Interview Lisa Katz

Do you know...Lisa Katz?

Lisa is a Professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland. Lisa obtained her DVM from the University of Georgia (UGA) in 1994, following which she completed an internship in equine medicine and surgery at Peterson, Smith, Matthews, Hahn & Slone in 1995. By 1998, Lisa had completed a combined large animal internal medicine residency and Master’s program in equine exercise physiology at Washington State University (WSU). Her research focused on the physiological and metabolic responses of ponies and horses to short-term exercise training and the ventilatory responses of ponies and horses to high-intensity exercise. She became a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) in 2001 and of the European College of Equine Internal Medicine (ECEIM) in 2005. By 2003, Lisa had completed a PhD in vascular pharmacology at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), investigating the pathophysiology of equine acute laminitis. In 2010, Lisa was awarded a Graduate Certificate in University Teaching and Learning and became a Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation (ECVSMR) in 2020. Her current clinical and research interests include equine exercise physiology and genomics. Lisa has over 160 peer-reviewed scientific and clinical veterinary publications and has made several contributions to book chapters. She is the current President of the ECEIM, a member of multiple school and international committees and a reviewer for multiple scientific journals and grant agencies.

When did you start to have an interest in equine research?

To be honest, when I graduated from veterinary school, I just knew that I wanted to be an equine clinician, but that I didn’t feel competent enough, so I sought out an internship to improve my clinical skills; research wasn’t on the horizon at that point. During my internship I discovered that I really loved internal medicine, which is why I pursued a residency-training programme in equine internal medicine; research still wasn’t something that I was considering at that point in my career. It was when I started my Large Animal Internal Medicine residency-training programme at WSU in 1995 that I was introduced to research. Prior to interviewing for this programme, I investigated the various research interests of the WSU equine internal medicine faculty and was immediately drawn to WSU’s established equine exercise physiology research programme. I was fortunate to join this programme once I started my residency-training which fostered my love of research and in particular equine exercise physiology. The residency programmes at WSU are research-intensive, with a requirement (at that time anyway) for new residents to develop experimental design protocols for their research projects and submit them for internal peer-review. This introduced me to the art of hypothesis-driven research projects and well-designed experimental protocols! During this time, I also learned the importance of collaboration and working as a team, with everyone helping each other meet their individual goals. A small but tightly knit group of people can achieve a great deal working together! After finishing my residency-training and Master’s degree programme, I had a short interlude at Oklahoma State University’s teaching hospital before entering a PhD programme at the RVC in 1999. This was a fantastic opportunity for me to further develop my research skillsets as well as to experience living outside of North America. It was during this time that I really fell in love with Europe and decided that I would like to continue my career somewhere in Europe if given the opportunity. The research ‘bug’ had taken hold, and I knew that I wanted to work in a university where I could pursue a high level of clinical and research work. After finishing the PhD programme, I joined the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine in Dublin, Ireland. I strove to develop an equine exercise physiology research programme, initially by supervising multiple equine agriculture and MVB undergraduate research projects in equine exercise physiology and biomechanics. I was finding it difficult to obtain funding as a primary investigator, so I started seeking out collaborations with other researchers. During this time, I also supervised several undergraduate MVB student research projects in equine laminitis and the investigation of neuropeptides in the regulation of digital vascular flow in horses. In 2006 I decided to focus my research primarily around equine exercise physiology and began to foster productive research collaborations (including co-supervision of students) involving different aspects of exercise physiology between schools in UCD and outside of UCD, both within and outside of Ireland.

How many people work in your research team?

We have a small equine exercise physiology and genomics research group at UCD, overseen by me and a Professor in equine genetics. We started this research group in 2006 and have had multiple national and international research collaborators over the years. Since 2006 we have supervised to completion >12 Master’s, PhD, and postdoctoral projects as well as a multitude of undergraduate research projects. As a primary supervisor, my students are primarily equine veterinarians that are looking to gain research experience and knowledge prior to applying for an internship and/or residency-training programme, or after having recently finished a residency-training programme. We currently have three PhD students, one post-doctoral student and a full-time research assistant. We are also extremely fortunate to have a strong collaborative relationship with a leading Irish Flat Thoroughbred breeder/trainer who has allowed us access to his horses since 2006. We have established a research laboratory and office at his training yard (including a high-speed equine treadmill) with most of our research occurring off-site of the main UCD campus and at his various breeding and training yards. We owe the trainer and his staff a huge amount of gratitude since we absolutely could not have accomplished a quarter of what we achieved without his and his staff’s help!

Overall, I recognise the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to achieve synergy and excellence in my chosen field of research and have attempted to develop national and international collaborations in order to achieve this. My high degree of clinical expertise and experience allows me to mesh well with basic scientists resulting in a large translational capacity and movement of basic research into the applied research arena. I believe the key to most research programmes is collaboration!

What are the more prominent research topics you are working on?

My research group has developed a strong programme investigating correlations between physiological and genomic variables in athletic horses, unravelling the sequence and functional variation of molecular mechanisms and genetic pathways contributing to exercise adaptation and disease. This has allowed accurate description of phenotypes associated with genetic variation, resulting in the development of predictor tests for various performance variables. My group was the first to report on equine genes containing polymorphisms associated with performance traits, with our most recent collaborative work resulting in the discovery of some key exercise and health-related genetic polymorphisms with predictive potential. My research has now branched out to include genomic markers of stress, disease and modalities for prevention of injury in athletic horses. Our current research project is investigating the effect of early life stress on the genetic regulation of the acute and chronic stress response in Thoroughbreds later in life, and how this may impact on performance and the risk of diseases such as recurrent exertional rhabdomyolysis.

What future research are you considering?

I aim to continue to use the horse as a large animal model to expand into more clinical areas including early disease and injury recognition and prevention in the equine and other domestic athletic species. I am particularly interested in the correct use and interpretation of wearable technology in the equine athlete.

You are a prominent scientist, current President of the ECEIM, member of the ACVIM and involved in the development of the European College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. How do you juggle your personal life and your work?

I find it very difficult!! I am an extremely hard worker but also a perfectionist, so I do end up spending a lot of time on my job with a poor work-life balance. I am very lucky that I have an understanding husband who helps a lot, but in the end, I had to make tough choices to the detriment of my career to make things work. When I was younger and first starting off in my career, I didn’t have any dependents other than my dogs, so it was much easier to work all the time, and I was happy. I could easily stay up all night with a sick foal and then continue into the next day fulfilling my clinical, teaching and research goals. However, when I married and started a family, it became extremely difficult to manage the same workload to the same degree of perfectionism! In the end, I had to give up some aspects of my job to better balance out my life, which was difficult but necessary.

I would encourage people to keep an open mind about their career path, be flexible with their goals and to be kind to themselves! I really believe a good work-life balance results in better productivity and a happier life! Flexibility in career goals is important because personal and work circumstances change along the way, so a job that initially fits into someone’s lifestyle so well may not fit so well later in life. There is nothing wrong with making career changes to suit changes in one’s personal circumstances!

What advice would you have for new diplomates with an interest in research?

I would encourage people to investigate different options, whether it is a taught online research course or a Master’s/PhD research programme and to think about what they want to achieve from this type of training. I think it is difficult to do a combined residency-training course with a PhD, I was happy that I had that degree of separation because it allowed me breathing space to think about my research projects and learn! Even if someone is not interested in pursuing a Master’s/PhD programme, they can still be involved in research, especially if they collaborate with someone who can assist in the experimental design (including statistical analysis!); clinical practice generates loads of fantastic data that can be extremely informative and lead to further investigation. Research is fun and worthwhile!

What are your favorite foods, colours, hobbies, and pets?

I love sushi! My favourite colour is green (this was the case before I moved to Ireland!). I love to read, go out to dinner and/or the movies, play tennis with my family, attend rugby matches. We have one dog, Jimmy, who is a Border Terrier and a much-loved member of our family!

One of the first emergency cases I dealt with when I first joined the UCD veterinary teaching hospital. This was a premature foal from an emergency caesarian of a mare with severe bacterial pleuropneumonia.

My first equine exercise physiology and genomics research project evaluating the genomic response to acute high-intensity exercise in a group of untrained National Hunt racehorses. I was instrumenting a horse before performing an incremental, step-wise test to fatigue on a high-speed treadmill.

I’m getting ready to perform a middle gluteal muscle biopsy and am confused as to why someone is taking my photo!