Research Podcasts – Veterinary Science on the Move – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to the RVC research podcast, where we are joined by Dirk Werling, Professor of Molecular Immunology about the technology which is now available to us at the RVC ‘organ on a chip’. Professor Werling shares his obvious passion for this technology and how with his lead involvement in the RVC’s new Centre for Vaccinology and Regenerative Medicine, this can help our research and help with the 4R principle of animal welfare. We hope that you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as we enjoyed recording it.

To find out more about Prof Werling’s work, use the following link
https://www.rvc.ac.uk/about/our-people/dirk-werling

To read more about the Centre for Vaccinology and Regenerative Medicine
https://www.rvc.ac.uk/research/facilities-and-resources/centre-for-vaccinology-and-regenerative-medicine

Selected reading material
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34150901/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211913215300310?via%3Dihub
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/18/6889
https://journals.biologists.com/dmm/article/16/6/dmm050113/316778/A-systematic-review-of-kidney-on-a-chip-based

To Cite this podcast: Dom Barfield. RVC Research Podcast 63 Organ on a chip with Professor Dirk Werling. Published on May 3 2024

If you have any comments about this podcast, please get in touch: email podcast@rvc.ac.uk. We would greatly appreciate your time to rate us on Apple podcast, Spotify, Acast or your preferred podcast platform and kindly write us a review. 

Today we are delighted to have Dr Dan O’Neill joining Brian and myself in our remote studio. Dan is Senior Lecturer in Companion Animal Epidemiology here at the RVC and leader of the VetCompass Programme. Dan eloquently describes his story. After twenty-two years in general practice wanting to find evidence for treating or informing clients on the common conditions that he saw, he took a leap to find those answers. After leaving the keys to his practice as he left one Saturday, he started a Master’s in veterinary epidemiology the following Monday. A PhD followed and he has stayed true to his word to find answers to those problems and with just under 100 papers published so far, he shows no signs of slowing down. A delight to speak to and be in his company, we hope that you enjoy the podcast as much as we did recording it. 

To find out more about Dan use the following link:

https://www.rvc.ac.uk/about/our-people/dan-o-neill

For more about VetCompass:

https://www.rvc.ac.uk/vetcompass  

Here are some links to some of Dan’s papers:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31660657/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32661183/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33325082/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31037739/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32751913/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33128852/

To Cite this podcast as: Dom Barfield. RVC Research Podcast 62 with Dr Dan O’Neill. Published on Apr 02 2021  

If you have any comments about this podcast, please get in touch: email dbarfield@rvc.ac.uk; tweet @dombarfield. We would greatly appreciate your time to rate us on Apple podcast or Acast and kindly write us a review.

For Episode 53 we talk to Dr Mandi De Mestre, a Reader in Reproductive Immunology here at the RVC. She discusses her career and research that she has followed in three different continents. We hope that you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as we enjoyed recording it, inspiring, interesting and informative. To find out more about Dr De Mestre’s work, use the following link   https://www.rvc.ac.uk/about/our-people/mandi-de-mestre     If you have any comments about this podcast, please get in touch: email dbarfield@rvc.ac.uk; tweet @dombarfield. We would greatly appreciate your time to rate us on Apple podcast or Acast and kindly write us a review.  

For Episode 52 we talk to Dr Stuart Patterson, who successfully completed his PhD last year and when we recorded this podcast was working as a lecturer in Dairy Medicine here at the RVC. He has now taken a permanent post at the RVC as a Lecturer in Wild Animal Health. We discuss how he has managed his career and aligned it with his interests as well as taking advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves. We hope that you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as we enjoyed recording it, something for everyone, especially if you like meerkats. To find out more about Dr Patterson’s work, use the following link   https://www.rvc.ac.uk/about/our-people/stuart-patterson     If you have any comments about this podcast, please get in touch: email dbarfield@rvc.ac.uk; tweet @dombarfield. We would greatly appreciate your time to rate us on Apple podcast or Acast and kindly write us a review.

Welcome back to the RVC podcast, where we are going to focus on the researchers and their research. For our 51st episode we talk to Dirk Werling, Professor of Molecular Immunology about how he started his research career, what research he is currently involved with and advice to those people interested in pursuing a career in research. We hope that you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as we enjoyed recording it. To find out more about Prof Werling’s work, use the following link  https://www.rvc.ac.uk/about/our-people/dirk-werling   If you have any comments about this podcast, please get in touch: email dbarfield@rvc.ac.uk; tweet @dombarfield. We would greatly appreciate your time to rate us on Apple podcast or Acast and kindly write us a review.

A number of diseases arise because the immune system begins to attack the body’s own cells. Here Dr Oliver Garden describes how these diseases arise and his research into the role of a particular type of immune cell, the regulatory T cell, in this phenomenon across species.

The possibility of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infection is now a concern for many patients receiving hospital treatment. However, accumulating evidence shows that MRSA can also be carried by animals and then passed on to people in contact. Here Professor Katharina Staerk and colleagues describe their research to identify novel methods of preventing MRSA infection and transmission as part of an EU consortium.

Anal furunculosis is a particularly unpleasant disease of the rear end that particularly affects German Shepherd dogs. Here Dr Brian Catchpole and Prof Susan Gregory outline the traditional way the disease is identified and treated, their recent findings on how it may be caused, and how these findings inform current best treatment practices.

Methods of locomotion vary greatly across the animal kingdom according to size, number of legs and evolutionary niche. However, it seems that there are a great many common themes between species. Here Dr Andrew Spence discusses the latest ideas in locomotion research, with particular reference to the dog... and the cockroach!

A foetus presents an immunological, as well as a nutritional, challenge to its mother. Here Dr Mandi de Mestre describes how the equine placenta, hormonal and immune systems interact to handle these challenges and how her research is revealing the mechanisms involved.