Exterior Renderings Purdue Animal Sciences€¦ · placement of nearly 95% upon graduation. Our graduates easily find positions in agribusiness, animal production, ... and pharmacy

TCPurdue University - Hobart and Russel Creighton Hall of Animal Sciences and the Land O’Lakes Center for Experiential Learning Complex | BSA LifeStructures 61090807060504030201

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INSIDE JULY 2017

Dr. Chuck | Our New Home | Faculty Features | Awards and Honors | Student Spotlights

Purdue Animal Sciences

2 | PURDUE DEPAR TMENT OF ANIMAL SCIENCES

We are very pleased to present this edition of our Purdue Animal Sciences Newsletter, now with a new format and

very different look. Many thanks to our Animal Sciences Communications Specialist, Lynette Musselman, and our colleagues in the Purdue Agricultural Communication group for their great ideas, expertise and efforts that have resulted in this newsletter. I hope you enjoy the exciting articles and information within.

While we have many activities and achievements to share and celebrate in this newsletter, most exciting for us is the coming of our new Animal Sciences “home,” as we anticipate completion of the Hobart and Russell Creighton Hall of Animal Sciences and the Land O’Lakes Center for Experiential Learning. The combined $60 million project will be completed this fall, and we anticipate moving our faculty, staff and students into the new facilities in November. The Creighton Hall of Animal Sciences and Land O’Lakes Center will provide state-of-the art classrooms, laboratories, conference spaces and interactive areas for faculty and students, along with a new meat science laboratory and animal arena (the Purina Pavilion). And while we have many reasons to look forward to the new facilities, the opportunities that the facilities will foster, including interactive student learning, cutting-edge research, and enhanced Extension programming, are ultimately most important because they will help us better serve our students, producers and the food animal industries.

And we indeed have a very significant industry to support and serve. The estimated total value of animals on Indiana dairy, beef, swine and poultry farms is more than $1.4 billion. Indiana ranks 5th among the states in hog production, 3rd in all poultry excluding broilers, 2nd in ice cream production, 2nd in egg production and 1st in duck production. Considering the geographic size of Indiana compared to larger agricultural states, the above statistics are an indication of the intensity and success of Indiana animal agriculture. Indiana food animal production is a $6 billion industry, accounting for more than 35,000 jobs. Additionally, Indiana meat industries provide a total economic impact of more than $18 billion. Indiana and other US producers have a long history of looking to Purdue Animal Sciences to help improve their farm operations by increasing efficiency and profitability through new technologies and Extension information. We have helped producers and the

animal industries keep pace with current agricultural systems and newer regulatory requirements, including those related to food safety, environmental stewardship and animal well-being. With our new facilities, we are now well-positioned to continue to provide high-level support for an agricultural sector that is increasingly technology intensive.

Importantly, the new interactive teaching activities facilitated by our new classrooms will provide our students with a rigorous, relevant, and problem-based learning experience to prepare them for a lifetime of career achievement. And the need for Animal Science graduates is greater than ever. While our undergraduate enrollment is at a record high with more than 675 animal science students, we continue to see a career placement of nearly 95% upon graduation. Our graduates easily find positions in agribusiness, animal production, the biosciences, and careers related to animal well-being and behavior, just to name a few. Additionally, approximately 15% of our BS graduates are accepted into graduate programs, to work toward MS and/or PhD degrees, and 20% enter veterinary or other professional programs, including human medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy programs.

We are deeply grateful for the many supporters who contributed to the funding for our new facilities. Certainly, Creighton Brothers, LLC and Land O’Lakes, Inc. deserve special thanks for their large contributions. But we have many other supporters to thank, including the Indiana livestock, dairy and poultry producer organizations, numerous individual donors, our Indiana legislators, and many others who understood the need, and advocated for, first-class facilities for our Animal Science programs. Through their vision and support we will be better able to offer exceptional student learning opportunities, provide relevant Extension programming, conduct innovative research and develop the high-level technologies worthy of our current and highly progressive agricultural industries.

I thank each of you for your continued support. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to know more about Purdue Animal Sciences.

Best regards,

ALAN MATHEWProfessor and Head, Purdue Animal Sciences

Embracing new opportunities

JULY 2017 | 3

John “The Predator” Talley bounded into the wrestling ring like he was shot from a cannon. Wearing a gray John Cena sweatshirt, Talley could not wait to get his hands around the neck of his opponent, Dr. Doom, who was cowering in the opposite corner of the 20-by-20-foot ring.

Dr. Doom, AKA Dr. Chuck Dietzen, BS ’83, eyed “The Predator” and began begging for his very life. He stuck one leg outside the ring, an indication to the referee that he wanted no part of the scrappy opponent he outweighed by 125 pounds.

Outside the ring, Dietzen is chief of pediatric rehabilitation at Riley Hospital in Indianapolis. But in the ring, sporting a black “Trust me, I’m a doctor” T-shirt and knee-high black wrestling boots, he is Dr. Doom, the winless host of the annual Timmy Takedown.

One by one, 26 wrestlers paraded into the ring as part of the Takedown, each a current or former patient of Dietzen.

Some climbed out of wheelchairs. Others left their walkers parked ringside for the chance to thump on Dr. Doom.

Talley had patiently waited his turn among his cheering section, hopping up and down to keep loose while Mom hoisted high a “Predator” sign. Aunt Patsy recorded the event on her cellphone while Grandma and three of his cousins cheered as though it was the Super Bowl.

“The Predator” had been waiting, planning his attack while wrestlers with names like “The Piranha,” “Foxy Roxy,” “The Zach Attack,” and “Hannah the Ferocious Banana” took turns beating on Dr. Doom.

Talley first met Dietzen in August 2016, when the youngster started his rehabilitation therapy regimen.

Seems they were kindred wrestling spirits from the get-go. Dietzen gave his last wrestling mask to Talley. It happened to be green, Talley’s favorite color.

“That’s all my son has ever wanted to do is be a professional wrestler,” said Talley’s father, John C. Talley. “Dr. Chuck told my son about the Timmy Takedown and he couldn’t wait to get in the ring and wrestle Dr. Doom. My son is the kind of kid who would tell his friends he couldn’t come outside and play because he was training to become a professional wrestler.”

The two Talleys used to wrestle on the floor of their Indianapolis home all the time. Until a tumor growing on the boy’s spine made the simplest tasks, like walking, almost impossible.

“I was afraid to wrestle with him,” Talley said of his son. “I was afraid he could be permanently injured.”

Doctors removed the tumor this summer, but not before it had grown so large it had broken one of the bones in his back. John “The Predator” met Dietzen in rehab when he was learning how to walk again.

“Dr. Chuck met my son and he just fell in love with him,” said John the father. “When he told him about the Takedown, he could not wait to get into the ring with him.”

Dr. Doom first tried evasive tactics, but “The Predator” cut off the ring, trapping his opponent in the corner. He hooked Dr. Doom’s left arm, whipping him across the ring, where he

To Dr. Chuck, every child is a masterpieceBy Tom Campbell Photographer, College of Agriculture

4 | PURDUE DEPAR TMENT OF ANIMAL SCIENCES

bounced off the ropes and fell flat on the mat. As he wobbled to his feet, “The Predator” chased Dr. Doom into the corner, pushing him into the turnbuckle. “The Predator” showed no mercy, throwing Dr. Doom to the ground.

“The Predator” dove to the mat, rendering Dr. Doom immobile by locking his hands around Dr. Doom’s right leg. “1-2-3,” the referee quickly counted Dr. Doom out. He hoisted “The Predator’s” arm high into the air, ending the match and the event.

Dr. Doom’s dubious record was intact: 27 matches, 27 losses. Another year without a victory in the Takedown. He and his patients could not have been happier.

“John was totally geeked,” the father said. “He said, ‘Dad, I took him down twice. Twice!’”

“Dr. Doom to geriatrics. Dr. Doom to geriatrics.”Dietzen first used wrestling as therapy during his first year of medical practice in the coal country town of Ashland, Kentucky. That’s where Dr. Doom was born.

He was Dr. Dietzen by day, but on nights and weekends he became Dr. Doom. His wrestling moves would occasionally spill over into the geriatric ward of the hospital.

He once took two nurses by their ponytails and, in a classic wrestling move, pretended to slam their heads together like a pair of coconuts as his patients looked on, mesmerized by the spectacle.

In a carefully designed choreography, the nurses jumped up and chased Dr. Doom down the hallway. He escaped their wrath by leaping through the window of the nurses’ station as the patients roared their approval.

Now 55, Dietzen wrestles his patients only at the Timmy Takedown, a perfect stage for them to show off their skills.

Before becoming a doctor, Dietzen had dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. He studied animal sciences at Purdue, where he was heavily influenced by Martin Stob, who taught ANSC 433, reproductive physiology.

But there was just something extraordinary in the way he cared for children. It was a talent his mother first spotted when he was growing up. He had been such a big help to his parents in raising over 150 foster children in their home near Kokomo, Indiana.

“You are so good with kids,” Anita Dietzen told her son. “Maybe you should be a pediatrician.”

Dietzen made the switch to medical school. But he never forgot the lessons he learned at Purdue.

“I never had any heroes when I went to med school at IU,” Dietzen said. “But I always wanted to be just like Martin Stob. Everything he ever did was done to help his students. He was my hero.”

Foxy Roxy and the Ferocious Banana“My patients are friends of mine who just happen to be in predicaments,” Dietzen explained. “Getting them in the wrestling ring allows them to showcase their abilities.”

Dietzen has not won a match in the 22 years he has hosted the Takedown. He figures the streak has now reached over 600 consecutive losses at the hands of wrestlers such as “Fox Roxy” and the “Ferocious Banana,” patients who have nearly as much fun inventing their own monikers as they do crushing Dr. Doom.

“Dick The Bruiser was always my favorite wrestler. I guess I should change my wrestling name to Chuck the Loser,” he said.

Dietzen, or Dr. Chuck, as he is known by his patients, has been able to use wrestling as a form of physical and emotional therapy for his opponents and their parents.

“Wrestling is always good versus evil,” Dietzen said, “and good always, always wins. Always.”

Dr. Chuck and his “Moment”In 1997, Dietzen made a pilgrimage to visit Mother Teresa in Calcutta. He still regards meeting her and working, even briefly, in her orphanage as a personal pinnacle.

One particular photo from that trip, a scene captured by Dietzen’s friend Dr. Joe Bergeron, embodies his experience.

Dietzen simply calls the photo “The Moment.”

The photograph shows a shoeless Dietzen on one knee. The wood floor is covered with small babies. Dietzen holds a tiny child in his arms. Another baby uses Dietzen to pull herself into a standing position.

It’s a photo that defines Dietzen. It’s a moment he describes as if it happened yesterday.

“It’s when you know everything you ever prepared for in your life, every resource, every experience you had comes together for that one moment,” Dietzen said.

“You walk in and there are 40 kids lying on the floor and maybe six people to take care of them. They pray others will show up to help, and we do. You have to tiptoe through these kids so you

JULY 2017 | 5

don’t step on one of them. For whatever reason, I knelt down and picked up this tiny child. At the same time, this little girl on my leg just came up to me and grabbed on. When you kneel down, all of these little kids just kind of migrate over to you. And you understand: This is the meaning of life.”

Meeting an angel on Earth “That’s the doctor who met Mother Teresa,” a nurse whispered to Margie Luna, a 16-year-old cancer patient from Ecuador who was undergoing chemotherapy at Lifelines Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis in 1997.

Dietzen was hurrying back to his office to begin catching up on the workload he missed while in India.

Luna began chasing Dietzen down the hall, pulling her IV stand behind. Luna was battling rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive form of cancer that was attacking the skeletal muscle of her pelvis.

“Please, Dr. Chuck,” Luna said when she caught up to Dietzen. “Tell me about Mother Teresa.”

Dietzen painted a portrait of Mother Teresa that so captivated Luna, she decided to forgo the Versace gown the Indiana Children’s Wish Fund had planned to buy her. Her dream now was much bigger than simply going to her high school prom. She wanted to go to India to help Mother Teresa care for her orphans. She wanted to have her “moment.”

When she finished her round of chemo and her blood counts stabilized, Luna wrote Dietzen a letter.

“Dear Dr. Chuck,” she wrote. “I’m feeling great. No more chemo for a while. OH, PLEASE, OH, PLEASE, OH PLEASE, take me to India now! I feel great. We can do this. Margie.”

“We couldn’t give her an out-of-body experience,” Dietzen says of their journey. He did better. “We gave her a bigger than body experience.”

Mother Teresa died Sept. 5, 1997. But Margie’s dream never did. She and Dietzen traveled to India in February 1998 to work at the same orphanage where Mother Teresa cared for the sick and discarded.

A nun took Margie to Mother Teresa’s tomb and gave her one of the roses decorating the site.

A few weeks later, back in Indianapolis, Luna shifted awkwardly in the passenger seat of the car driven by her mother — and fractured her pelvis. The cancer, which also attacks the bones, was back.

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recounting one of Dietzen’s favorite quotes, “but everyone is born to be a healer.

“That is something all of the Timmy chapters have embodied — that you don’t have to be a doctor, or want to be a doctor, to have an impact on these people who need help so badly.”

Dietzen has worked with children in more than 30 nations. The foundation he started and named after a brother who died in infancy is providing regular health care to children in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nigeria and in 34 communities in Ecuador.

And why Ecuador? Dietzen reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. Behind a thin shield of plastic is a photo of Margie Luna. It’s a photo he has carried for almost 20 years.

He points to the photo. “Because I know my guardian angel is watching.”

Finding a new life after deathIn a noisy gymnasium in Indianapolis, Lisa and James Keown (pronounced “Cow-an”) lifted their 16-year-old son, Chad, out of his wheelchair and helped him up the three wooden steps that led to the wrestling ring at the Timmy Takedown.

Born with a defective heart, he had the first of three open heart surgeries when he was a month old. It seems Keown has been fighting for his life all his life.

“He’s been waiting for this a long time,” Lisa said.

The front of Chad’s black shirt read “The eyes of the ranger are upon you,” a tribute to his TV hero, Walker, Texas Ranger. The back of his shirt was emblazoned with the wrestling name he picked for himself, “3-Count Keown.”

It was a mixed message, acknowledging the wrestling term for a pin, and that he beat three opponents — heart, lung and brain trauma — just to be standing in the ring with Dr. Doom, his real-life hero.

“About a year ago, Chad flat-lined,” Dr. Doom said while Chad pumped up the crowd by flexing his muscles. “And now he’s wrestling. Pretty cool, huh?”

The Keown family had been driving from their home in Sharpsville to Muncie when Chad started coughing up blood. James pulled into a gas station and called 911.

By the time the ambulance arrived, Chad’s lungs began to fill up with blood.

“I can’t breathe. I’m going to die. Somebody help me,” Keown gasped.

Doctors performed an emergency tracheotomy to help him breathe. But there were complications.

“He flat-lined for nearly 40 minutes,” Lisa said. “Basically, he died.”

Doctors revived Chad, who will spend a lifetime rehabilitating

When all treatment options had been exhausted, Dietzen visited Luna in her home. She had all but worn out the rosary beads he had given her from his first trip to India, ones Mother Teresa had blessed.

They sat together, talked about the cancer, about Mother Teresa and of a life Margie wanted to dedicate to helping others. They hugged and they cried.

“I promise you, Dr. Chuck, I will be your guardian angel,” she said. She gave Dietzen a photograph of herself.

“And I promise you,” Dietzen said, “I will take care of the children of Ecuador.”

Helping Dr. Chuck in EcuadorThe road leading to the community center outside Quito, Ecuador, is little more than a steep, narrow and rocky path. So when the bus driver refused to go any further, 17 Purdue students, four doctors and three nurses grabbed all of the medical supplies, hopped out and hiked 10 minutes to their destination.

For that day during Purdue’s 2016 spring break, the small, dark building at the trail’s end would be the Ecuadorian headquarters for Timmy Global Health (TGH), a foundation Dietzen started in 1997 to help provide quality, affordable healthcare to those in need.

“In our work, we strive to empower volunteers to lead the fight for global health equity and help deliver the promise of a healthy future,” the organization states in its mission statement, “one patient at a time.”

“The biggest thing for me is that Timmy focuses on continuity of care,” Becca Donnelly said. “I’ve always struggled with organizations going to developing countries once and not providing sustainable help. But Timmy Global Health sees the same communities every couple of months. In Ecuador, I could look back at other chapter’s visits and I could see a patient’s history. That’s really important when you are trying to provide healthcare.”

Donnelly and the other students pitched in wherever needed, recording height and weight, blood pressure and temperature of the patients.

Some worked in the pharmacy, counting out pills, and others staffed an eyeglasses station, where donated glasses were distributed.

She calls that week the best of her entire life. It was her Moment.

“You can have an impact on global health in an infinite amount of ways, and that is what Dr. Chuck shows us. He is a doctor, but he is also a healer. He reaches patients in a way that goes beyond being their doctor.”

Donnelly found, through her trip to Ecuador and her involvement with Timmy Global Health, that she, too, is a healer.

“Not everyone is born to be a doctor,” Donnelly said,

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his heart, lungs and brain. Chad had to relearn how to eat, walk and talk. Lisa said Chad didn’t really show signs of progress until Dietzen entered the picture.

“Let’s not treat the injury,” Dietzen told the family. “Let’s treat Chad.”

Rehabilitation started with simple things, like thumb wrestling. Dr. Chuck would lose those matches, too.

When Chad got a little stronger, he and Dietzen would arm wrestle. When Dietzen explained the Timmy Takedown to the Keowns, Chad could not wait to get into the ring.

“We want to empower the kids spiritually and psychologically to help them overcome some major disabilities in their lives,” Dietzen explained.

3-count Keown takes down Dr. DoomA well-placed clothesline chop sent Dr. Doom to the mat with a thud and a groan. “3-Count” closed in on his fallen adversary, planting his foot firmly on Dr. Doom’s chest.

“Stay down,” 3-Count shouted.

“Oh, I will,” Dr. Doom replied.

“3-Count” raised his arms in triumph. At ringside, Lisa and James could hardly contain themselves, thinking about how far their son had come in just a year, thanks to his own indomitable spirit and a meeting with Dr. Chuck.

“I don’t know why our lives crossed paths with Dr. Dietzen, but I’m glad they did,” Lisa Keown said. “He treats every kid like he is his own. That man is a saint.”

Dr. Dietzen empowers each opponent at the Takedown to be a superhero, even if it is only for two minutes. The short-term goal is to make every kid feel confident that they can overcome any challenge placed before them.

But the long-term hope is that they each fulfill the great promise of each human life.

“Each child at the Takedown has an opportunity to give back to other children,” said Dr. Dietzen. It’s an example of the ripple effect he first saw in action while working with Mother Teresa. A pebble dropped into the ocean causes a small ripple, but as that ripple moves away from the center, it gets larger and larger.

“There is a value to each human life,” Dr. Dietzen said. “We want to help each kid. That’s what we do. But these kids make me a better person, too. We just want to help them discover what each person’s gift is that will make the world a better place.”

“3-Count” Keown now knows his.

This year, 3-Count Keown opened Chad’s Café in his high school cafeteria.

“Chad doesn’t want just a moment,” his mother said. “He wants to leave a legacy, something that will outlast him.”

His goal is to have some of the students in his high school’s special education program operate the café, earning a wage and learning job skills. Like Dr. Chuck, he wants to make the world a better place, one kid at a time.

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TCPurdue University - Hobart and Russel Creighton Hall of Animal Sciences and the Land O’Lakes Center for Experiential Learning Complex | BSA LifeStructures 57090807060504030201

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Key dates M AY 2015

Board of Trustees gives green light to a $60 million Agricultural and Life Sciences Facility that was designated as Purdue’s top priority in a 10-year capital plan submitted to the state.

D E C E M B E R 2014

New building for Animal Sciences called top priority for Purdue College of Agriculture in 2015.

$60 million

123,000 square feet

November 2017We start moving in.

January 2018Spring semester classes.

BY T H E N U M B E R SO U R N E W H O M E !

T H E

Hobart and Russell Creighton Hall of Animal Sciences A N D

Land O’Lakes Center for Experiential Learning W I T H T H E A D J AC E N T

Purina Pavilion

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TC

Purdue University - Hobart and Russel Creighton Hall of Animal Sciences and the Land O’Lakes Center for Experiential Learning Complex | BSA LifeStructures61090807060504030201

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O C TO B E R 2015

Purdue trustees approve naming the Hall of Animal Sciences and the Center for Experiential Learning for the Creighton Brothers founders and Land O' Lakes, respectively.

N O V E M B E R 2015

Ground broken at 270 S. Russell St., at the corner with Harrison Street..

D E C E M B E R 2017

Target occupancy date..

S P R I N G 2018

Classes begin.

C L A S S R O O M S200, 90, 42, 32, 20 seats5

CO N F E R E N C E R O O M S for 4 to 48 people9

S H A R E D S PAC E S12

S E R V I C E S PAC E Ssingles and shared6

Take a look!For a bird’s-eye view of construction at Creighton Hall and the Land O’ Lakes Center, visit these links.

View from adjacent Harrison Parking Garage: purdue.ag/ansccam1

View from the Purdue Institute of Drug Discovery building: purdue.ag/ansccam2

C L E R I C A L O F F I C E S PAC E Ssingles and shared7

O F F I C E Ssingles and shared104

CO L L A B O R AT I O N S PAC E Sfor 3 to 41 people9

G R A D T E A M Sshared5

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When more than 229,000 people watch your YouTube video about post-cervical artificial insemination in pigs, conclusions can be drawn:

■ The subject matter clearly met a need; and ■ You probably should make more videos.

“I’m fortunate I can pursue my passion for research as well as educate the public with these valuable videos,” says Kara Stewart, an assistant professor of Animal Sciences since 2013. Grant money helped fund two more videos — on controlled internal drug release (CIDR) use in beef cattle, and biosecurity and hygiene in boar semen collection — and more videos are forthcoming.

The 2001 Purdue graduate thought she might become a veterinarian. But while earning master’s and Ph.D. degrees at North Carolina State University, the Carmel, Indiana, native focused on swine reproduction. Now she’s studying nutritional supplement and feeding strategies to improve reproductive outcomes in beef cattle and pigs.

“I’m especially interested in understanding the impacts of milk composition and environment to the developing offspring in gestation or during lactation,” Stewart says. “Scientists have largely ignored this area. We believe there are ways to manipulate animals around or just after birth to improve their lifetime reproductive capability.”

Identifying more-fertile animals earlier in the reproductive process can have economic benefits for the beef and swine

industries. One of Stewart’s roles at Purdue is to increase understanding of reproductive technologies. Developmental programming is growing rapidly, and Stewart, who won the 2017 Richard L. Kohls Outstanding Early Career Teaching Award, seized an opportunity.

“The purpose of the Extension video was to help explain reproductive processes or procedures on farms,” she says. “Because new artificial insemination catheters were being marketed to the swine industry and adopted on farms, we saw a need to produce a video that showed users how you could use those tools to improve reproductive management.”

The 2014 video is one of the most-accessed on the Purdue Extension YouTube channel. Emails with follow-up questions have poured in from all over the world. The video is being used as a training resource for employees.

Kara R. Stewart Assistant Professor, Animal Sciences [email protected] | 765-496-6199 | LILY 3-235

Area of expertise: Reproductive physiology Education: B.S., Purdue; M.S. and Ph.D., North Carolina State University Teaching: ANSC 33300, Physiology of Reproduction; ANSC 43500, Reproductive Management of Farm Animals; ANSC 59500, Mammary Gland Biology and Lactation.

Visit: ag.purdue.edu/stories/a-youtube-star-is-born/

Lights, camera – she seizes the opportunity

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Focusing on nutrition, aiming for ‘great things’He has taught the same class for the past 14 years. But most years beluga whales don’t get much attention in ANSC 32400.

“I don’t need to teach the same thing every year,” Associate Professor Scott Radcliffe says. “It’s all about what the hot topic is at the time.”

Applied Animal Nutrition is a popular class for seniors in Animal Sciences. Students become familiar with principles of animal nutrition and the basics of formulating rations to maintain overall health and steady growth. Radcliffe challenges them to — in their own way — apply the information to the bigger picture of the agriculture industry. Group projects are assigned; wide discretion is given. That’s how students one semester came to know more than they ever thought they would about the nutrition of beluga whales.

Students pick a topic and develop a video. Groups have total creative freedom on the assignment — and are responsible for all of the interviewing, filming and editing of the videos.

“Ultimately students have to figure out how to learn on their own, because it challenges them to bring useful information back to the classroom to teach each other,” Radcliffe said. Students learn while researching, then learn again as they teach their classmates during final presentations.

“Although my principal appointment at Purdue is research,” Radcliffe says, “I hope the impact I leave on this place will be in teaching and encouraging students to do great things.”

Other class projects have been on High-Protein Diets: Dogs vs. Wolves, and shark nutrition.

A native of Maryland’s eastern shore, Radcliffe earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at Virginia Tech.

“I started in swine reproduction research, and then realized nutrition was where my passion really was,” Radcliffe says.

The Fountain County resident and equestrian is the advisor for Purdue Block and Bridle, a collegiate livestock club and one of the university’s largest clubs. He recently chaired the Curriculum and Student Relations Committee in the College of Agriculture.

He was instrumental in building the department’s broadcasting and recording studio, which will soon leave the Poultry Building for more spacious quarters in the Hobart and Russell Creighton Hall of Animal Sciences.

“I hope that somehow my students are inspired —at least one student in each class,” Radcliffe says.

Primary reporting by Tana Simmons and Emma Hopkins/Agricultural Communication majors

John Scott Radcliffe Associate Professor, Animal Sciences [email protected] | 765-496-7718 | POUL 108

Area of expertise: Swine nutrition Education: B.S., M.S., Ph.D., Virginia Tech Teaching: ANSC 32400, Applied Animal Nutrition

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In coming years, the news that Herat University has established a Department of Food Technology perhaps will be seen as an important step for Afghanistan.

And Purdue University helped make it happen.

Paul Ebner, an associate professor in Animal Sciences, recently spent four months as a visiting professor at the university in Herat, which is in western Afghanistan. Ebner, Associate Professor Haley Oliver and Clinical Assistant Professor Amanda Deering (Food Science), along with Professor Kevin McNamara (Agricultural Economics) and Afghan colleagues, are implementing a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded program aimed at rebuilding Afghan agricultural education.

Agriculture plays a vital role in advancing Afghanistan’s economy and security. The Department of Food Technology at Herat University is the first of its kind in Afghanistan. The hands-on curriculum is based on the needs of Afghan food processors and is expected to produce graduates ready to make an immediate impact in Afghan food production and processing.

A gene known to suppress tumor formation in a broad range of tissues plays a key role in keeping stem cells in muscles dormant until needed, a finding that may have implications for both human health and animal production, according to a Purdue University study.

Shihuan Kuang, professor of animal sciences, and Feng Yue, a postdoctoral researcher in Kuang’s lab, reported their findings in two papers published in the journals Cell Reports and Nature Communications. The results suggest modifying expression of the PTEN gene could one day play a role in increasing muscle mass in agricultural animals and improve therapies for muscle injuries in humans.

Muscle stem cells, called satellite cells, normally sit in a quiescent, or dormant, state until called upon to build muscle or repair a damaged muscle. Inability to maintain the quiescence would lead to a loss of satellite cells. As humans age, the number of satellite cells gradually declines and the remaining cells become less effective in regenerating muscles, resulting in muscle loss – a condition called sarcopenia.

Kuang and Yue, in the Nature Communications paper, explored the role that tumor-suppressor gene PTEN plays in satellite cells. The PTEN gene encodes a protein that suppresses the growth signaling, thereby limiting the growth of fast-growing tumor cells. Mutation of the PTEN gene is associated with many types of cancers, but how the gene functions in muscle stem cells is unknown.

To understand the function of a gene, the authors first wanted to know how the gene is expressed.

“This gene is highly expressed in the satellite cells when the cells are in the quiescent state. When they become differentiated, the PTEN level reduces,” Yue said.

By knocking out the PTEN gene in resting satellite cells, the researchers found that satellite cells quickly differentiate and become muscle cells. So PTEN plays an essential role in keeping satellite cells in their quiescent state.

A first in Afghanistan

PTEN research finds routes to improved muscle growth, repair

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“You no longer have the stem cells once you knock out the gene,” Kuang said.

In their Cell Reports paper, Kuang and Yue took a step further to examine PTEN function in proliferating stem cells. This time, they knocked out PTEN in embryonic progenitor cells, those that will later become muscle in the mouse. They found that as the mouse grew, muscle mass increased significantly — by as much as 40 percent in some muscles — over that of a normal mouse.

“That would be significant in an animal production point of view,” Kuang said.

The increased muscle came with a cost, however. Besides creating muscle, those progenitor cells create satellite cells. Without PTEN, not only fewer satellite cells were created, but the resulting satellite cells cannot maintain dormancy, leading to an accelerated rate of depletion during aging.

The faster depletion of satellite cells during aging wouldn’t matter much in an animal production scenario, Kuang said. Beef cattle, for example, are harvested before they age. The increase in muscle mass, however, would be a significant advantage in production efficiency.

The findings may lead to improvement in human health, the authors said. The ability to control the expression of PTEN could lead to therapies for quicker healing of muscle injuries.

“If you want to quickly boost up the stem cells to repair something, you need to suppress PTEN,” Kuang said. “After that, you’d need to increase PTEN to return the cells back to quiescent state. If we could do that, you would suspect that the muscle would repair more quickly.”

The National Institutes of Health, the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research and other Purdue resources funded the research.

By Brian Wallheimer

Awards and honors

Faculty2017 ASAS/ADSA Midwest Outstanding Young Teacher Award Dr. Elizabeth Karcher

2017 Richard L. Kohls Outstanding Early Career Teaching Award Dr. Kara Stewart

2017 PUCESA Leadership Award — Dr. Paul Ebner

2017 Outstanding Extension Specialist Award — Dr. Paul Ebner

2017 ASAS Animal Growth and Development Award Dr. Shawn Donkin

Staff2017 CSSAC Service Staff — Patricia Jaynes

2016 APSAC Excellence Award — Barry Delks

2016 APSAC Butler Leadership in Action — Ashley York

Graduate Students2017 ASAS/ADSA Young Dairy Scholar, Graduate Student Brittany Casperson (Dr. Shawn Donkin, professor)

2017 ASAS/ADSA Animal Science Young Scholar, Graduate Student Francisco Cabezon

2017 ASAS/ADSA Graduate Student Poster Competition, 2nd place Francisco Cabezon (Dr. Allan Schinckel, professor)

2017 NACTA Graduate Student Teaching Award Nichole Chapel (Dr. Don Lay, professor)

2017 Graduate Student Pathmaker Award Morgan Garvey (Dr. Susan Eicher, professor)

70TH RECIPROCAL MEATS CONFERENCE, TEXAS, JUNE 2017

Jordy Berger – his abstract was one of six selected (out of 153) for an oral presentation

LEGEND ASAS — American Society of Animal Science. ADSA: American Dairy Science Association. PUSECA — Purdue University Cooperative Extension Specialists Association. CSSAC — Clerical and Service Staff Advisory Committee. APSAC — Administrative and Professional Staff Advisory Committee.

14 | PURDUE DEPAR TMENT OF ANIMAL SCIENCES

Undergraduate Students

70TH RECIPROCAL MEATS CONFERENCE, TEXAS, JUNE 2017

Undergraduate Meat Sciences Quiz Bowl Team tied for 5th place out of 33 teams — Melissa Davis, Daniel Gongwer, Nick Bland, Jacob Tuell

Processed Meat Judging Contest 2nd place — Jacob Tuell

Iron Chef Competition 1st place team member — Jacob Tuell

Undergraduate Research Poster Competition 1st place — Yufan Chao Purdue Meat Science has won the Undergrad Competition three consecutive times since 2015

2017 ASAS/ADSA Undergraduate Student Poster Competition, 3rd place — Jarret Proctor (Dr. Kara Stewart, professor)

2017 Undergraduate Research Poster Competition, at the 69th RMC Conference, 1st place — Derico Setyabrata (Dr. Yuan “Brad” Kim, professor)

2017 International Livestock Congress Student Fellow — Marissa Lorenz (1 of 12 worldwide)

Book-Harmon Leadership Program Bob Book and Bud Harmon established the Book-Harmon Leadership Program in Animal Sciences to enhance efforts to provide and promote leadership in animal agriculture.

BOOK-HARMON LEADERSHIP FELLOWS

2017 Spring Julie Maschhoff & Joshua Maschhoff, Maschhoff Family Foods

2016 Fall Marcus Rust, Rose Acre Farms

2016 Spring Dr. Jeff Veenhuizen, Monsanto Co.

2015 Fall Carrie Maune, Trilogy Analytical Laboratory

2015 Spring Dr. David Hoogmoed, Land O’ Lakes

2014 Fall Mike Lemmon, Whiteshire Hamroc LLC

2014 Spring Kenda Resler Friend, Dow Agribusiness

2013 Fall Dr. Bob Easter, President, University of Illinois

2013 Spring Dr. Shelley Stanford, Zoetis

2012 Fall Dr. Clayton Yeutter, Secretary of Agriculture

2012 Spring Dr. Dean Boyd, Hanor Co.

2011 Fall Dr. Mike and Dr. Angie Siemens, Cargill

2011 Spring Mark Stapleton, Phibro Animal Health Corp.

2010 Fall Jill Greene, Applied Biosystems

2010 Spring Jeff Simmons, Elanco Animal Health

2009 Fall James Herbert, Neogen Corp.

2009 Spring Dr. Patsy L. Houghton, Heartland Cattle Co.

2008 Fall Dr. Don Orr, JBS United Inc.

2008 Spring Dr. Pearse Lyons, Alltech Inc.

Distinguished Animal Sciences Alumni Award This award, established in 2002, was created to recognize the achievements of graduates from the Department of Animal Sciences and to recognize alumni who have demonstrated excellence in industry, academia, governmental service or other endeavors as exemplified by leadership, community service and professional accomplishments. These honorees provide current students an opportunity to view the pathway that leads to a successful career.

2016 AWARD RECIPIENTS

Lifetime Career — Charles & Margaret Carter, BS ’74

Lifetime Career — Thomas Troxel, BS ’78

Mid-Career — Rebecca Schroeder, BS ’96

Early Career — Josh Crabb, BS ’01

Early Career — Rachel Cumberbatch, BS ’07

2015 AWARD RECIPIENTS

Lifetime Career — Ross Jabaay, BS '68, MS ’73

Lifetime Career — Ronald Randel, PhD ’71

Mid-Career — John Eggert, PhD ’99

Mid-Career — Janet Lynch-Rippe, BS ’93

Early Career — Janelle Deatsman, BS ’00

Early Career — Sarah Wagler, BS ’03

RETIREES 2017 — June, Patricia “Scotti” Hester; John Patterson; May, William “Bill” Muir

2016 — June, Scott Mills

2015 — August, Paul Collodi; June, Mark Diekman; April, Dick Byrd; May, Mike Booth; Mark Einstein

2014: — August, Dan Kelly; July, Fred Haan

IN MEMORIAM 2017 — April: T. Wayne Perry

2015 — January: Hobart “Hobe” Jones

2014 — February: Jack Albright; July: Robert E. Jones; November: Martin Stob

2013 — July: Millard Plumlee

2012 — March: John Rogler

JULY 2017 | 15

Erin Will, FRESHMAN

Erin Will is from Poseyville, Indiana — the self-proclaimed watermelon capitol of the world! — and is a North Posey High School graduate. The Purdue Veterinary Scholar expects to graduate in May 2020, attend vet school and specialize in large-animal medicine with a focus on dairy.

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT WHILE AT PURDUE? Winning the Outstanding Freshman in Animal Sciences Award, and earning a 4.0 GPA first semester.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR FAVORITE CLASS? ANSC 102, Introduction to Animal Agriculture, with Dr. John Patterson. Really like going to the farms and getting to tour all units.

WHAT IS THE BEST ON-CAMPUS STUDY SPOT? The 3rd and 4th floor of Lilly Library. It's very quiet and no distractions.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO INCOMING STUDENTS? Don’t be afraid to try something new. Meet a new person every day or every week.

Skylar Clingan, SOPHOMORE

A native of Angola, Indiana — Steuben County boasts more than 100 lakes — Skylar Clingan is a Prairie Heights High School graduate. He’d like to teach high school agriculture for three to five years after graduation in May 2019, then go into ag business/corporate training.

WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR/CONCENTRATION? Animal Sciences: Animal Agribusiness & Agricultural Education, minors in Political Science, and Food and Agribusiness Management.

WHAT IS YOUR SPIRIT ANIMAL?Goat.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ORGANIZATION JOINED AT PURDUE? Purdue Cooperative Housing. It has provided a home (literally and figuratively) and offers so many opportunities for networking and getting involved campus-wide.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PURDUE TRADITION?The pleasant distaste for IU.

Emily Hess, JUNIOR

The junior from Glen Ellyn, Illinois — the 1986 movie “Lucas” was filmed at her alma mater, Glenbard West — applied to only two schools — “and Purdue was the ‘reach’ school. Even though it's a Big Ten school, it feels very small.”

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PURDUE TRADITION? Listening to ‘Hail Purdue!’ from the bell tower after a late night of studying — especially when the tower is lit up.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ORGANIZATION JOINED AT PURDUE? Bands & Orchestras. I have played flute since 5th grade, and it has been a great way to meet new people and continue with a passion.

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT WHILE AT PURDUE? 1) Over Thanksgiving break, I was able to work with a 90-day premature foal that came to the hospital and couldn't walk or feed on its own. Then I received a text during finals week that it was going home. 2) Performed as a soloist with a trio in the orchestra as a freshman.

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU'VE LEARNED OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM? Being confident does not necessarily mean you know how to do something. It means you are OK with asking for help, and there's no need to feel stupid when you need help.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE? "The precious present has nothing to do with wishing ... when you have the precious present you will be perfectly content to be where you are." From The Precious Present by Spencer Johnson, MD.

2017 Student SpotlightsEach year the department singles out four Animal Sciences students. We ask 21 questions. At purdue.ag/ansc-student-spotlights, you’ll find more pictures and answers — and this year’s fourth student, senior Marissa Lorenz, who was the 2016 Outstanding Junior, too.

Our StudentsDEGREES RECEIVED

UNDERGRAD GRAD

2016 131 92015 131 142014 144 11Current 636 55

STAY IN TOUCH!Let us know where you are and what you're working on! Contact Lynette Musselman at [email protected].

A N I M A L S C I E N C E S915 W. State Street West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA

Marissa Lorenz, SENIOR

When she was a junior, the Student Spotlight first fell on Marissa Lorenz, who graduated in May 2017 (Animal Agribusiness, minor in Food and Agribusiness Management). The New Paris, Indiana, native (Fairfield High School) is working for Elanco Animal Health in companion animal sales; she had an internship there this summer.

For more of Marissa’s answers, visit purdue.ag/ansc-student-spotlights. For the freshman, sophomore and junior Student Spotlights, turn to page 15.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ORGANIZATION JOINED AT PURDUE?1) Livestock Judging Team. Got to work as a team, learn together, and make lots of great memories. 2) Animal Sciences Ambassadors.

WHAT ARE YOUR THREE PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENTS WHILE AT PURDUE?Earning Outstanding Senior in Animal Sciences in 2017. Featured for the university as a ‘Boiler of Purdue’ in Fall 2015. Winning the National Barrow Show on the Livestock Judging Team in 2016.

WHAT WERE YOUR FAVORITE CLASSES?ANSC 333, Physiology of Reproduction, and ANSC 435,

Reproductive Management of Farm Animals, with Dr. Kara Stewart; and ANSC 495, Advanced Animal Systems Management, with Drs. Liz Karcher, Ron Lemenager, and Kara Stewart.

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR CURRENT UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS?Take advantage of every opportunity that will allow you to grow yourself in skills and leadership. Purdue offers a lot of opportunities to learn outside of the classroom.

WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU KNEW BEFORE STARTING UNDERGRAD?That it would go by so fast and to live a little more in the moment. Don't miss out on experiences while planning.

CONNECT WITH US

@PurdueANSC /PurdueANSC

Purdue University is an equal access/equal opportunity institution.

2017 Student Spotlights

2424211687

Production 24%

Other – 24% (incl. Companion Animal, Education, and Products)

Agribusiness/Sales 21%

Pharmaceutical Life Sciences

16%

Vet Assistant 8%

Zoo / Behavior 7%

Our GraduatesBetween 2013-16 there were 356 graduates — 92% are employed (195) or continuing their education (131 — including 83 in Vet Med).

EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY2013-16 Graduates