In recent months progress has been made in building the foundation for the fight against laminitis, with the addition of Professor Christopher Pollitt, BVSc, PhD, a world-renowned laminitis researcher, as research director for the Laminitis Institute at Penn Vet (at the University of Pennsylvania) in Kennett Square. He joins James Orsini, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, director of the institute, and Hannah Galantino-Homer, VMD, PhD, Dipl. ACT, who serves as the senior lead investigator.

“This international effort in the fight against laminitis, organized by Drs. Galantino-Homer, Orsini, and Pollitt, will ensure that research information is shared and sustained, expanding our base of knowledge,” said Gary Althouse, DVM, MS, PhD, New Bolton Chair of Clinical Studies. “We are very excited about the opportunities the Laminitis Institute at Penn Vet offers for increasing our understanding of the disease, in concert with development of successful clinical treatments and preventive strategies.”

In addition to coordinating the efforts of researchers from all around the world, including his own Laminitis Research Unit at the University of Queensland in Australia, Pollitt is leading the Institute’s first initiative, which is the creation of a tissue bank at New Bolton Center.

“My vision for this Institute is for it to be available to all genuine scientists studying laminitis from anywhere in the world–a truly international, collaborative research push,” said Pollitt. “I see this Institute becoming a Center for people to come to and understand laminitis, and for people to go from here to the collaborations we have developed internationally, generating new information and new knowledge so that we have real evidence on which to base our clinical treatments, preventive strategies