Dr. Danika Bannasch has been appointed by Chancellor Katehi as the inaugural Maxine Adler Endowed Chair in Genetics effective March 1, 2013, for a 5 year term.
Maxine Adler established two endowed chairs, one in genetics and one in oncology, because of the compassionate care she received for her cats at the VMTH. Ms. Adler was interested in finding a cure for cancer, and in improving the lives of cats. She was particularly interested in the role that genetics plays in predisposing animals to cancer.
Bannasch is an accomplished veterinary geneticist with an international reputation in genetic diseases of dogs and horses. She continues to report novel discoveries on the genetic basis of diseases, some of which have important human counterparts. Some examples of her scholarship are understanding of the genetic basis for hyperuricosuria, brachycephaly and glioma susceptibility in dogs, Alaskan Husky encephalopathy, spinal dysraphism in Weimaraners, and autoimmune hypoadrenocorticism in Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers, and in horses, Lethal White Foal Syndrome, hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia (HERDA), and more recently Connemara Hoof wall separation syndrome. Her recent NIH funding using naturally occurring dog models for molecular characterization of novel loci for cleft lip and palate in people and for inherited autoinflammatory diseases in children amplifies the importance of the naturally occurring animal disease models she is investigating and their relevance to human diseases caused by genetic mutations.