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Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences

Veterinary Inflammation and Metabolism

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The Veterinary Inflammation and Metabolism research group investigates the disease processes and develops novel therapies for inflammatory and metabolic diseases.

This includes important diseases such as equine metabolic syndrome, pituitary disease (equine ‘Cushing’s syndrome’), laminitis and sepsis (the systemic inflammatory response to bacterial toxins) in domestic animals. Our aim is to understand the disease processes and risk factors, and to develop new ways of treating and preventing these conditions.

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Contact the team

    Group leader

  1. Professor Simon Bailey

    Professor of Veterinary Preclinical Sciences

    • bais@unimelb.edu.au
    • +613 8344 6315

Our group is skilled in many techniques including analytical biochemistry, in vitro pharmacology (particularly pharmacodynamics), cell culture and measurements of cytokines plus a wide range of other metabolic and inflammatory disease biomarkers.

We are also skilled in performing in vivo measurements of insulin sensitivity in horses and ponies; metabolic responses to feed challenges and long term diet studies.

  • Measurement of insulin resistance in horses

    The Veterinary Inflammation and Metabolism research group offers frequently-sampled insulin-modified intravenous glucose tolerance tests in horses and ponies.

Our researchers.

Our people

    Group leader

  1. Professor Simon Bailey

    Professor of Veterinary Preclinical Sciences

    Simon Bailey is a Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology. His main research areas are endocrinology, equine laminitis, novel anti-inflammatory therapies, sepsis and cardiovascular pharmacology.

    • Find an Expert profile
    • bais@unimelb.edu.au
  2. Group members

  3. Dr Nick Bamford

    Lecturer in Veterinary Biosciences

    Nick Bamford is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. His research focusses on equine metabolic disease, including Equine Metabolic Syndrome and Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID).

    • Find an Expert profile
    • n.bamford@unimelb.edu.au
  4. Dr Jenni Bauquier

    Senior Lecturer in Equine Medicine

    Jenni Bauquier is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Her research focusses on equine sepsis and equine critical care.

    • Find an Expert profile
    • jennifer.bauquier@unimelb.edu.au

Our group engages in translational research, integrating cell culture, in vitro and ex vivo techniques with live animal studies, in order to understand the pathophysiology of metabolic and inflammatory diseases and evaluate novel therapies.

We also use large scale field studies to understand disease risk factors and associations at the population level.

Current research projects

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Completed projects

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