OVERVIEW 

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OVERVIEW

The J.D. Wheat Veterinary Orthopedic Research Laboratory provides an environment for multidisciplinary studies pertaining to musculoskeletal disorders of animals.    The goals of researchers participating in the laboratory include enhancing the understanding of the pathophysiology of musculoskeletal diseases of performance, companion, and production animals and wildlife; and elucidating therapeutic and preventive techniques to combat these diseases.

History

Established in 1988, the J.D. Wheat Veterinary Orthopedic Research Laboratory built on the strong equine clinical foundation already accomplished by Drs. Don (J.D.) Wheat, Timothy O'Brien, Roy Pool and Dennis Meagher.  These veterinarians dedicated their careers to the care and welfare of the equine athlete.  They served as role models for the many equine clinicians they mentored as students, interns, residents, and graduate students; and stimulated them to envision and explore new ideas for the enhanced care of our equine friends.

The J.D. Wheat Veterinary Orthopedic Research Laboratory served to centralize existing equipment within the School of Veterinary Medicine and created an environment that has fostered collaboration, spawned creative ideas, been exceptionally  productive; and continues to develop new knowledge that enhances care of equine athletes and companion animals.

Don Wheat, world renowned equine surgeon and clinician, now Professor emeritus, was pivotal in promoting the concept and marshaling the resources to fund critical equipment that enabled the laboratory to realize its goals.  Without his interest, encouragement, and continued curiosity to understand and then find better ways to treat musculoskeletal diseases, the laboratory would not enjoy its current successes.

The Dolly Green Foundadtion provided a $1 million endowment to the laboratory in 1997 (?) in the name of Dr. Don Wheat. The endowment ensures continuity of the program directed towarded enhanceing the welfare of the Thoroghbred racehorse.

Mission 

The mission of the VORL is to provide a unique and specialized laboratory facility and research environment for members of UCD faculty, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, residents and visiting scientists as well as other qualified individuals from the School of Veterinary Medicine and campus of the University of California at Davis (UCD) who are interested in pursuing research in orthopedic diseases of animals, with one emphasis on musculoskeletal disorders of racehorses.  This laboratory provides an environment in which complex problems presented by most musculoskeletal diseases can be addressed by using the collective expertise of investigators from several different disciplines in the basic and clinical sciences of the School of Veterinary Medicine.

Goals

The goals of the laboratory include: 
  • Exemplifying the highest standard in its research program
  • Establishing platforms for 
    • Education of students
    • Information exchange with colleagues
    • Outreach to the general public
  • Maximizing the capabilities of the facility

Research Programs

The Laboratory is dedicated to the generation and disemmination of new knowledge to enhance the welfare of livestock and sompantion animals. Faculty interact with the livestock and comanion animal industries to be responsive to current problems.

Educational Program

Currently, faculty members teach in the preclinical and clinical courses of the professional veterinary curriculum in the Comparative Pathology graduate program of the School and campus; and in residency training programs of the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH).  Specimens and illustrations of tissues prepared in the VORL are fundamental to the instructional needs of these teaching programs.

Faculty, graduate students, and residents provide continuing education for veterinarians, horsemen, dog fanciers, livestock and companion animal industries and the general public. 

Facilities

The J.D. Wheat Veterinary Laboratory  is currently a multiuser facility that meets the special needs forpreparing, examining, and testing musculoskeletal and dental tissues of animals.  This facility has the capability to process both mineralized and unmineralized dense connectivetissues (including the bones, joints, tendons, ligaments, and teeth of large and small animals)and prosthetic implants (including metals). Six major research modalities will be established to maximize the lab's versatility: 

    1) mineralized tissue histology and histomorphometry
    2) microradiography, microangiography, and autoradiography
    3) materials testing
    4) histochemistry and biochemistry
    5) cellular and molecular biology of musculoskeletal tissues
    6) computer-aided modeling ofmusculoskeletal mechanics, biological processes, and diseases.

     
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