Dr. William Catterall

Frontiers in Biomedical Sciences Set for Feb. 14

Frontiers in Biomedical Sciences presents Dr. William Catterall, Chair and Professor, Pharmacology, University of Washington. Dr. Catterall will be presenting a seminar entitled, "Structure and Function of Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels at Atomic Resolution." The seminar will be held in the Behavioral Sciences Building, Room 103. A reception will follow the seminar in the lobby outside of 104 Yates.

The Frontiers in Biomedical Sciences Seminar Series was initiated by the Department of Biomedical Sciences in 2003 to sponsor outstanding speakers on leading-edge topics in the biomedical sciences that would appeal to large and diverse audiences. The Series is currently jointly sponsored by the Department of Biomedical Sciences, the Program in Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Neuroscience, and the Cell and Molecular Biology Program at Colorado State University.

Student Chapter of AAEP Offers Equine Symposium

The Student Chapter of the American Association of Equine Practitioners invites you to attend a two-day symposium series to benefit the rebuilding of the Equine Reproduction Laboratory. The symposium is open to practicing veterinarians as well as current veterinary students.

The symposium features two full days of seminars from renowned CSU faculty members on current issues in equine medicine, including panel discussions on internships and externships in equine and large animal medicine. The cost of the event is $175, meals included. Student registration is $50. Early registration closes on Friday, Feb. 24.

For more information, or to register, visit the 2012 Equine Symposium.

Save the Date! Rocky Mountain Reproductive Sciences Symposium Comes Back April 21

Mark your calendars for the 2012 Rocky Mountain Reproductive Sciences Symposium – The  Neuroendocrine System in Reproductive System Development and Disease – on Saturday, April 21.

This year's keynote lectures are:

• Dr. Margaret Wierman, University of Colorado, Denver, "Insights into the Diagnosis and Treatment of Clinical Disorders of the Reproductive Asix from Basic Science Advances."
• Dr. Stuart Tobet, Colorado State University, "Seeing Hypothalamic Development from the Perspective of Migrating GnRH Neurons."

The keynote lectures will be preceded and followed by student oral and poster presentations. This site will be updated with registration and abstract submission information when it becomes available. The RMRSS is presented by Colorado State University; the University of Colorado, Denver; University of Wyoming; and the University of Northern Colorado.

Environmental Health Scholars Finish First Semester with Presentations

ERHS scholars Keerthi Vemulapali and Ellen Holbrook.

Keerthi Vemulapali and Ellen Holbrook are this year’s Environmental Health Scholars. Now in its seventh year, the program continues to attract undergraduate students with a strong desire to not only learn in the classroom, but to apply what they learn in a laboratory setting. Students are chosen for the program based on their academic performance and personal essays indicating an interest in research. Participants in the program receive a $1,500 scholarship, are assigned a faculty mentor, and work in their mentor’s research laboratory.

Vemulapali is conducting research in cell number variation in yeast cells. CNV is the alteration of the DNA of the genome that results in the abnormal number of copies of one or more sections of DNA. CNVs have been recognized as contributing factors in carcinogenesis. The goal of Vemulapali’s research is to determine if different environmental factors can induce CNV. Her mentor is Dr. J. Lucas Argueso, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences.

Holbrook’s research looks at the sheep model in orthopaedic and soft tissue surgery in the Small Ruminant Comparative Orthopaedic Laboratory. The goal of the laboratory is to further human medicine through the ethical use of sheep to model human disorders including orthopaedic and metabolic conditions. Holbrook’s research looks at different procedures using the sheep model. Her mentor is Dr. Jeremiah Easley, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Clinical Sciences.

BMS Student Receives Opportunity Award

Michelle Sullivan, a master’s student in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, has been selected as a recipient of the 2012 Caroline tum Suden/Hellenbrand Professional Opportunity Award by the Council of the American Physiological Society and the APS Women in Physiology Committee. As an awardee, she will receive a certificate of recognition and a cash prize of $500 upon presentation of her poster at the Experimental Biology 2012 meeting.

College Remembers Celebrated Alumnus

Dr. Stephen Bennett came to Colorado by way of the Caribbean island of Trinidad and then Canada, but he was a Ram through and through. Dr. Bennett, a member of the DVM Class of 1948, passed away on Dec. 18, 2011, after a long and illustrious career.

Dr. Bennett first gained fame as a 10-year-old jockey who went on to win the 1937 Trinidad Derby aboard Danny Boy. In the late 1930s, Dr. Bennett left Trinidad to pursue a professional education abroad. He attended the Ontario Agricultural College (now the University of Guelph), where he completed a degree in animal husbandry. He then was accepted into the veterinary medical program at Colorado Agricultural and Mechanical College (now CSU).

“He grew to love the institution, and always spoke in extremely glowing terms of its faculty and facilities, and how it contributed to his professional competency,” wrote Dr. Don A Franco, in a tribute. “He completed the requirements for the degree, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1948, permitting him to begin his dreams of practicing his profession in his island and the start of another of life’s passages. But, his alma mater, Colorado State, remained an inherent part of his DNA. His colleagues will affirm that analogy readily. “

Dr. Bennett returned to Trinidad in 1948 where he established a successful veterinary practice and was deemed the veterinary authority of thoroughbred medicine throughout the Caribbean. He also had a busy small animal and livestock practice, and gained international recognition as the “father” of the buffalypso, a water buffalo breed he developed through a selective breeding program to bring in genetically traditional “beef traits.”