Novel Oncology Therapeutics: Targeting Hope

Existing Users

(ACVIM Diplomates and candidates; previous ACVIM event attendees)

New Users

(No previous ACVIM Forum or ACE course attendance)

CO-COURSE LEADER
Jenna Burton, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology)
Associate Professor of Oncology, Colorado State University

Dr. Burton attended veterinary school at The Ohio State University then completed her medical oncology residency at Colorado State University (CSU).  She has previously served as faculty at CSU as the Director of the Oncology Clinical Trials Service as well as the University of California, Davis where she served as the director of the Veterinary Center for Clinical Trials.  She returned to CSU in 2020 and currently serves as the Oncology Service Chief at the Flint Animal Cancer Center. Her research interests in veterinary oncology include canine and feline lymphoma, comparative oncology, and clinical trial design and conduct.

CO-COURSE LEADER
Joelle Fenger, DVM, MS, PhD, DACVIM (Oncology)
Associate, Medical Oncologist, Ethos Discovery, Ethos Veterinary Health

Dr. Fenger is a medical oncologist and cancer biologist with advanced training in comparative clinical trials. She completed her DVM at University of California Davis, a rotating internship and a combined Oncology Residency and PhD in Comparative and Veterinary Medicine at The Ohio State University (OSU). She was a faculty member at OSU College of Veterinary Medicine before joining Ethos Veterinary Health and Ethos Discovery in 2021 where her expertise in comparative oncology and experience in extending early preclinical findings into translational applications in pets with spontaneous cancer will work to address unmet needs surrounding tumor biology.

Mark Byrum, DVM, DACVIM (Oncology)
Medical Oncologist, MedVet, Chicago

Dr. Byrum is a veterinary Medical Oncologist serving the Chicago-land area at MedVet Chicago, IL.  Dr. Byrum completed his undergraduate degree and veterinary training at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  He completed his rotating internship at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana.  Following completion of rotating internship, he returned back to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in medical oncology.  Dr. Byrum attained diplomate status with the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Oncology) in 2021. 

Lauren Forsythe, PHARMD, DICVP, FSVHP
Clinical Assistant Professor of Pharmacy, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Forsythe is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pharmacy and the Pharmacy Service Head at the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital.  She is also a diplomat of the International College of Veterinary Pharmacists. Dr. Forsythe graduated from the University of Findlay, College of Pharmacy in 2015 and completed her veterinary pharmacy residency at Purdue’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital.  Following completion of her residency, Dr. Forsythe spent three years at the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital as a Clinical Pharmacist before coming to UIUC in 2019.

Brooke Fowler, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology)
Veterinary Oncologist/Department Head, Colorado Animal Specialty and Emergency

Dr. Fowler is a clinical Veterinary oncologist who practices in Boulder, Colorado. She graduated from the University of Michigan for her undergraduate degree, University of Illinois for her veterinary degree, and University of Missouri for her oncology internship and residency. She recently resigned as the head of clinical trials for NVA and is living her best life with her 4 dogs, Henry, Gertie, Olive, and Pickle Jar as well as her three daughters Marley, Joey and Andi (who named the dogs!).

Heather Gardner, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (Oncology)
Assistant Research Professor, Tufts University

Dr. Gardner is an assistant research professor at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. Dr. Gardner earned her DVM at Washington State University and completed her Residency in Medical Oncology at Ohio State University before completing her PhD in Genetics at Tufts University. Her research efforts center on comparative and translational cancer genomics, using the tumor genome to inform novel biomarker driven therapeutic approaches.

Laura Greene, DVM, DACVIM  (SAIM)
Senior Professional Services Veterinarian, Internal Medicine Specialist, Merck Animal Health

Dr. Greene graduated with her DVM from NC State's College of Veterinary Medicine, completed a rotating small animal internship at the University of Georgia, and then returned to NC State for her residency in small animal internal medicine. She is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and spent several years in specialty private practice before joining Merck Animal Health as a Senior Professional Services Veterinarian and member of the Veterinary Insights and Medical Affairs department. Her areas of interest include infectious disease, immunology, and endocrinology, and she has a love of teaching and passion for communication.

Nicola Mason, B.VetMed, PhD, DACVIM (SAIM), MRCVS
Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Mason is a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Pathobiology and holds the Paul A. James and Charles A. Gilmore Endowed Chair Professorship at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine. She received her veterinary degree from the Royal Veterinary College, London and her Immunology PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. She performed her post-doctoral fellowship at the Abramson Cancer Center at the School of Medicine at UPenn. She directs the NIH/NCI supported Pre-medical Cancer Immunotherapy Network for Canine Trials and received an NIH Director's Award for her Transformative R01 developing adoptive cell therapies for autoimmunity. Her translational comparative research focus is in adoptive cellular therapies for the treatment of cancer, autoimmunity and infectious disease and she leads several clinical trials in companion animals utilizing novel immunotherapies at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

Dan Regan, DVM, PhD, DACVP
Assistant Professor of Pathology, Colorado State University 

Dr. Regan received his DVM degree from the University of Georgia, and subsequently completed residency training in veterinary anatomic pathology and a PhD in tumor immunology. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Flint Animal Cancer Center and Dept. of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University. The focus of Dr. Regan’s laboratory is to increase our understanding of the interplay between the immune system and non-immune tumor stroma, and how these compartments of the tumor microenvironment (TME) promote metastasis as well as mediate extrinsic mechanisms of resistance to anti-cancer therapy, with a specific focus on osteosarcoma lung metastasis. 

Marilia Takada, DVM, MSc, PhD, DACVR 
Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology, University of Florida

Dr. Takada is an assistant professor in radiation oncology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida. She received her DVM at University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. She completed a MSc and a PhD degree at Michigan State University, focusing on the investigation of novel targeted therapies for canine histiocytic sarcoma, and associated oncogenic drivers. She specialized in veterinary radiation oncology at University of Wisconsin.  Her research interests include: clinical trials to test novel agents for canine and feline cancer, and the effects of immunotherapy and radiation in the tumor microenvironment. 

Bridget Urie, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology)
Veterinary Oncologist, Pittsburgh Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Center, North Hills, PA

Dr. Urie is originally from southeast Florida and moved to Alabama to earn a Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Auburn University. Following veterinary school, Dr. Urie completed a small animal rotating medicine and surgery internship at The Ohio State University, and remained at OSU to complete an oncology/hematology residency and earn a Master’s of Science in Veterinary Comparative Biosciences. Dr. Urie’s clinical interests include T-cell lymphoma, immune-mediated disease, and targeted therapies.

Luke Wittenburg, DVM, PhD, DACVCP
Associate Professor, University of California, Davis 

Dr. Wittenburg received his DVM and PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from Colorado State University. He is currently Associate Professor in Surgical and Radiological Sciences at University of California, Davis. Dr. Wittenburg’s research focuses on developmental cancer therapeutics, osteosarcoma, and translational cancer research. His specialty focus is in Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology.