Animal Health & Nutrition Intellectual Exchange Group

The Animal Health and Nutrition Intellectual Exchange Group (AH&N IEG) comprises representatives from industry, academia, and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. It provides a forum for professionals (academics and industry) working in the animal health and nutrition space to discuss relevant topics and collaborate to build relationships.

The group will also serve as a forum to identify technologies that will be spun out from universities. Company executives can develop peer-level relationships and company collaborations.

Membership Guidelines

Faculty, students, postdocs, and industry members interested in animal health and nutrition are welcome.

Meeting Format

A similar meeting format as previous years will be maintained in the 2025-2026 season. Each event will host multiple speakers centered around the event theme and allow time for networking among in-person attendees.

Most events run from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at NCBiotech unless otherwise noted. Registration is required for all seminars.

Request information about monthly meetings and vendor sponsorship packages.

Coming Events

Past Events

This session delved into a current hot topic, as vaccines have been heavily covered in the news recently. With both industry and academic representatives on the panel, multiple viewpoints were shared followed by a networking reception.

Panelists included:

Scott Huggins, Veterinary Services Lead at Farmina.

Ally Spitz, Academic Affairs Manager at Hill’s Pet Nutrition.

Yewande Fasina, Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCATSU).

Participants included:

Katie Schoenberg, Ph.D., Director, Global Talent Acquisition, Elanco Animal Health
Sara Lane, Director of Career Services, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, NC State University
Maddie Kohls, 3rd year DVM candidate, College of Veterinary Medicine, NC State University

Presenters Included:

Ramin Karimpour, Founder and CEO, TARGAN Inc.

Curtis Shuey, Vice President, Global Hatchery, Zoetis

Panelists Included:

Roland Johnson, the founder of two North Carolina animal health companies (Blue Ridge Pharmaceuticals and Piedmont Pharmaceuticals), who navigated his companies from inception through to successful exits, providing insights on the lifecycle of a startup.
Jeff Meisner is the Chief Scientific Officer at Resilient Biotics where they develop innovative products to address complex respiratory diseases in animals and humans while reducing the spread of antibiotic resistance. He will share insights into how their technology platform harnesses mucosal microbial ecology to prevent infections.
Lisa Chang is a Professor of Practice in the Poole College of Management, and serves as the Director for the Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Program as well as the Director of Diligence for the Wolfpack Investor Network (WIN). WIN is NC State's angel investment network, whose members invest in early stage high growth companies, generally with a technology foundation. She will provide perspective on understanding what types of opportunities are interesting to investors, programs and resources available to entrepreneurs, and how to get investor-ready.

"Probiotics for Clostridial disease control in poultry"

Ravi Kulkarni, Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, NC State University

"How can the microbiome help us manage common pathologies in pets?"

Anne Ballou, Technical Director, SIWA

"Microbiome knowledge applied to production animal nutrition and health"

Dr. Marcos Rostagno, Feed Additives Technical & Innovation Director - Selko USA, Nutreco

Join companion and production animal scientists as we reconnect for the 2024-2025 academic year. This will be our kick-off event and an opportunity to meet the Steering Committee. Following a short introduction, attendees will meet students, faculty, and staff from academia and industry to build a community of scientists focused on animal health.

4:00 - 6:00 p.m. | NCBiotech

Panelists:

Jon Holt (Moderator)
Minliang Yang, NC State University
Ricardo Ekmay, Arbiom
John Classen, NC State University
Kraig Westerbeek, Smithfield Foods, Inc.