Medicine.
In addition to overseeing the operations of the research facilities, Dr. Vandenplas will continue his work with equine-specific innate immune responses, as compared to those of humans and other animals.
His research interests also include developing a rapid and affordable whole-blood assessment of stress and using it to monitor the progression of disease and therapy in animals.
Dr. Vandenplas grew up near Cape Town, South Africa, and received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in medical biochemistry from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.
He also worked with the South African Medical Research Council (MRC) Center for Molecular and Cellular Biology at the university, where he was involved in research to determine the role of gene mutations that alter the metabolism of the primary drug used to treat human tuberculosis.