Career Center

The Texas A&M Comparative Medicine Residency is a thesis Master's Degree granting program with the option to pursue a PhD. The program is divided into 3 aspects to give residents a foundational knowledge of laboratory animal medicine, clinical and research experience.

Website: https://vtpb.tamu.edu/residencies/comparative-medicine-residency/

Foundational Knowledge:
Classwork is designed to prepare residents to sit the ACLAM Board Examination.
Example classes include:

* Fundamentals of Laboratory Animal Medicine - This class uses the main texts (e.g., Laboratory Animal Medicine, 3rd Ed; Pathology of Rodents and Rabbits) to cover the major and minor species and topics covered on the ACLAM Exam
* Contemporary Topics in Laboratory Animal Medicine - Journal Club class which covers the current literature pertaining to Laboratory Animal Medicine
* Diseases of Laboratory Animals - This class focuses on gross and histopathology of common laboratory animal species, with special emphasis on primary species (as outlined by the ACLAM Role Delineation Document)
* Regulatory Oversight of Animals in Research - This class covers all the laws, regulations, and policies governing the use of animals in today's research settings.

Clinical Experience:
Many species of animals are housed at TAMU facilities. Typical species include cattle, horses, sheep, swine, cats, ferrets, deer, rabbits, mice, rats, guinea pigs, chickens, frogs, bats, and zebrafish. Residency rotations are divided among three primary areas: 1) Veterinary Medical Park (VMP) and Animal Science Teaching, Research, and Education Center (ASTREC) (horses, cattle, small ruminants and swine); 2) Laboratory Animal Resources and Research (LARR) Facility (dogs, cats, bats, frogs, rodents, rabbits); 3)Texas Institute of Preclinical Studies (TIPS) (swine and small ruminants); Texas A&M Institute of Genomic Medicine(TIGM) (mice); and multiple satellite vivaria served by the Comparative Medicine Residency Training Program (CMP) with a variety of species. Additional clinical duties are distributed to familiarize residents with additional species (see lists below).

Global Health Research Complex (GHRC): In addition to ABSL-2 and ABSL-3 animal research space, Texas A&M is now home to the Global Health Research Complex, a new state-of-the-art BSL-3Ag facility capable of holding species as large as bison.

Training opportunities include:

a) Pathology Laboratory: Trainees participate in necropsy, tissue trimming, pathologic evaluation of slides, microbiology, serology, clinical chemistries, hematology, parasitology and additional diagnostic techniques

b) MD Anderson, Bastrop: During the one-month rotation, trainees participate in the clinical management of primate colonies and are involved in primate medicine. Opportunities also exist for research and pathology training involving a variety of primate models.

c) Additional (optional) NHP rotations: We can send residents to one of several additional, external NHP rotations (2-4 weeks) - pending programmatic funding and availability at contributing institution. Each location has at least one ACLAM-boarded veterinarian overseeing the resident.

d) Transgenics: Trainees are exposed to all aspects of transgenic work including colony management, in vitro fertilization, cryopreservation, rederivation, and embryo collection.

e) Industry rotation (one month): trainees participate in the clinical management of an animal colony and are involved in primate medicine in an industry setting.

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC):
Residents will receive IACUC training and have an opportunity to serve on the IACUC as a voting member. Duties include reviewing protocols; writing/reviewing guidance documents and standard operating procedures; performing IACUC facility inspections and semi-annual reviews; and all other IACUC member duties.

Research Experience:
The research portion of the MS Degree is geared toward the execution of a research project(s) that will lead to a first-author publication for the resident (required to sit the Board Exam). Residency faculty will help the resident in the selection of a research mentor and project. Researchers across the Texas A&M campus are eligible to serve as the resident's research mentor. Signature animal research areas at Texas A&M include, but are not limited to:

* Infectious & Immunity (including Zoonoses)
* Biomedical engineering
* Physiology & Developmental Biology
* Comparative Genomics
* Animal model development

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY (College Station campus)
AVERAGE CENSUS SUMMARY BY SPECIES (not including agricultural program):
Mice - 25,500
Rats - 3,200
Guinea Pigs - 190
Rabbits - 45
Dogs - 125
Pigs - 250
Cats - 10
Ferrets - 10
Horses - 80
Cattle - 180
Goats - 260
Sheep – 525
Amphibians - 180
Aquatics* - 15,000
Bats - 30
Chickens - 1800
Deer - 20
Exotic Birds - 140
Llamas - 1
Reptiles - 5
Songbirds - 15
* Aquatic species includes zebrafish, redfish, catfish, pipefish, seahorses, frogs, killfish, mosquito fish, wild collected swordtails, cichlids, and hobbyist aquarium species

MD-ANDERSON (Bastrop, TX) NONHUMAN PRIMATE AVERAGE CENSUS:
~1000 rhesus macaques
~450 squirrel monkeys
~400 owl monkeys
~250 baboons
~75 chimpanzees (retiring-in-place per NIH rules)
plus a small numbers of other macaque species (cynomolgus/pig-tailed) and marmosets

DVM or equivalent degree required. (Applicants currently in their clinical year should be in good academic standing). Applicants must have/maintain a state veterinary license in at least one state in the US. 

A resume/CV, references, and an official transcript from your veterinary school are required. 

Start date for this position is on/after July 1, 2023 (negotiable).

About Texas A&M University

Located in the heart of the Houston-Dallas-Austin triangle and within a two-hour drive of 26 million of the state’s 28 million residents, Texas A&M's main campus in College Station is home to more than 69,000 students. Another 5,200 are at the branch campuses in Galveston and Qatar and at the School of Law, Higher Education Center at McAllen, and Health Science Center locations across Texas. Texas A&M University is dedicated to the discovery, development, communication, and application of knowledge in a wide range of academic and professional fields. Its mission of providing the highest quality undergraduate and graduate programs is inseparable from its mission of developing new understandings through research and creativity. It prepares students to assume roles in leadership, responsibility and service to society. Texas A&M assumes as its historic trust the maintenance of freedom of inquiry and an intellectual environment nurturing the human mind and spirit. It welcomes and seeks to serve persons of all racial, ethnic and geographic groups as it addresses the needs of an increasingly diverse population and a global economy. In the 21st century, Texas A&M University seeks to as...sume a place of preeminence among public universities while respecting its history and traditions. The Texas A&M University System is an equal opportunity for employer to all persons regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation or gender identity.

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