Browsing by Author "Uelmen, Johnny"

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    Biomarkers of Gastrointestinal Disease in Cheetahs (Acinonyx Jubatus)
    (Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine, 2021-09-01) Fox, Lana; Haefele, Holly; Uelmen, Johnny; Hoppes, Sharman; Swenson, Julie; Tolbert, M Katherine; Suchodolski, Jan S; Steiner, Jörg M
    Gastrointestinal disease is a common clinical problem in captive cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus). It is reported that gastritis affects the vast majority of the captive population of cheetahs. Pancreatitis and acute and chronic enteritis have also been reported. These issues pose significant long-term health and welfare implications for cheetahs. Cobalamin, folate, methylmalonic acid (MMA), gastrin, feline pancreatic-specific lipase immunoreactivity (fPLI), and feline trypsin-like immunoreactivity (fTLI) immunoassays are important biomarkers of gastrointestinal disease in domestic cats. The goal of this study was to determine if these immunoassays validated in domestic cats could be used clinically in cheetahs, by establishing reference intervals (RI) for these biomarkers in cheetahs. A cohort of 40 clinically healthy cheetahs was selected from three zoological institutions on the basis of being free of clinical gastrointestinal disease and extra-gastrointestinal disease that could affect biomarkers, as well as having banked frozen serum. Cheetah biomarker RI, with domestic cat RI for comparison in parentheses, are as follows: Cobalamin 470-618 pg/ml (290-1500 pg/ml), folate 2.2-15.7 ng/ml (9.7-21.6 ng/ml), MMA 365-450 nM/L (139-897 nM/L), fPLI 0.5-1.2 μg/L (0-4 μg/L), and gastrin 30-50 pg/ml (<10-39.5 pg/ml). This study shows that RI for gastrointestinal biomarkers can be notably different, even between species that are as closely related as the domestic cat and the cheetah. Additionally, it was found that the fTLI assay does not cross-immunoreact with cheetahs. In conclusion, this study emphasizes the importance of developing species-specific RI for biomarker assays and using caution when extrapolating RI from other species.
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    Mitigation of SARS-CoV-2 transmission at a large public university
    (Nature Communications, 2022-12-01) Ranoa, Diana Rose E; Holland, Robin L; Alnaji, Fadi G; Green, Kelsie J; Wang, Leyi; Fredrickson, Richard L; Wang, Tong; Wong, George N; Uelmen, Johnny; Maslov, Sergei; Weiner, Zachary J; Tkachenko, Alexei V; Zhang, Hantao; Liu, Zhiru; Ibrahim, Ahmed; Patel, Sanjay J; Paul, John M; Vance, Nickolas P; Gulick, Joseph G; Satheesan, Sandeep Puthanveetil; Galvan, Isaac J; Miller, Andrew; Grohens, Joseph; Nelson, Todd J; Stevens, Mary P; Hennessy, P Mark; Parker, Robert C; Santos, Edward; Brackett, Charles; Steinman, Julie D; Fenner, Melvin R; Dohrer, Kirstin; DeLorenzo, Michael; Wilhelm-Barr, Laura; Brauer, Brian R; Best-Popescu, Catherine; Durack, Gary; Wetter, Nathan; Kranz, David M; Breitbarth, Jessica; Simpson, Charlie; Pryde, Julie A; Kaler, Robin N; Harris, Chris; Vance, Allison C; Silotto, Jodi L; Johnson, Mark; Valera, Enrique Andres; Anton, Patricia K; Mwilambwe, Lowa; Bryan, Stephen P; Stone, Deborah S; Young, Danita B; Ward, Wanda E; Lantz, John; Vozenilek, John A; Bashir, Rashid; Moore, Jeffrey S; Garg, Mayank; Cooper, Julian C; Snyder, Gillian; Lore, Michelle H; Yocum, Dustin L; Cohen, Neal J; Novakofski, Jan E; Loots, Melanie J; Ballard, Randy L; Band, Mark; Banks, Kayla M; Barnes, Joseph D; Bentea, Iuliana; Black, Jessica; Busch, Jeremy; Conte, Abigail; Conte, Madison; Curry, Michael; Eardley, Jennifer; Edwards, April; Eggett, Therese; Fleurimont, Judes; Foster, Delaney; Fouke, Bruce W; Gallagher, Nicholas; Gastala, Nicole; Genung, Scott A; Glueck, Declan; Gray, Brittani; Greta, Andrew; Healy, Robert M; Hetrick, Ashley; Holterman, Arianna A; Ismail, Nahed; Jasenof, Ian; Kelly, Patrick; Kielbasa, Aaron; Kiesel, Teresa; Kindle, Lorenzo M; Lipking, Rhonda L; Manabe, Yukari C; Mayes, Jade; McGuffin, Reubin; McHenry, Kenton G; Mirza, Agha; Moseley, Jada; Mostafa, Heba H; Mumford, Melody; Munoz, Kathleen; Murray, Arika D; Nolan, Moira; Parikh, Nil A; Pekosz, Andrew; Pflugmacher, Janna; Phillips, Janise M; Pitts, Collin; Potter, Mark C; Quisenberry, James; Rear, Janelle; Robinson, Matthew L; Rosillo, Edith; Rye, Leslie N; Sherwood, MaryEllen; Simon, Anna; Singson, Jamie M; Skadden, Carly; Skelton, Tina H; Smith, Charlie; Stech, Mary; Thomas, Ryan; Tomaszewski, Matthew A; Tyburski, Erika A; Vanwingerden, Scott; Vlach, Evette; Watkins, Ronald S; Watson, Karriem; White, Karen C; Killeen, Timothy L; Jones, Robert J; Cangellaris, Andreas C; Martinis, Susan A; Vaid, Awais; Brooke, Christopher B; Walsh, Joseph T; Elbanna, Ahmed; Sullivan, William C; Smith, Rebecca L; Goldenfeld, Nigel; Fan, Timothy M; Hergenrother, Paul J; Burke, Martin D
    In Fall 2020, universities saw extensive transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among their populations, threatening health of the university and surrounding communities, and viability of in-person instruction. Here we report a case study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where a multimodal “SHIELD: Target, Test, and Tell” program, with other non-pharmaceutical interventions, was employed to keep classrooms and laboratories open. The program included epidemiological modeling and surveillance, fast/frequent testing using a novel low-cost and scalable saliva-based RT-qPCR assay for SARS-CoV-2 that bypasses RNA extraction, called covidSHIELD, and digital tools for communication and compliance. In Fall 2020, we performed >1,000,000 covidSHIELD tests, positivity rates remained low, we had zero COVID-19-related hospitalizations or deaths amongst our university community, and mortality in the surrounding Champaign County was reduced more than 4-fold relative to expected. This case study shows that fast/frequent testing and other interventions mitigated transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at a large public university.