Former T32 Trainee, Drew Koch, D.V.M., Ph.D., Advances Musculoskeletal Research
After spending his youth in rural Colorado, Dr. Drew Koch (Figure 1) combined his interest in science with his childhood experiences to pursue a career in veterinary medicine. “I grew up around farms and ranches. I was always interested in biology, so veterinary medicine seemed like a great fit,” he explained. He attended veterinary school at Colorado State University, where he became interested in a career in academic research.
Dr. Koch described the path he took to obtain his current position as an Assistant Professor at Colorado State University. After graduating from the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in 2016, Dr. Koch completed a residency in equine surgery at Colorado State University. “Similar to a lot of us,” he remarked, “I got into an academic setting and enjoyed research. I knew I wanted to pursue a Ph.D. because I wanted to stay in academia and try to integrate the clinical medicine that I knew—the science of musculoskeletal biology—into a research-heavy career.” During this time, he was introduced to the ORIP-funded Comparative Medicine and Translational Research Training Program (T32) by Dr. Lauren Schnabel, a Professor of Equine Orthopedic Surgery in the Department of Clinical Sciences at the North Carolina State University (NC State) College of Veterinary Medicine. “We had similar colleagues, and I went out there and was a part of that program for 3 years,” noted Dr. Koch. With help from the T32 and Dr. Schnabel, who became his advisor, Dr. Koch obtained a Ph.D. at NC State and finished his T32 training in 2023.
The Comparative Medicine and Translational Research Training Program at NC State was established in 2007 by faculty in the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Comparative Medicine Institute. Since 2008, the program—which is now one of ORIP’s Postdoctoral Programs for Veterinarians—has been funded by an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Training Grant (T32) award. ORIP’s Division of Comparative Medicine uses the T32 NRSA grants to support the training and career development of highly qualified veterinarians seeking to enter the field of biomedical research. The goal is to assist veterinarians in becoming productive biomedical investigators who develop or refine animal models for human diseases and contribute to animal studies and translational research that will benefit human health.
Dr. Koch is now a large animal veterinary surgeon and biomedical researcher at the Preclinical Surgical Research Laboratory at the Colorado State University’s Translational Medicine Institute. The Preclinical Surgical Research Laboratory provides research services to academic, government, and private partners preparing medical devices for regulatory submission. Dr. Koch summarized the position’s appeal: “I get to be on both the veterinary side and the preclinical side. My hope is that anything I pursue will be beneficial to veterinary patients and hopefully will benefit human patients in the future.”
Dr. Koch’s expertise is in musculoskeletal biology. As a resident, he treated osteoarthritis and tendinopathy in horses, but his current position is more focused on sheep as a model organism. “We do rotator cuff, spine, and cartilage studies—really the gamut of musculoskeletal research,” Dr. Koch noted. “We’re testing medical devices and new implants. I get to use the surgical skills that I gained as a veterinarian in this research-heavy setting. To me, it’s a dream job, because I get to combine all these skills from my veterinary training, my Ph.D. training, and the T32 program. I get to teach students and residents and serve as a mentor, which is also a passion of mine. I feel very fortunate that I’m in this niche area where I can use all those skills.”
Since the beginning of his T32 training in 2020, Dr. Koch has published several studies related to tendon injury and repair. He also was involved in a study of synthetic platelets, which are being developed as a novel method for treating uncontrolled bleeding. Platelets are cell fragments found in the blood that help slow or stop bleeding so that a wound can heal. Platelet transfusions are used to stop bleeding during an emergency, but platelets are difficult to store, available only in limited amounts, and associated with immune and contamination risks. The study, published in Science Translational Medicine in April 2024, investigated methods for optimizing synthetic platelet-like particles (PLPs) and improving their ability to target wound areas, reduce blood loss, and improve healing.1 The PLPs are made of hydrogel nanoparticles and can change their shape, an important property shared with typical platelets. Fibrin is a fiber-forming protein that aggregates into a sticky mesh that forms the major structural element of blood clots; PLPs are attached to fibrin-binding antibody fragments to help them target areas of bleeding.
Dr. Ashley Brown—the study’s lead investigator and Professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at NC State and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—was also Dr. Koch’s biomedical engineering mentor. She approached Drs. Koch and Schnabel about testing the PLPs in a larger model. “They had done a lot of mouse work,” explained Dr. Koch, “and were interested in using the pig as a model. I was fortunate—right as I started, they were looking for veterinary surgeons, and so Dr. Schnabel and I helped develop a large animal model for bleeding to test these particles.” They tested the top PLP candidate in pigs with liver damage and showed that the PLPs traveled to the site of injury to increase healing and reduce blood loss without any measurable immune system reaction. Dr. Brown’s team is conducting preclinical tests to obtain approval for clinical trials.
“It was very rewarding to see biomedical engineers, veterinarians, and basic scientists working together on this project,” Dr. Koch emphasized. “The work we contributed was a small part of that, but it was just fun to see the collaborative effort and lend my expertise from the veterinary surgery side.” He noted the importance of the Institutional Training Grant in supporting the project: “The T32 program provided the opportunity for all of us as trainees. The program helped show me that I was interested in working in preclinical groups, and I think it was a big reason I’m in the position I am today.” Dr. Koch expressed gratitude to ORIP and NIH for the award. “I’m very thankful that they provide that support, and hopefully I can pay it forward someday.”
Dr. Koch shared advice for junior investigators, noting that teamwork has become a cornerstone of effective and innovative scientific research. “Gone are the days where you work by yourself, where you’re the only person running the lab, training graduate students, and focusing on your own thing. I think science is too big for that. Nowadays, we’re all realizing that you can’t be an expert in everything needed to pursue your scientific interests. You have to build a collaborative network with other experts if you want to be successful,” he observed. Dr. Koch also suggested that young trainees remain open to unexpected opportunities. “I had a specific idea of what I thought my career path would be, and it’s been 10 years since I started veterinary school, and my path has been quite different than I ever imagined. I’m glad for that because I ended up working in an area that I’m really passionate about, and I feel really fortunate to be in the job I’m in.”
For more information about research training opportunities for veterinarians, please visit ORIP’s Training and Career Development webpages. For more information about ORIP’s support for porcine animal models, please visit ORIP’s Swine Models fact sheet or Research Highlights webpage.
Reference
1 Nellenbach K, Mihalko E, Nandi S, et al. Ultrasoft platelet-like particles stop bleeding in rodent and porcine models of trauma. Sci Transl Med. 2024;16(742):eadi4490. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.adi4490.