Department:
Department of Comparative, Diagnostic & Population Medicine
Lekshmi K Edison PhD, PGDBI
Postdoctoral Associate
Department:
Department of Comparative, Diagnostic & Population Medicine
Subhashinie Kariyawasam BVSc, PhD, DACVM, DACPV, DACVPM, DABMM
Chair, Department Of Comparative, Diagnostic, And Population Medicine; Professor, Microbiology
Department:
Department of Comparative, Diagnostic & Population Medicine
Sabarinath G Ponnamma BVSc & AH, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Department:
Department of Infectious Diseases & Immunology
Bikash Sahay
Research Associate Professor
Department:
Department of Comparative, Diagnostic & Population Medicine
Janet K Yamamoto PhD
Professor – Immunology And Director Of LCIV-CA
Contact
Dr. Janet Yamamoto, Director of LCIV-CA, at yamamoto@ufl.edu.
Scientific Missions
- Develop veterinary vaccines and immunotherapeutics for companion animals with focus on cats, dogs, and horses
- Pan-coronavirus vaccine(s) for companion animals (cats, dogs, and hamsters)
- Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) immunotherapeutic cure
- T-cell based therapeutic FIV vaccine to prevent immunosuppression in FIV-infected cats
- Prophylactic DNA/mRNA FIV vaccine
- Feline, canine, and equine erythropoietin therapy
- Feline, canine, and equine granulocyte-colony stimulating factor therapy
- Provide Western blot or immunoblot diagnostics service for companion animals
- Feline coronavirus/FIPV whole-virus immunoblot diagnostics
- Canine coronavirus whole-virus immunoblot diagnostics
- Feline immunodeficiency virus immunoblot diagnostics
- Immunoblot diagnostics for other veterinary viral diseases
- Provide a species-specific lipid nanoparticle delivery (LNP) system for vaccine or drug delivery for companion animals
- Collaborate in a one-medicine mission with the Emerging Pathogen Institute to:
- Develop a pan-coronavirus vaccine that prevents SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans
- Evaluate the impact that emerging human viral pathogen(s) have on companion animals
- Provide service on a LNP delivery system for vaccines and immunotherapeutics against emerging human viral pathogens (e.g., SARS-CoV-2)
- Provide antibody and T-cell immune analyses, at cost, on human blood from convalescent subjects exposed to emerging viral pathogen(s), as well as from unexposed subjects
- Maintain the CVM Cat Breeding Program as a service to provide specific pathogen free cats, at cost, to CVM and UF faculty members working on feline research
- Collaborate with veterinary and human companies on patented products of LCIV-CA
Academic Missions
- Recruit and train CVM graduate student(s) on developing vaccines and immunodiagnostics
- Train pre-veterinary undergraduate students on veterinary immunodiagnostics and animal procedures
- Produce high-impact publications from collaborative research among LCIV-CA, CVM, and EPI faculty members
- Secure extramural funds for LCIV-CA, CVM, and/or EPI faculty collaborators