"Woof-Choo! Allergies in Companion Animals” - An Animal Health and Nutrition Forum

Just like humans, cats, dogs and horses can all develop allergies to food, flea bites and environmental allergies such as grass pollen and mold spores. Allergies are common in domestic pets than in wild or farm animals that spend most of their time outdoors. This may be because the more hygienic conditions in human houses leave less work for the immune system and so it gets inappropriately sensitised to normally harmless particles in the environment Come and learn about what dogs and cats have in common with allergies in humans and what is being dome about them.

Featured Talks:

"The Big Itch: allergies in animals, an underestimated issue and an opportunity for new human medicines"

Tobias Kaeser, Ph.D., studied biology at the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen (Germany) and got his PhD in immunology at the Institute of Immunology, Vienna, Austria. In 2013 he joined the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) in Saskatoon, Canada, to establish the pig as a model for translational research on Chlamydia trachomatis. In 2016, he started as an assistant professor in swine immunology at the College of Veterinary Medicine at NC State. His lab focuses on two translational biomedical projects -- Chlamydia trachomatis and food allergy, especially EoE, a strongly increasing health issue with billions of losses to the US health system. He has extensive collaborations in the areas of regenerative medicine, chlamydia trachomatis, and esinophillic esophagitis.

"Translating safe and effective human therapies to dogs, cats and horses"

Stefan C Weiss, MD MBA, is founder and CEO of Aniluxx biotechnologies. Previously he was the Senior Medical Director at Connetics Corporation through its acquisition by Stiefel/ GSK. There, he advanced three topical dermatologic drug candidates through NDA approval that utilized a novel vehicle technology. He went on to found and grow a clinical practice and research center in human dermatology for 10 years until its acquisition. A board-certified dermatologist, Dr. Weiss graduated with his BA from Yale University, his MD and MHSc in Clinical Research from Duke University, and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He completed a Residency in Dermatology at Stanford University and a Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.