The goal of the department's research is to provide a core of fundamental (basic) knowledge from which practical applications to veterinary medicine and animal agriculture can be developed. Applications include increased efficiency in production of food animals, maintenance and improvement of human and animal health, and solutions to life-threatening medical problems/disease.
Departmental faculty, several of whom hold National or University research awards, have expertise in cell biology, developmental anatomy/teratology, histochemistry, microscopic anatomy, macroscopic anatomy, ultrastructural techniques, image analysis, molecular genetics, biochemistry, endocrinology, neuroscience, toxicology, public health, epidemiology, and aquatic animal anatomy/medicine. The interdisciplinary nature of epidemiology and public health provides for interaction with the other emphasized fields. Research techniques available in the department include, but are not limited to, immunocytochemistry, radioimmunoassay, cell and organ culture technology, pre- and post-implantation embryo culture techniques, autoradiography, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, image analysis technology, energy dispersive x-ray microanalysis, HPLC techniques, gas chromatography, DNA adduct isolation and analysis, in situ hybridization, gene mapping, cDNA probe analysis, DNA manipulation technology, messenger RNA isolation, transcription analysis, stem cell isolation and manipulation, tissue and cell fractionation, isozyme isolation and analysis, whole-animal perfusion and dissection, histological techniques, stereotaxic surgical techniques, neuron recording technology, and neurophysiological techniques.
Research is ongoing in five broad areas: Environmental Health and Toxicology, Neuroscience, Biomedical Genetics, Reproductive Biology and Biotechnology, Biodefense and Emerging Diseases, Structural biology is stressed in each area. Specific interests are mechanisms underlying chemically induced birth defects, comparative cattle genetics and gene mapping in several domestic animal species, cell and molecular biology of reproductive processes, mechanisms underlying early embryonic development, molecular processes of aging, carcinogenesis, cellular mechanisms of alcohol intoxication, cellular mechanisms of heavy metal intoxication, DNA synthesis and repair mechanisms, structure and function of neurons and glial cells, cellular control mechanisms of endocrine function, and mechanisms of mycotoxin actions.
The department provides leadership for the college Image Analysis Laboratory. This facility contains equipment for both light and electron microscopy, as well as instrumentation for quantitative morphological/morphometric analysis and laser cytometry.
