The Center for Veterinary Sciences and Comparative Medicine includes the members of the Division of Comparative Pathology and Medicine, and an accredited residency program in Laboratory Animal Medicine. This Center is overseen by The Faculty of Health Sciences at UCSD which also oversees the School of Medicine and the School of Pharmacy. This Center also creates collaborative learning and research opportunities with UC Davis.
There are more than 20 veterinarians at UC San Diego and the nearby outstanding, research institutions, including The Scripps Research Institute, the Salk Institute, the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, the Sanford-Burnham Institute, the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park, the Marine Mammal Foundation, Sea World San Diego, and the La Jolla Laboratories of Pfizer.
Lynette Corbeil, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Professor of Pathology, UC San Diego
Emeritus Professor of Population Health and Reproduction School of Veterinary Medicine UC, Davis
Former Co-Director, UC San Diego Veterinary Medical Center
Our general research interests are in the area of comparative (human to mouse) mucosal immunology with specific projects in immune-epithelial cell interactions involved in the microbial pathogenesis of acute and chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
Link to Dr. Corbeil’s current publications
Link to Dr. Corbeil’s website
Peter Ernst, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Director of the Center of Veterinary Sciences and Comparative Medicine Director of the Division of Comparative Pathology and Medicine
Co-Director of UCVMC
Professor of Pathology, UC San Diego
Professor of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, UC Davis
Our general research interests are in the area of comparative (human to mouse) mucosal immunology with specific projects in immune-epithelial cell interactions involved in the microbial pathogenesis of acute and chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
Link to Dr. Ernst’s current publications
Link to Dr. Ernst’s website
Pascal Gagneux, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Pathology, UC San Diego
Pascal Gagneux is interested in the evolution of cell-surface glycans. Glycans are diverse and variable saccharide chains attached to proteins and lipids. Glycans can differ by species, individual, cell type, and even physiological state or developmental stage. Glycan variation influences many phenotypes: from cellular recognition during fertilization and development, to infection, immunity, and cancer. So far, we know little about the evolutionary forces that shape glycan variation. This is an important gap in our knowledge, because glycans are central to cellular recognition, and to health and disease.
Link to Dr. Gagneux’s current publications
Link to Dr. Gagneux’s website
Nikos Gurfield, D.V.M., D.A.C.V.P.
Adjunct Professor of Pathology, UC San Diego
County Veterinarian
San Diego County Vector Disease and Diagnostic Laboratory
Dzung Le M.D., Ph.D.
Director of the Coagulation Laboratory
Associate Director of the Clinical Hematology Laboratory
Associate Director of Blood Bank and Transfusion Medicine
Associate Professor of Pathology
My research interests are tissue factor-initiated coagulation pathway and clinical coagulation assay development. My research laboratory also houses the Murine Hematology/Chemistry and Coagulation Core laboratory. This core laboratory tests for abnormalities in hematology, chemistry and coagulation in experimental mice (e.g., transgenic mice).
Link to Dr. Le’s current publications
Link to Dr. Le’s website
Robert Naviaux, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Pathology
Research in my lab has focused on the role of mitochondrial DNA replication, copy number regulation, DNA damage, and nucleotide signaling in development, aging, healing and regeneration. We also study the systems biology of monogenic and complex diseases like autism and diabetes.
Link to Dr. Naviaux’s current publications
Link to Dr. Naviaux’s website
Kent Osborn, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Associate Director, Animal Care Program (ACP), UCSD
Dr. Osborn's professional activity has often included broad-spectrum practice of laboratory animal medicine (clinical, diagnostic, administrative, compliance) and comparative pathology.
Particular areas of interest include infectious disease - pathophysiology, diagnostics and control/prevention in populations; comparative pathology; animal-related ethics.
Link to Dr. Osborn’s current publications
G. Diane Shelton, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Director of The Comparative Neuromuscular Laboratory
Professor of Pathology
My research interests are in understanding the mechanisms of autoimmunity in myasthenia gravis and inflammatory myopathies. Research in canine models of these diseases has direct relevance to their human counterparts.
Link to Dr. Shelton’s current publications
Link to Dr. Shelton’s website
Christina Sigurdson, D.V.M., Ph.D., Dipl. ACVP
Co-director of the Center for Veterinary Sciences and Comparative Medicine
Associate Professor of Pathology
We are interested in the molecular pathogenesis of prion diseases, which are fatal neurodegenerative disorders of humans and animals that includes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or “mad cow disease”, and chronic wasting disease (CWD) of cervids. We are investigating mutations in the prion gene that enable or inhibit prion transmission between species.
Link to Dr. Sigurdson’s current publications
Link to Dr. Sigurdson’s website
Nissi Varki, M.D.
Director of Histopathology Resources, Cancer and Mouse Histopathology
Professor of Pathology
Our research interests are to define the role of selectins in tumor metastasis. We are working toward an understanding of the uniqueness of human carcinogenesis. We also study the histopathology of antiangiogenic agents in mouse models and the immunological mechanisms of gastrointestinal mucosal epithelia.
Link to Dr. Varki’s current publications
Link to Dr. Varki’s website
Director of Histopathology Resources, Cancer and Mouse Histopathology
Professor of Pathology
Our research interests are to define the role of selectins in tumor metastasis. We are working toward an understanding of the uniqueness of human carcinogenesis. We also study the histopathology of antiangiogenic agents in mouse models and the immunological mechanisms of gastrointestinal mucosal epithelia.
Link to Dr. Varki’s current publications
Link to Dr. Varki’s website
Additional Center Members:
- Philip J. Richter, DVM, PhD, DACLAM, Director, UCSD Animal Care Program & LAM Training Program, UCSD
- Keith Jenne, DVM, Associate Director, Animal Care Program. Primate, aquatic animal medicine, clinical medicine, UCSD
- Alice Smith, DVM, Associate Director - Health Services, Animal Care Program, Clinical medicine and surgery, preventive medicine programs, UCSD
- Jennifer L. Fujimoto, DVM, DACVA. Veterinary anesthesiology, laboratory animal medicine, UCSD
- Marilyn Torchia, DVM, Director, Animal Welfare Program, Regulatory affairs, laboratory animal medicine, UCSD
- Karen Clingerman, MS, DVM, DACLAM. Associate Clinical Veterinarian, The Scripps Research Institute. Small animal veterinary clinical medicine, laboratory animal medicine
- Jeetendra Eswaraka, DVM, PhD, DACLAM. Associate Director Global Science & Technology, and Veterinary Science & Technology, Pfizer Inc. La Jolla Laboratories
- Elizabeth W. Ford, DVM, MPVM, DACLAM, Senior Director, The Scripps Research Institute
- Karol Godwin, DVM, Director, Pfizer Inc., La Jolla Laboratories
- Mathias Leblanc, DVM, PhD, DES, DACLAM, Assistant Director, Animal Resources, The Salk Institute
- Jon Reuter, MPVM, DVM, DACLAM, Senior Director, Animal Resources, The Salk Institute
- Roger Geertsema, DVM, DACLAM, Director, University Laboratory Animal Resources, UC Irvine
- Judy St. Leger, DVM, PhD, DACVP, Pathologist, Sea World, Inc
- Ilse Stalis, DVM, DACVP, Senior Pathologist, Wildlife Diseases Laboratory Institute for Conservation Research, Zoological Society of San Diego
- Cynthia Smith, DVM, Executive Director for the National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF)
- Nikou Hessami, DVM, PhD, VP of Technical Operations, Molecular Diagnostic Services, Inc.
- Jeetendra Eswaraka, DVM, PhD, DACLAM, Associate Director Global Science and Technology, and Veterinary Science and Technology, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals
- John Chang, MD, T cell biology in inflammatory bowel disease
- Don Cleveland, PhD, Neuropathology
- Pieter Dorrestein, PhD, Mass spectrometry based methods to study disease in animals
- Lars Eckmann, PhD, Cytokine responses in mucosal immunity
- Santiago Horgan, MD, Techniques for the Future of Surgery
- Michael Karin, PhD, Molecular biology of inflammation and cancer
- Robert Mattrey, MD, Imaging
- Sharon Reed, MD, Mucosal immunity to Entamoeba histolytica
- Jesus Rivera-Nieves, MD, Pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases
- Ajit Varki, MD, PhD, Glycobiology and evolution in nonhuman primates
- Tony Yaksh, PhD, Pain research and comparative anesthesiology
- Kenneth Kim, DVM, Dipl, ACVP
- Sarah LaMere, DVM, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
- Katherine Makowski, DVM, DACLAM, Attending Veterinarian, UCSD