GIRAPHE Core Faculty

Nature of Collaboration

The faculty members involved in this initiative are part of an informal group engaged in discussions about how best to create powerful new collaborative opportunities. Rather than focusing on the specific expertise of the individuals spearheading this working group, the goal will be to develop a premiere initiative at Hopkins drawing on the One Health approach, capitalizing on the combined expertise in ways that surpasses the scope and focus of other established programs worldwide.

These six investigators will constitute initial members of GIRAPHE.

Meghan Davis, PhD, MPH, DVM, a veterinarian scientist, is interested in microbial exchanges between humans and animals, of relevance to both infection and non-infection outcomes. Her research applies the principles of one health and microbial ecology, evaluating target microbes and bacterial genes specifically and the larger microbial community (microbiome) broadly.

Alan Goldberg, PhD, a toxicologist and Founding Director (Emeritus) of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing. Dr. Goldberg's interests are in humane science, the use of animals and the 3Rs (refinement, reduction and replacement) of animals in biomedical sciences, toxicology, and risk assessment. Research activities include the incorporation of in vitro and refinement alternatives in risk assesment and regulatory toxicology. Additionally, policy issues associated with animal use are integral to these activities.

Kathrin Herrmann, DVM, DipECAWBM (AWSEL), PhD, is a veterinary expert in animal welfare science, ethics and law and Assistant Scientist at the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she directs the ‘Beyond Classical Refinement’ Program. Her work addresses the reproducibility and translatability crises that science is facing. Kathrin initiated and co-edited the open access book Animal Experimentation: Working Towards a Paradigm Change (Brill Human Animal Studies Series, 2019), which features 51 authors who discuss the need for a paradigm shift away from animals towards innovative, human-relevant approaches. Together with Charlotte Blattner, University of Bern, Switzerland, and Eva Meijer, University of Wageningen, The Netherlands, she is co-organizing and hosting the Animals, Climate Change and Global Health webinar series in fall/winter 20/21.

Jeffrey Kahn, PhD, MPH, is the Robert Henry Levi and Ryda Hecht Levi Professor of Bioethics and Public Policy and the Deputy Director for Policy and Administration at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. He works in a variety of areas of bioethics, exploring the intersection of ethics and health/science policy, including human and animal research ethics, public health, and ethical issues in emerging biomedical technologies.
  

Dara Kraitchman, PhD, VMD, is a Professor in the Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Radiology and Radiological Science. Her research focuses on non-invasive imaging and minimally invasive treatment of cardiovascular disease. Dr. Kraitchman serves as the Cardiovascular Interventional Section Head within the department. Dr. Kraitchman is also co-Director of the Center for Image-Guided Animal Therapy (CIGAT), which provides state-of-the-art imaging and minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic options for pets.

Andrew Pekosz, PhD, Professor, a virologist who is co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance (JH-CEIRS) working in the area of influenza infection, has interests and expertise in surveillance of global infectious diseases.

Joanne Zurlo, PhD, is a Senior Scientist in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering in the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research interest is in the integrity of animal models for human disease, from scientific, ethical and translational perspectives. Included in this interest is the need to implement appropriate care and welfare guidelines for animals used in research to ensure that the animal models are providing scientifically valid data that can be used to extrapolate to human disease. Intrinsic to this process is the understanding of animal behavior, specifically the necessity for animals to express species-specific behaviors in a captive environment.