Section on Comparative Medicine
Welcome!
Dr. Jay Kaplan is the head of the Department of Pathology's Section on Comparative Medicine. In addition to their research activities, Comparative Medicine's 18 faculty members administer the Animal Resources Program and the WFU Primate Center; they train residents, research fellows, and graduate students; and provide clinical care to laboratory animals.
A Brief History:
Dr. Thomas Clarkson joined the Bowman Gray School of Medicine's Experimental Medicine Staff in 1959; in 1959, he was awarded an NIH training grant (which is still funded) to train veterinarians in Laboratory Animal Medicine.
Among Dr. Clarkson's early responsibilities was the Vivarium, which provided care and housing for research animals throughout the institution; it later became the Animal Resources Program and is now directed by Dr. Jan Wagner. In the 1960s, the Friedberg Campus, a 110-acre site in Davidson County, was acquired to accommodate the growing population of research animals and the researchers who studied them. That campus is now also home to the the WFU Primate Center, under the direction of Dr. Jay Kaplan.
In the early 1970s, Dr. Clarkson was appointed Chair of the newly-formed Department of Comparative Medicine. With Dr. Hugh Lofland of the Pathology Department, he shared directorship of the new NIH-funded Specialized Center of Research (SCOR), which incorporated multidisciplinary research activities in atherosclerosis. Collaborative research efforts between the two departments continue today, and in 1997, they merged into one department, with Dr. Richard St. Clair as head of the new Section on Comparative Medicine and Dr. Jerry Garvin as Pathology Department Chair.