Marcelo Heras, de las

Cutting Edge Congress
,

Graduated as a Veterinarian in 1981 and Ph.D. in Veterinary Pathology in 1987, I have been doing my research and teaching since 1984 in several academic positions at the University of Zaragoza. Professor of Veterinary Pathology at the University of Glasgow in 2007 and Professor of Animal Health at the University of Zaragoza since 2009.
My principal research line is framed into the respiratory system tumors associated with retroviruses in sheep and goats the Enzootic nasal adenocarcinoma (ENA, enzootic nasal tumor). We started with the first descriptions of the disease in Spain. Several collaborations and international projects allowed us to reproduce the disease experimentally in goats, its association with a retrovirus, and eventually characterize and obtain the full sequence of two viruses, one associated with the disease in sheep (ENTV-1), and another very similar in goats (ENTV-2). Several reagents and techniques to specifically detect the two viruses were developed. ENTV-1 and ENT-2 were very similar to jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV) the aetiological agent of pulmonary adenocarcinoma, a contagious lung neoplasia of sheep (OPA). We expanded our collaboration with other research groups, and the results of this generated very new information about the JSRV pathogenesis, immune response, and other relevant aspects of the infection and disease. We also generated new reagents and techniques, allowing us to conduct epidemiological field studies with discoveries about the transmission routes of the JSRV, like milk transmission. This information was very relevant to the design of the control and eradication plans of APO. I have been a director of several Ph.D. degrees in this area and respiratory diseases in lambs.
We have also studied human lung neoplasia trying to find morphological and aetiological similarities with the OPA. Around 30% of the human lung adenocarcinoma cross-reacted with a rabbit polyclonal against JSRV capsid (JSRV-CA). Despite this finding and using other techniques, we have not found any clear relationship with human lung adenocarcinomas.
In addition to this, I have collaborated as a veterinary pathologist on several articles. In particular, experimental studies on cancer treatments using nanoparticles. We have described the first cases in Spain in other diseases in sheep like proliferative chronic rhinitis in sheep associated with Salmonella diarizonae or upper respiratory pathology associated with spirodesmin in sheep.
I have published several books on the anatomic pathology of sheep, goats, pigs, and rabbits in collaboration with other authors. I have numerous presentations in conferences, or courses about small ruminants, pigs, or cattle anatomic pathology. Finally, I would like to mention my membership as a veterinary pathologist of the European College of Veterinary Pathologists and my professional activity teaching veterinary pathology with 40 years of experience in post-mortem and biopsies diagnostic investigation and teaching in domestic animals.