Nurturing Success

Research professors share parallel paths that lead to investigation of liver abscesses in cattle

Story by Joe Montgomery

“If you want to be a productive researcher, then you should also be a teacher, particularly of graduate courses” Dr. T.G. Nagaraja says.

These are more than just words of advice, but a way of life that is being passed down to newer generations of researchers/ teachers in the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine.

Dr. Nagaraja, University Distinguished Professor of microbiology, has the track record to support his philosophy. One of his former students, Dr. Raghu Amachawadi is now a frequent research collaborator. Together they are exploring ways for livestock producers to have practical ways to detect and ultimately prevent liver abscesses in cattle.

“The reason I got into liver abscess research was because I was getting ready to teach a course on the rumen for graduate students,” Dr. Nagaraja recalls. “It was the first time I learned about liver abscesses when I started teaching the class. Till then, I did not know anything about liver abscesses. The learning of liver abscesses gave me the idea that I should look into this problem.”

The research conducted by Drs. Nagaraja and Amachawadi has tangible objectives and outcomes. Both have several projects to understand more on the etiology and pathogenesis of liver abscesses in cattle, including evaluating antimicrobial alternatives to control liver abscesses.

“One of our goals is to develop a pen-side or chute-side diagnostic test,” Dr. Amachawadi says. “As of now, we don’t have a reliable diagnostic test to detect liver abscess in live cattle until after the animals are processed.”

From Bangalore to Kansas State University

Drs. Nagaraja and Amachawadi share similar backgrounds and connections in India.

“I was contacted by Raghu’s mentor in Bangalore, India,” says Dr. Nagaraja, who earned his Bachelor of Veterinary Science (BVSc) in 1970 at the veterinary college in the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. “He said he had a person working in his group who was a good student. I told Raghu to submit his application for a master’s degree. At that time, I had a project looking at feeding copper and zinc to pigs and cattle to see how that would affect the antimicrobial resistance of gut bacteria.”

After graduating from the veterinary college in 2003, Dr. Amachawadi worked part time for his mentor in India as an associate veterinarian at the Karuna Animal Welfare Association (formerly Bangalore Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). He worked on Gates Foundation funded project on rabies eradication by spaying and neutering to control stray dog population, and conducted training camps to educate people on animal welfare, animal health and humane treatment of animals. Dr. Amachawadi also worked as a veterinary research scientist on livestock diseases at the National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics.

“I always wanted to get my graduate degree and go back to India because I’m the only son in my family,” Dr. Amachawadi says. “Most of the scientists I worked with had all graduated from the US and UK. That’s where I thought I needed to go — and then after getting a higher degree, I wanted to go back home and work.”

Dr. Amachawadi completed his master’s degree under Dr. Nagaraja and worked on his Ph.D. under Dr. Morgan Scott, who was then a professor of epidemiology at K-State [Dr. Scott is now at Texas A&M University].

“Dr. Nagaraja got me involved in teaching the bacteriology lab for second-year students, which lasted from 2009 for almost 10 to 12 years,” Dr. Amachawadi says “He played a major role in shaping my career. Even though I switched to working on my Ph.D. with Dr. Scott, I still work directly with Dr. Nagaraja. I consider him as my ‘forever mentor.’ Dr. Nagaraja has played a pivotal role in my professional development and I am truly grateful for his time and effort. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn from someone experienced and dedicated as Dr. Nagaraja.”

“After he completed his Ph.D., Raghu came back to my lab to work as a postdoc researcher” Dr. Nagaraja says. “And then he became a research assistant professor. That’s how we started working together on liver abscesses.”

A distinguished career at K-State

Dr. Nagaraja’s path has been more circuitous than Dr. Amachawadi’s. He was not originally a master’s student in the veterinary college.

“I was working on my master’s degree in microbiology in Bangalore,” Dr. Nagaraja says. “I was asked to give a seminar on a topic, so I chose bloat in cattle. I used to go to the library to search for literature on bloat, and the majority of the publications on bloat were from K-State. Dr. Erle Bartley was in fact a bloat expert in this country. That’s what prompted me to come to K-State.”

The transition to studying in the US was not easy for Dr. Nagaraja.

“When I first came, a long time ago, I was terribly homesick, and I thought I should get my Ph.D. as soon as possible,” Dr. Nagaraja says. “My dream job was to go back to the college where I graduated and become a professor and have a research program, but that plan got changed within six months after I came. It was because of the kind of facilities that were available here, and the opportunities where ‘the more you do, the farther you can go’ type of atmosphere that was here.”

Dr. Nagaraja says Dr. Bartley was a great mentor. He was a dairy cattle nutritionist in animal science.

“He was a nutritionist, but I actually wanted to get a degree in microbiology, so I joined the Division of Biology,” Dr. Nagaraja explains. “At the time, they had a microbiology section and a professor who also used to interact with Dr. Bartley. His name was Lou Fina [professor of microbiology], so Drs. Fina and Bartley, were my co-advisors. I got my Ph.D. and then the animal science department offered me a tenure track position right after I graduated.”

In 1998, Dr. Nagaraja switched from animal science to the Department of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology.

“I got into involved in a project on E. coli,” Dr. Nagaraja says. “They had the Food Animal Management Center and Jerry Gillespie [the head of the center] had a special USDA grant, and a team of people that did not have a microbiologist as part of the team. My research in animal science was always related to rumen dysfunctions — disorders like bloat and acidosis and liver abscess — which were more in line with the veterinary college than with animal science.”

Professor Emeritus Dr. M.M. Chengappa had just become the department head and offered a position to Dr. Nagaraja. [Note: Dr. Chengappa was also a graduate of Bangalore in 1970.]

“Chengappa was looking for somebody who could take over the teaching for bacteriology,” Dr. Nagaraja says. “So, I came to teach bacteriology and in fact shifted my entire lab from animal science in Call Hall to DMP in Coles Hall.”

Dr. Nagaraja remained with the veterinary college since then, along the way being recognized in 2008 by Kansas State University as a University Distinguished Professor.

“I love teaching, particularly to make a complicated subject as simple as possible for students to understand,” Dr. Nagaraja says. “Research is always fascinating too because when you design a study to answer a question and then it works — that’s exciting!”

Carrying on a mentoring tradition

“I’m so lucky and blessed to be working with Dr. Nagaraja,” Dr. Amachawadi says. “Everything worked out very well — each and every step. He guided me through the process.”

Dr. Amachawadi has made teaching and mentoring a major part of his career philosophy.

“It’s a great learning experience for me because students are from different cultural backgrounds and experiences — it’s sort of learning by teaching,” he says. “I learn a lot from them, so I enjoy mentoring a lot.”

Students have had an important role for the two professors.

“We have an ongoing project studying the bacterial pathogenesis of liver abscess,” Dr. Amachawadi says. “We have two Ph.D. students working together with us: one Ph.D. student with Dr. Nagaraja and one Ph.D. student in my lab. But, they all work together and they report to both of us. We have another project where we have a master’s student together.”

Dr. Sohaila Jafarian, DVM class of 2018, worked for Dr. Amachawadi in 2013, and says she was struggling to gain admittance into veterinary school.

“While working for Dr. Amachawadi, I discovered my passion for research and global public health and he became a mentor for me,” she says. “He encouraged me to pursue an Master of Public Health (MPH) degree as well as a DVM, which has ultimately changed the trajectory of my career. He has been influential in demonstrating not only how to be a good researcher and doctor, but how to always focus my work for the good of humanity.”

The value of teamwork

After being an assistant professor and associate professor for more than eight years, Dr. Amachawadi maintains deference to Dr. Nagaraja.

“I still don’t consider him as my colleague,” Dr. Amachawadi says. “He’s still my teacher. He always says, ‘No, no, no, just call me T.G.,’ or something other than teacher. I always wanted to work with somebody who was from my home school, so I have that with Dr. Nagaraja. He and Dr. Chengappa are very well known back in Bangalore, so I made my dream happen here.”

Dr. Nagaraja sees his relationship in a slightly different context.

“There is an advantage working together on research in that we know each other very well,” Dr. Nagaraja says. “We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and the way we compensate for that. I try to avoid the mentor/student relationship as much as possible to see that he’s my colleague, not my student.”

So as their relationship has evolved over time, their research on liver abscesses in cattle also evolves.

“The logical follow-up study for us is whether we could find the same thing in the blood of cattle that would tell us if the animal is abscessed or not, which would be a diagnostic test,” Dr. Nagaraja says. “We don’t have that right now. But we do have funding to help us answer the questions. And that’s exciting.”