Dr. Douglas Thamm

Dr. Douglas Thamm, an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences, has been named the Barbara Cox Anthony University Chair in Oncology effective July 1. The endowed chair is one of two University chairs established in 2001 with generous gifts from Barbara Cox Anthony and from the James M. Cox, Jr. Foundation in Atlanta, Ga.

“In the time that he has been here, Dr. Thamm has become an integral part of the Animal Cancer Center team, both from the clinical side and from his highly productive research program,” said Dr. Lance Perryman, Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “Being named the Barbara Cox Anthony University Chair is a reflection of not only what he has accomplished to date, but the impact his future work will have on advancing cancer treatment in both people and animals.”

Dr. Thamm came to Colorado State University in 2004 from Madison, Wis., where he was a research associate at the University of Wisconsin and also worked in a private specialty practice. He completed his undergraduate degree and VMD at the University of Pennsylvania, achieving his dream of becoming a veterinarian in spite of a diagnosis of lymphoma which kept him out of veterinary school for a year.

“As an undergraduate, I worked in a veterinary microbiology laboratory and that piqued my interest in the research component of veterinary medicine,” said Dr. Thamm. “When I went to vet school, at the beginning of my second year I was diagnosed with lymphoma and had to take a year off. With that experience, I started to wonder about oncology in veterinary medicine and just kept on that path.”

After graduating with his VMD, Dr. Thamm entered the oncology residency program at the University of Wisconsin, where he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship. After a year at the University of Queensland in Australia, he returned to the University of Wisconsin for two years prior to joining the faculty at Colorado State University. At the Veterinary Teaching Hospital’s Animal Cancer Center, he works as a clinician, educator, and researcher, helping to advance cancer treatments for animals and people.

“Our laboratory evaluates new cancer treatments looking to improve medical therapy for both animals and people,” said Dr. Thamm. “Using different tools, cell cultures, mouse models, and clinical trials, we are learning basic things about canine tumors – what is similar, what is different – and also collaborate with drug companies in the development of new drugs. I am a veterinarian, first and foremost, and the work I do is to improve the health and wellbeing of animals. But this work also has the potential to be useful to people down the line.”

One major strength of the cancer program at CSU, and something that attracted him, noted Dr. Thamm, is its interdisciplinary nature and how that gives him access to scientists of all stripes, from radiologists to cell biologists to molecular geneticists.

“There is a broad range of collaborators with whom you can work, and you don’t have to go very far to get difficult questions answered, whether that’s how to do a delicate surgery in a mouse or irradiate cells in a petri dish,” said Dr. Thamm. “The breadth and depth of expertise here, including clinical expertise, is pretty incredible.”

Dr. Thamm lives in Fort Collins with his wife, Grace Kim, and their two sons.