VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2
MARCH 1989
The Purdue Practitioner Sabbatical Program
Participants Give the Program High Marks
"I know I've seen this before. I didn't
know what it was then either." "Doctor,
you have two clients waiting."
All too often the pressures of daily practice prevent veterinary practitioners from
pursuing questions about specific disease
or developing new techniques. Many times
in solo practices, or even multi-person
practices, schedules are such that other
colleagues are not available for consultation. The Purdue Practitioner Sabbatical
Program provides a unique opportunity for
the practicing veterinarian to get away and
work on specific problems.
The program is very simple. Each sabbatical person needs to identify a faculty
mentor. If the person wanted to work on
surgery, someone in the Surgery Section
would be identified. If the interest was in
improving radiographic interpretation
skills or perhaps developing skills in diagnostic ultrasound, someone in the Imaging
Section would be identified.
The hallmark of this program is flexibility. Normally, the practitioner registers for
the program one week at a time. A week is
defined as five working days. However,
the days can be scheduled in any manner
suitable to each party. In the Imaging
Section, it has been popular to schedule one
day every other week. Veterinarians within
the state have used a day off during the
week for their sabbatical time and commuted to Purdue. This allows minimal time
away from the practice and fits well into the
Purdue schedule.
Dr. Dick Goebel (PUR'68), director of
the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, gives
the program a strong endorsement. "We
want the teaching hospital to be a good
model for our students. The practitioners
who return for sabbaticals are excellent role
models; their presence says to our students
in yet another way that their education is a
lifelong process."
Dr. Cliff Blakemore, Purdue faculty
member since 1961, has this to say about
the Practitioner Sabbatical Program:
"This program provides a unique opportunity for continuing education in a stimulating and very special environment. It
combines the pleasure of a casual visit with
intensive continuing education. The student has free access to all of our learning
resources (clinical cases, rounds, impromptu discussions, audiovisuals, library,
computer lab, all-School seminars, outside
speakers, etc.) with the friendly guidance of
a mentor to help make the most of the
opportunities available. As our profession
grows and changes, we welcome this opportunity to involve working professionals
in our daily activities. I expect this kind of
interaction to become a standard feature of
clinical education."
Dr. Ron Doversberger (PUR'75),
Mishawaka, IN: "My experience during
my one week in small animal surgery was a
positive one. Simply sharing the time with
students and faculty strengthened the bond
and pride that I feel as a Purdue graduate.
The greatest practical value... exposure to
new suture materials and wound closure
techniques, methods of menostasis, and
In March 1985 Dr. Bruce Sharp's
untimely death was a profound loss
to his family, colleagues, and friends.
The Calumet Area Veterinary Medical Association (District I) initiated
an endowment memorial fund as an
expression of their respect and affection for Bruce. Through the contributions of his friends from around
the state and country, the principle
has grown to almost $20,000. Interest is to be used to assist DVMs in
participating in the Practitioner's
Sabbatical Program at Purdue SVM.
Funds can be used to defray any of
the costs associated with the program, i.e., tuition, fees, transportation, housing, cost of leaving practice, etc.
Most participants in the sabbatical program have declined to apply
for the scholarship. In order to fulfill
its purpose as a living memorial to
Bruce Sharp, the scholarships need
to be used. Practitioners applying for
the Sabbatical Program should ask
SVM Continuing Education Office
for the simple one-page application
form.
bandaging methods ... sharing in the diagnostic work-up, i.e., the physical exam,
radiographic and ultrasound evaluations."
Dr. Rod Duncan (PUR'75), Indianapolis, IN: "By using one day at a time, I was
able to absorb a tremendous amount of
information and then return to my practice
and digest, assimilate, apply the information ... I intend to do a practitioner sabbatical annually and make it a key part of my
continuing education."
Dr. Dick Headley (PUR'67), Mishawaka, IN: "I have experienced two separate
sessions... I expect to apply for another late
next year. The ability to ask a question and
be able to expand upon it in a one-on-one
situation is invaluable ... the time spent in
rounds was invaluable ... I feel this experience has made me a better practitioner."
Dr. Bill Blevins (PUR'68), faculty
member, West Lafayette, IN: "This is a
situation where everyone wins ... the sabbatical program has provided benefit for
Purdue and its faculty as well as for the
participants in the program. The $200 per
week fee is placed into an account for the
mentor to use as discretionary funds. The
interaction between the sabbatical person
and the mentor helps provide perspective
and relevance for the faculty person. Relevance to the DVM program is enhanced by
interactions between the sabbatical veterinarian and DVM students."
Any veterinarian interested in taking advantage of this opportunity should call
(317)494-1107,tocontactapotentialsmall
animal mentor, (317) 494-8548, to contact
a large animal mentor; or (317) 494-7617,
Continuing Education Office, for additional information. „ „. , , n , .
Dr. Richard Goebel
Flow Cytometry Facility at Purdue
HUMAN LEUKOCYTES
New Research Capabilities Established in SVM
An important area that is targeted for
development by the Cancer Center and
Purdue University is the improvement of
cell biology resources on campus. Until the
technology of laser-based flow cytometry
became widely available, cell biologists
and immunologists had been hampered by
their inability to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze a specific subpopulation of
cells within a heterogenous population.
Their approaches had been limited to descriptive (microscopic slides and stains) or
chemical (biophysical and enzymologic
reactions) studies, both very labor intensive and neither very satisfactory. Furthermore, the isolation of such subpopulations
for additional studies with any degree of
purity has proven difficult, if not impossible. These frustrations were amply felt by
cancer researchers on the Purdue campus
and motivated them to seek the establish-
mentofacentral flow cytometry facility. A
group of investigators, which included Drs.
Ashendel, Chan, Crane, Geahlen, Morre,
and Pfeifer submitted a Shared Instrumentation Grant Application to the NIH requesting funds for the purchase of flow
cytometry equipment. The application was
 w	
funded, and the following instruments
were purchased from EPICS division of
Coulter Electronics:
- one EPICS 753 dual argon laser flow
cytometer/cell sorter;
- one EPICS C single argon laser flow
cytometer/cell sorter;
- one EASY 88 off line data analysis
computing system.
The School of Veterinary Medicine
renovated the laboratory space required to
house the equipment temporarily, with the
intention of moving the instruments into
the flow cytometry suite within the Life
Sciences Research Building when the
space becomes available for occupancy in
1989.
The flow cytometry facility was under
the direction of Dr. Thomas Chan, Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology, during the initial set up phase
with the assistance of a dedicated operator,
Linda Sands, from the Department of Pathobiology.
After the instruments were installed it
became clear to the facility committee that
it was necessary to recruit expertise in the
area of flow cytometry. The Department of
Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology
has recently recruited Dr. J. Paul Robinson,
a nationally recognized flow cytomctrist
from the University of Michigan, to fill an
immunopharmacologist position in the
department and to direct the flow cy tometcr
laboratory. Dr. Robinson began his appointment at Purdue July 1, 1988, and has
been meeting with different research
groups on campus to discuss flow cytometry as an investigative tool in biology and
medicine.
Dr. Robinson will continue to be aided
by Linda Sands and by technician, Cathy
Noble. Also assisting is an expert in computer monitoring and data analysis,
Stephen Kelly.
What is Flow Cytometry?
Flow cytometry is a technology which
uses a laser beam to interrogate cells as they
pass through the beam. The fascinating
feature about this is that the cells are not
damaged in any way by the laser. This is
primarily because the cells pass through the
beam in about 1/10,000 of one second and
also because the cells are surrounded by a
sheath of fluid. As the cells pass through the
beam, a number of measurements are made
Forward Light Scatter
Figure 1.
by detectors nearby. Since light is scattered
in many directions by the cells breaking the
laser beam, we can measure a number of
properties of the cells by making a multiparameter analysis of these signals.
The most common property we can
measure is emitted fluorescence of fluoro-
chromes attached to the cell. These could
be via attached antibodies or by fluorescent
dyes which are absorbed into the cell organelles by one means or other. Differences in
cells can be characterized by the way they
interact with these fluorochromes. Simi-
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