KC Animal Health Corridor spotlights veterinary innovation

Kansas City—The Kansas City Animal Health Corridor, an organization that promotes veterinary research and industry in eastern Kansas and western Missouri, sponsored a number of events focused on innovation in the animal health world in conjunction with CVC Kansas City in late August.

In the Animal Health Research Symposium, organized by the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, speakers shared examples of how veterinary advances are helping feed the world's hungry, protect public health, boost food animal production and, of course, increase the quality and duration of pets' lives. Keynote speaker James Cook, DVM, PhD, DACV, DACVSMR, described his orthopedic research at the University of Missouri, which includes generating new cartilage and bone from donor tissue to replace damaged joints in dogs—a procedure that may someday be used in people. "I don't care if it's a two-legger or a four-legger, I want to help all of them," Cook says.

During the Animal Health Investment Forum, presented by the Corridor, fledgling companies pitched venture capitalists and other potential investors. If funded, veterinarians could one day have access to a biofilm-targeting enzyme that makes antibiotics more effective against resistant bacteria, an OTC pregnancy test for cattle and miniature "organelles" that can be implanted in—and cure—diseased tissue.