Clarissa Strieder-Barboza, an expert in cattle and human adipose tissue biology and metabolic disease, has been named an assistant professor in Texas Tech University's Department of Veterinary Sciences, according to officials within the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. She officially stepped into her new research post on Jan. 11.

The Brazil native, who will have a 25 percent joint appointment with the new Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine in Amarillo, indicated that her research program broadly focuses on pathophysiology of metabolic disease in dairy cattle and humans.

One of her primary goals here at Tech is to uncover mechanisms by which dysfunctional adipose tissue remodeling negatively impacts health of periparturient dairy cattle and humans with obesity. Strieder-Barboza aims at developing collaborative research to identify novel targets and therapeutic and nutritional strategies for preventing metabolic disease, relevant to both animal and human health.

Launched in 2017, the Department of Veterinary Sciences is the newest of CASNR's seven departments. Specifically designed as a graduate degree program, Department Chair Michael Ballou notes that the program offers masters and doctorate degrees, both of which are research degrees. The primary focus of the department, Ballou said, is to train individuals in population and preventative veterinary medicine with a focus on large-production animal medicine.

Strieder-Barboza earned her degree in veterinary medicine at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria in Santa Maria, Brazil, and her master's degree in veterinary science-animal health from the Institute of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia, Chile.

Her doctorate in comparative medicine and integrative biology is from the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine's Department of Large Animal Clinical Science in East Lansing, Michigan. She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Diabetes Association, Board of Veterinary Medicine (Colombia) and American Dairy Science Association.

Prior to joining the Tech faculty, Strieder-Barboza served as a postdoctoral research fellow in University of Michigan Medical School's Department of Surgery in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where her translational biomedical research focused on mechanisms of adipose tissue dysfunction in obesity-associated type 2 diabetes in humans. She also worked as a veterinary instructor with the College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science at the Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia in Colombia.

Her interest in research on dairy cattle health and metabolism started in veterinary school when she worked as a clinical and research assistant in the Department of Large Animals at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria in Brazil. In addition, she served as an academic and research assistant in the Laboratory of Animal Clinical Pathology and Metabolism at the Universidad Austral de Chile.

The Strieder-Barboza Lab will be housed at the Experimental Science Building II. As part of her position, Strieder-Barboza will have access to Texas Tech's sprawling mix of laboratory animal facilities that include the Gordon W. Davis Meat Laboratory; a livestock arena; the New Deal Farm which consists of more than 900 acres, as well as the Burnett Center's Research Feedlot; an equestrian center; and a food safety laboratory in Tech's Experimental Sciences Building.

CONTACT: Michael Ballou, Chair, Department of Veterinary Sciences, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Texas Tech University at (806) 834-6513 or michael.ballou@ttu.edu

0114NM21