Kelly Metcalf Pate to lead the Division of Comparative Medicine

Kelly Metcalf Pate, an assistant professor of veterinary medicine at Johns Hopkins University College of Medication, will come to be the new director of MIT’s Division of Comparative Drugs (DCM) on March 1. Metcalf Pate will switch James Fox, who has been the director of DCM for a lot more than four many years.

At Johns Hopkins, Metcalf Pate served as the associate director of tutorial training for the research training systems for veterinarians in the Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathology. She also released and directed the Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Plan, a summer months exploration system for veterinary college students. In her investigate lab, she research how platelet cells interact with other immune cells through viral bacterial infections such as HIV and cytomegalovirus.

“My core passions lie in training and exploration,” states Metcalf Pate, who will also be part of the faculty of the Division of Biological Engineering. “I am hunting forward to continuing to get the job done with veterinarian trainees and veterinary college students, and in continuing to do research that not only solutions the unidentified questions in platelet immunology but also helps us to determine out far better methods to do the job with animal designs.”

The DCM features additional than 175 scientists, animal treatment and veterinary technicians, veterinarians, and administrative workers, who oversee animal care at MIT. Its mission consists of protecting the well being of the animals as well as carrying out biomedical exploration and coaching pupils in exploration and veterinary medication.

“I am thrilled to welcome Kelly as our new DCM director. She provides a solid research program, enviable managerial abilities, a collaborative character, and a ton of tips for how DCM can offer even extra worth to our researchers,” claims Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for exploration.

Metcalf Pate claims she was drawn to MIT by the collaborative spirit that she noticed between the DCM staff. “It was very inspiring to see how enthusiastic by the analysis and scientific approach anyone was, and how a lot every person obviously labored collectively as a workforce,” she states.

Initially set up in 1975 as the Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine, the division was renamed in 1980 to reflect rising involvement in investigate and training. Fox has directed the division because its inception, and under his leadership, the DCM has drastically expanded MIT’s medical study plan and added new on-campus amenities for animal treatment and exploration.

“It has been a privilege and a in no way-ending established of possibilities to get the job done with numerous faculty, staff, and students in excess of the a long time, with the widespread purpose of conducting audio science, currently being ever conscious of the treatment and welfare of animals remaining used in fulfilling that said mission, and fostering that crucial mandate for the pupils suffering from an MIT education and learning,” Fox suggests.

Metcalf Pate, who will be the Dorothy W. Poitras Associate Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT, states she strategies to manage and construct on the structure that Fox has proven in excess of the previous 45 yrs.

“I am honored to be inheriting these types of an astounding legacy and workforce in DCM. Dr. Fox has developed a little something at MIT that is unrivaled in providing great treatment for the animals even though operating collaboratively with the exploration groups. It also benefits from robust support from the management and the MIT group, for which I am thankful. I hope to maintain and establish on this in the course of my have time as director,” she states.

She pointed out that researchers in DCM presently have considerable collaborations in place with other departments all over MIT, and she hopes to additional broaden these collaborations, as very well as raising DCM’s exploration and coaching partnerships with other establishments in the Boston spot.

One of her lengthier-phrase targets is to explore the likelihood of creating a center to focus on “refinement research” — the observe of seeking at how animal styles are applied to try out to maximize both of those the high quality of data and the welfare of the animals.

Signing up for the MIT local community is some thing of a homecoming for Metcalf Pate, who grew up in Massachusetts and acquired her bachelor’s diploma from Boston College in 2003. She also holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medication and a DVM from Purdue College University of Veterinary Drugs.

“I am delighted that Kelly Pate will be assuming the position of director of DCM, with a tenured school appointment in BE,” Fox says. “Kelly embodies the custom of veterinarians from Johns Hopkins, in becoming fully commited to conducting first-level peer reviewed research, an enthusiastic mentor and teacher, and satisfying the crucial responsibility of directing an indispensable, centralized campus-huge animal useful resource system. She will unquestionably foster, boost, and carry on the tradition of excellence that has become the trademark of DCM.”