'Frog doctor' to lead comparative medicine department
Sherril Green, an expert on African clawed frogs, is to be chair of comparative medicine.
Sherril Green
BY RUTHANN RICHTER
Not long after she arrived at Stanford in 1997, veterinarian Sherril Green, DVM, PhD, was called in to examine some South African clawed frogs in the lab that were looking poorly. Green had to make the leap from her background in horse medicine to treating the sick amphibians. It was a career-defining event, for Green ultimately would become known as the "frog doctor," with a widely recognized expertise in frog medicine.
"At the time, there just wasn't much information available on the veterinary medical care of this frog species, so academically it was very interesting to me to figure it out," said Green, professor of comparative medicine. "To apply my mammalian internal medicine skills to amphibians was quite a challenge.
"I've learned a lot," she added. "There really is just 'one medicine' for humans and animals, including amphibians. There are fundamentals in physiology and disease processes that are the same across all species. That is the core of comparative medicine."
Green was recently named chair of the Department of Comparative Medicine, replacing Linda Cork, DVM, PhD, who is retiring after 15 years at Stanford. Green, who is now on sabbatical, will assume her new duties Sept. 1. Stanford remains one of the few medical schools that has a department of comparative medicine, noted medical school Dean Philip Pizzo, MD.
"We feel that this discipline is critically important in assuring that faculty throughout the medical school and university benefit from outstanding colleagues and collaborators in veterinary medicine and laboratory animal sciences," Pizzo said. "I believe that Dr. Green has the skills, knowledge and leadership to facilitate these important interactions and collaborations in the years ahead and to thus enhance our overall scientific enterprise while also assuring ethical and regulatory compliance and excellence in animal research."
Green will take over a department whose responsibilities have greatly expanded over the years. When she first came to Stanford 12 years ago, there were only three veterinarians; now there are 14 vets overseeing experiments with dozens of different species, she said. The demand for comparative medicine faculty expertise and the veterinary service center continues to grow as new programs come to life. For instance, department faculty will provide support for the new mouse facility in the Lorry I. Lokey Stem Cell Research Building, as well as the new aquatics facility where laboratory frogs will be housed and where researchers will conduct sleep studies in zebrafish and evolutionary biology studies in sticklebacks.
Comparative medicine faculty, with specialties as diverse as veterinary anesthesiology, pathology and mouse medicine, conduct their own research and provide training to veterinary residents at a time when there is a national shortage of laboratory animal veterinarians, Green said.
"In spite of the economy, the animal research program has done very well and remains an important part of basic and biomedical research at the medical school," Green said.
Green's own background is in horse medicine. She completed programs in equine surgery and medicine at the University of Missouri, followed by specialized training in the neurology and neonatology of horses at the University of Florida. She obtained her PhD in the basic science of neurobiology at UC-Davis, where she studied stroke. At Stanford, she has collaborated over the years with Cork, a pathologist who studies motor neuron diseases in dogs, and with James Ferrell, PhD, MD, chair of chemical and systems biology, who uses eggs from the African clawed frog in his research on the cell cycle.
Green still teaches classes in horse medicine, though she has shifted her emphasis to frogs, specifically the African clawed frog. The species, Xenopus laevis, has been used since the 19th century as a laboratory animal, she said, yet there is little known about the veterinary care of these amphibians. The fast-breeding, carnivorous creatures are common subjects in research labs because they are hardy, readily adaptable and able to produce eggs that are large and abundant, she said. They serve as animal models for vertebrate embryology, cellular biology, physiology and biochemistry and have contributed to advances in cancer and other diseases.
The frogs are also highly invasive, proliferating in ecosystems around the world. Because of her expertise with the amphibians, Green has worked with the California Department of Fish and Game regarding the invading population of frogs at the Lily Pond in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Green and her colleagues continue to track the eating and breeding habits and disease patterns of the aggressive species, with plans to return this summer for another scientific foray to the pond, she said.
"What we learn about them in the wild helps us better take care of them in the lab," she noted.
Green is currently at work on a textbook on the species to help guide caregivers at labs throughout the world.
Share This Story