Speaker Biographies

 

 

Pat Condreay, PhD
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Helen Diggs, MEd, DVM, DACLAM
Helen Diggs is the Senior Director for AAALAC International. She was previously the Attending Veterinarian, Director of Laboratory Animal Resources Center, and a Professor at the Carson College of Veterinary Medicine at Oregon State University. Prior to that she was Attending Veterinarian and Director of the Office of Laboratory Animal Care at the University of California- Berkeley. She earned her Veterinary degrees from Oregon State University and Washington State University. Helen served as an AAALAC International ad hoc beginning in 1994 and has been on AAALAC Council since 2007. She served as AAALAC Council Vice President from July – December 2018.
Carol Epling, MD

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 Richard Frothingham, MD

Dr. Frothingham is the principal investigator of a research laboratory which studies Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the cause of tuberculosis, and Mycobacterium avium, a closely related bacterium causing serious infections in AIDS patients. We are pursuing two current projects.
The first project aims to develop vaccines against M. avium and M. tuberculosis. We inject mice with candidate plasmid DNA vaccines which produce bacterial proteins in mouse muscle. We use a variety of DNA adjuvants to modify the immune response. We hope to use DNA vaccination to protect against new infections and to modify the course of existing infections. We also hope to identify correlates of vaccine-induced protective immunity.
The second project uses variations in bacterial DNA sequences to identify species and strains. Dr. Frothingham was part of a team of four Duke scientists who used DNA sequence analysis to identify the cause of Whipple’s disease. He also identified used DNA sequence to identify a particular group of M. avium strains which cause disseminated infections in AIDS patients. We recently developed a new tuberculosis typing method using variable numbers of tandem DNA repeats. We are applying this new typing method in national and international collaborations.

Kathryn Harris, PhD, RBP

Dr. Kathryn Harris is the Senior Outreach and Education Specialist (contractor) in the Office of Science Policy (OSP) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Kathryn joined NIH in 2004. In her current role she develops national and regional programs of stakeholder relations, education, and outreach strategies relevant to the oversight of recombinant and synthetic nucleic acid molecule research and research that has dual use potential. In addition, she advises on biosafety and biosecurity policy issues. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University and completed two years of postdoctoral training at Washington University in St Louis.
Prior to joining NIH she was the Biological Safety Officer at Northwestern University. She is a registered biosafety professional was a founding member and first president of the Midwest Area Biosafety Network (MABioN).

Scott Kitchen, PhD

Dr. Scott Kitchen’s research interests are focused on investigating the effects of viral infection, as well as other cellular abnormalities, on human hematopoiesis and on exploring ways to correct defects that exist in immunity to viral and cellular antigens. The human immune system is normally fastidious in controlling the environmental assaults that the body receives every day. However, there are many instances where the immune response is ineffective in clearing infection or cancerous cells. Kitchen’s laboratory is interested in understanding the mechanisms that limit the immune systems’ ability to clear infection or cancer and in developing ways that augment these responses. Specifically, they are investigating the role of the CD4 molecule in multilineage hematopoiesis and in cellular responses, particularly in the context of HIV infection. They are also interested in developing gene therapy-based approaches to engineer human hematopoietic stem cells to reconstitute and/or enhance immune responses following their development into mature cells that specifically target HIV infection as well as other viral and cellular antigens. In addition, his laboratory is interested in the development of mouse/human chimeric models that allow the characterization of human hematopoiesis and engineered immunity in a surrogate in vivo host.

Timothy Mandrell, DVM, DACLAM

Timothy Mandrell, DVM, DACLAM, is a vivarium planning and research animal program consultant for institutions in the US and abroad. He has extensive expertise in animal facility design and operation, animal biosafety and occupational health and safety. Dr. Mandrell is a Diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM) and is the author or co-author of over 60 published articles, abstracts, and book chapters. He is active professionally having served as President of the American Society of Laboratory Animal Practitioners (ASLAP) and a member of the board of directors and officer of ACLAM. He also serves as an Ad Hoc Specialist for AAALAC. Dr. Mandrell has been a speaker at numerous national meetings and workshops related to animal biosafety, occupational health, and design and construction of animal facilities. He served as chair of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science committee that developed the AALAS Learning Library biosafety training program for animal technicians. Dr. Mandrell is a graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Comparative Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He recently retired as Director, Professor, and Department Chair at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center where he served for 25 years.

John N. Norton, DVM, PhD, DABT, DACLAM

Dr. Norton serves as the Director of the Division of Laboratory Animal Resources and is Professor of Pathology at Duke University as well as an Adjunct Professor of Clinical Sciences at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He is board-certified through the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM) and the American Board of Toxicology (ABT). He holds bachelor degrees in biochemistry and animal science as well as a doctorate in veterinary medicine from North Carolina State University. Additionally, his Ph.D. in pharmacology was awarded from Vanderbilt University. Dr. Norton has 30 years of laboratory animal medicine and research experience including serving as Study Director and/or Manager in over 150 preclinical pharmacology and safety studies. In addition, he is integrally involved in the design and management of complex, multi-functional animal facilities. Dr. Norton is an Emeritus member of the AAALAC International Council on Accreditation and is a Past President of the Council. His collaborative research focuses on extrinsic factors which may influence the animal research model, specifically in the area of noise and vibration.

Antony Schwartz, PhD
 

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Ellyn Segal, PhD

Ellyn Segal received a B.S. from McGill University in Biology/Genetics and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Stony Brook University, doing research at Cold Spring Harbor Labs in N. Y. and Scripps Research Foundation in San Diego, CA. She continued her education with a Post-doctoral position in Microbiology and Immunology at UCSF. From there she moved to Stanford University, where she was a post-doctoral scholar and Sr. Research Scientist working on bacterial pathogenesis and cellular microbiology. In 2001 she moved into her current position as Biosafety & Biosecurity Manager for Stanford University. Dr. Segal is interested in the intersection of new technologies and issues with Biosafety.

Wayne Thomann, DrPH

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