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Media Relations
Kansas State University
9 Anderson Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-6415
media@k-state.edu
Information provided by K-State Media Relations, K-State's news service, may be reproduced without permission. The marks and names of Kansas State University are protected trademarks and may not be used in any commercial or private endeavor without the approval of the university.

JUERGEN RICHT
Regents Distinguished Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine

Kansas Bioscience Authority Eminent Scholar

 

Juergen RichtA deep fascination with the ability of an infectious agent to outsmart its host has been the driving force behind Dr. Juergen Richt's expertise in diagnosing and treating zoonotic diseases, which are diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans.

Richt is a veterinary microbiologist who has worked with multiple agents of zoonotic potential, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (also known as mad cow disease), chronic wasting disease, animal flu, borna virus and other emerging diseases.

Richt's career, which most recently included a seven-year stint as lead scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Animal Disease Center, has been spent developing novel testing methods and remedies for a number of animal and zoonotic diseases.

Originally from Germany, Richt earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine from the University of Munich, and a doctorate in veterinary virology from the University of Giessen under the guidance of the late Dr. Rudolf Rott, who was considered to be one of the most eminent veterinary virologists of the last century. Richt's postdoctoral studies were conducted at John Hopkins University from 1989 to 1991.

He returned to the University of Giessen in 1991, establishing an independent and well-funded research program in molecular virology at the Institute of Virology in the university's College of Veterinary Medicine. Richt moved to the U.S. at the end of 2000 to work as a veterinary medical officer at the National Animal Disease Center, a federally-funded laboratory with broad goals similar to those of K-State's animal health and food safety and security programs.

At the federal center, Richt worked primarily in two areas: emerging viral diseases of swine and prion diseases, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. He has developed innovative vaccinations concepts against flu viruses and novel diagnostic tests to detect major swine respiratory pathogens. He also has studied the interspecies transmission of prion agents and the molecular nature of newly emerging bovine spongiform encephalopathy strains.

Because of his research experience, Richt has rapidly moved into the field of animal influenza research and is being recognized for his understanding of avian/swine/human transmission of influenza viruses.

He has authored or co-authored more than 70 peer-reviewed articles. His work has been published extensively, including in such prestigious journals as Nature Biotechnology, Science, Journal of Experimental Medicine, PNAS, Cell Host Microbe and Journal of Virology. He also was named to the prestigious scientific advisory board for the Scientific and Technical Review of the World Organization for Animal Health, the OIE in Paris.

Richt is developing a new research program at K-State that will involve a multidisciplinary approach to solving both existing and developing animal disease concerns.

Richt can be reached by phone at 785-532-4401, or by e-mail at jricht@k-state.edu

 

Photo courtesy of Jim Fosse.