Why Diseases Emerge
The recent SARS outbreak and current concerns about Asian bird flu have sparked heightened public interest in understanding the realities and risks of disease transmission, including the transfer from animals to humans.
Our ability to accurately assess risk relies on understanding the determinants of transmission and the impact of effective immunization, according to Guy Palmer, an internationally respected Washington State University veterinarian, immunologist, and pathologist.
Dr. Palmer leads a $1.8 million Wellcome Trust grant to continue vaccine development for animal diseases that severely limit health, nutrition, and economic growth in poorer countries. His current research focuses on vaccine development for animal diseases caused by tick-borne parasites, including babesiosis, the class of diseases that includes malaria. Globally, the cost of tick-borne diseases in livestock is estimated at between $13.9 and $18.7 billion annually, a cost disproportionately affecting small farmers in poorer, tropical countries.
Dr. Palmer has received numerous research honors, including the Squibb Animal Health Research Award, the SmithKline Beecham Award for Research Excellence, and a Merck Award for Creativity.
Featuring: Guy H. Palmer, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Guy Palmer is known worldwide as a veterinarian, a professor, an immunologist, and a pathologist who leads a $1.8 million Wellcome Trust grant to continue vaccine development for animal diseases that severely limit health, nutrition, and economic growth in poorer countries. His long-term goal is to use molecular genetic studies to develop efficient, cost-effective, vaccines for a host of cattle diseases carried by ticks. Globally, the cost of tick-borne diseases of cattle is estimated at between $13.9 and $18.7 billion annually.
Dr. Palmer earned his doctorate in veterinary medicine from Kansas State University in 1980. He went on to complete a Ph.D., in microbiology and pathology at Washington State University in 1984. The same year he earned board certification and became a Diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Pathologists. His post-doctoral studies were based in immunology at Washington State University and completed in 1985.Professionally, Dr. Palmer held a post-doctoral research fellowship with the National Institutes of Health at WSU. He has been a senior research fellow with the Institute of Pathology at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and with the Department of Pathology in Zaragoza, Spain.His current research group for the Wellcome Trust funding includes faculty and staff at WSU, the University of Florida, and at two international institutions in Mexico and Argentina. The Mexican effort is based at the Centro Nacional de Investigacion Disciplinaria en Parasitologia Veterinaria, and the Argentinean component resides at the Instutio Nacional de Technologia y Agropecuaria.
Dr. Palmer’s research honors include the Squibb Animal Health Resident Research Award, the Animal Health Institute Foundation Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research, the SmithKline Beecham Award for Research Excellence, and a Pfizer Fellowship in Infectious Diseases. He also served a Brazilian National Science Foundation Visiting Professorship in 1994 and was awarded a Ciba-Geigy Research Fellowship, 1995-96.Dr. Palmer has also earned some of veterinary medicine’s most respected teaching awards. He was awarded the National Merck Award for Teaching Creativity in 1995 and has won University Merck Teaching Awards three times. He has received the Newberry Teaching Scholar Award at WSU five times and was named Teacher of the Year once at WSU and twice at the University of Florida ‘s College of Veterinary Medicine.