When asked to describe the field of comparative oncology, Carolyn Henry says, “You would probably get a different definition depending on who you ask that question, [but] when we think of comparative oncology here at the Vet School, we think of treating animals that develop cancer on their own just like people do and finding ways to treat that cancer better and that may translate into better treatments for people as well.” Henry’s interest in oncology began while she was working in private practice as a veterinarian. “It seemed like the cancer patients were the ones I found the most interesting and the most rewarding to treat,” she explains of her decision to pursue training and certification in veterinary oncology.

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is the leading genetic cause of infantile death and the leading genetic killer of children under the age of two. As an associate professor in MU’s Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, Christian Lorson has dedicated his life’s research to the study of this devastating disease in hopes of someday developing therapies to replace the diseased gene with a ‘healthy” one.

Under the umbrella of the National Cancer Institute, 13 universities were chosen to participate in the Comparative Oncology Trial Consortium, which conducts research trials to develop new and better cancer treatments.

Some of the collaborative efforts Henry has been a part of include research with pharmaceutical companies, the MU Research Reactor, and the Veterinary Cancer Society.

With research under his belt, Lorson hopes that his team can start to establish clinical trials to test the therapeutic programs they have developed. “The next step is to launch it into animal models and prove efficacy, showing that you can turn around the SMA phenotype [gene expression].”