Collaborations

Dr. Dave Guthrie, USDA/ARS Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. A cooperative project is ongoing with the goal of defining characteristics of sperm cells that will predict the ability of these cells to survive cryopreservation and achieve a pregnancy rate comparable to liquid semen.

Dr. Leon Spicer , Department of Animal Science, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK. Collaborating on experiments to identify mediators of ovarian folliculogenesis during the bovine estrous cycle, and to identify the role of the IGF system in the recruitment and selection of the ovulatory follicle(s) and in the regulation of ovulation rate in ruminants.

Dr. Jon Green, Department of Animal Science,University of Missouri, Columbia, MO. The objective of this cooperative research is to characterize differences in the production of pregnancy-associated proteins (PAG) between cattle gestating twin versus single fetuses, and to assess the use of PAGs to diagnose twin pregnancies or insufficiencies in placental development and/or function in beef cattle.

Washington State University, Department of Animal Science, Pullman, WA. The objective of this cooperative research project is to identify Single nucleotide polymorphisms in genes associated with increased ovulation rate and uterine capacity in swine.

Dr. Andrea Cupp, University of Nebraska, Department of Animal Science, Lincoln, NE.  The objective of this cooperative research is to investigate the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in follicular development in cattle using ovarian cortical cultures and whole cow models.

Dr. Carolyn Komar, Iowa State University, Department of Animal Science, Ames, IA.  The objective of this research is to investigate ovarian phenotypes associated with early embryonic loss in cattle and identify oocyte derived factors that influence early embryonic development in beef cattle.

NC-1006 "Methods to Increase Reproductive Efficiency in Cattle" http://www.lgu.umd.edu/lgu_v2/homepages/home.cfm?trackID=2596

Dr. Ronald Cerny, Director, Mass Spectrometry Core Facility, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The objective of this collaboration is to perform proteomic analysis of protein samples from livestock. Mass Spectrometry is being used to identify proteins after separation by 2 dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

Dr. Brett White, Dept. Animal Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The objective of this collaboration is to develop techniques to freeze swine embryos and then use the technology to store embryos from the Chinese Meishan breed of pigs.

Food and Drug Administration and Viagen, Inc. The objective of this collaboration is to characterize the progeny of cloned animals to look for permanent changes in the progeny resulting from the cloning process.