College of Veterinary Medicine

Dr. Akkerman earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) and PhD degrees from North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1992 and 1998, respectively. She practiced small animal clinical medicine for six years before entering academic veterinary medicine.

In 2001, Dr. Akkerman joined North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine as an Assistant Professor of Anatomy, a position she held until 2015. During her tenure, her primary teaching responsibilities included veterinary anatomy and embryology for both small and large animal species within the DVM curriculum. In addition to her teaching roles, she contributed extensively to college service, including participation in curricular review and implementation initiatives, admissions, and diversity-related efforts.

In 2015, Dr. Akkerman was recruited to Oklahoma State University College of Veterinary Medicine as an Associate Professor, where she continues to teach anatomy. At OSU-CVM, she has played a significant role in modernizing anatomy instruction through the integration of new teaching technologies and the restructuring of the anatomy curriculum. She has also been deeply involved in curriculum governance and reform, serving as Chair of the Curriculum Committee from 2015 to 2023 and contributing to curricular review, development, and implementation of an outcomes-based curriculum.

From 2021 to 2025, Dr. Akkerman served as Director of the Clinical Skills Program, where she led the development, coordination, and assessment of key components of the newly implemented curriculum. Her professional interests center on teaching excellence, educational assessment, competency-based veterinary education, and the development and evaluation of clinical skills.

Dr. Aravindan is a Professor and Kerr Chair in the Department of Physiological Sciences within the College of Veterinary Medicine at Oklahoma State University. He has over 25 years of experience in Molecular Oncology and Radiation Biology/Oncology, including 20 years of experience in administration of multidisciplinary education, research, and training programs. Dr. Aravindan is the founding leader for the OSU’s comprehensive “All-of-Us Research & Education Program,” the entity that nurture research collaboration, productivity, mentorship and grantsmanship. Dr. Aravindan obtained his PhD degree in Microbiology from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India and earned his fellowship in Radiation Oncology from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio and, in Cancer Critical Care Medicine from UT-M.D. Anderson Cancer center, Houston, Tx. Dr. Aravindan research primarily focuses on fingerprinting molecular and cellular signaling in cancer as well in normal tissues and includes research in tumor evolution, molecular target discovery, and pre-clinical drug development. His laboratory develops original models for tumorigenesis and disease evolution, is actively involved in preclinical, bed-to-bench and translational studies. He has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications of original research, 220 peer-reviewed published abstracts, 100 scientific presentations and 50 plenary session / invited lectures. He works with undergraduate, college, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty on a day-to-day basis, and have been principal advisor for many Ph.D. graduates and served on advisory committees for dozens more across multiple departments and disciplines. He is an active member of Cancer Biology Program in Oklahoma NCI-Designated Stephenson Cancer Center, and member of many international cancer and radiation research scientific communities. He has received numerous awards in recent years, including the Williams Company Foundation Presidential Professorship, Educators for Excellence award, Scientific Achievement Award to name a few. Dr. Aravindan also serves in innumerable federal, NIH, NCI, DOD, DMRDP; international, la Caix, NWO/ZonMw, FCT, OTKA and institutional scientific review panels. He is interested in translating research to improve One health. He is a keen supporter of One Medicine as his own work is fueled by the desire to create therapeutics that will eventually improve animal and human health.

Research Interests:

Some of the Dr. Aravindan’s research interests are: 1) acquired genetic modifications with therapy pressure; 2) development of molecular-targeted tumor targeted maintenance therapy; 3) bystander and abscopal effects of tumor radiotherapy; 4) cold tumors and mechanisms of tumor immune evasion; 5) space radiation carcinogenesis and cardiovascular complications.

Giovana Catandi is an Assistant Professor of Theriogenology in the Veterinary Clinical Sciences Department at Oklahoma State University. Giovana graduated as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2016, and as a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from Colorado State University in 2023, when she also became a Diplomate of the American College of Theriogenologists. Her main research interests are equine oocyte and embryo quality and metabolic function.

Rudra Channappanavar, BVSc (DVM equivalent), MVSc, PhD is an Associate Professor in Viral Immunology & Veterinary Pathology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Oklahoma State University where he has an active research program that focuses on coronavirus-host interactions and evaluation of anti-viral/anti-inflammatory agents to reduce hCoV disease. He also has developed a research program aimed to understand the basis for severe coronavirus disease in the elderly. Dr. Channappanavar earned his BVSc from Veterinary College Bidar, Karnataka, India, and his MVSc from Indian Veterinary Research Institute. He received his PhD from Oakland University in viral immunology and post-doctoral training at the University of Iowa in Coronavirus Immunobiology and virology. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology and Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases (OCRID).

Research Interests:

1) Coronavirus-host interactions and mechanisms of protective and pathogenic immunity:
Emerging and re-emerging viruses are major threat to global public health. This is illustrated by the continuous appearance of several highly pathogenic viruses, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-CoV (MERS-CoV)], SARS-CoV-1, and emerging (influenza virus) respiratory viruses. Therefore, it is essential to understand the virology and immunobiology of highly pathogenic virus infections in order to identify specific factors contributing to the unusually high pathogenicity, and to develop effective prophylactic and therapeutic strategies to prevent and control future outbreaks. One of our goals is to examine the virus and host factors-mediating protective and pathogenic immune responses to the highly virulent respiratory virus (coronaviruses and influenza virus) infections. We will use immunology-, virology- and molecular biology-based in vitro and in vivo experiments. We will also use well-established transfection methods and viral vectors (adenovirus or lentivirus) to either knock down/out (siRNA and CRISPR/Cas9) or over-express gene targets in vitro and in vivo. In vivo studies include the use of WT, knockout, knock-in mice, and transgenic animal models.

2) Improving immune response to human CoV infections and vaccinations in the elderly and other co-morbid hosts:
We are also developing a research program to investigate the host factors responsible for sub-optimal immune response to virus infections in the elderly and obese hosts, with an ultimate goal to develop therapeutics for viral lung infections and enhance the immune response to viral infections and vaccines. Aging and obesity are associated with severe infections due to dysregulated or impaired immune response. Since the elderly and obese population is increasing world-wide, understanding the basis for this increased susceptibility to infections is critical. Our recent results show that dysregulated interferon (IFN) and inflammatory immune cell responses are in-part responsible for the deleterious outcomes following viral lung infections in the aged hosts. Using mouse models of viral lung infections, we will examine the role of IFNs and monocytes-macrophages in host protection during aging and obesity. We also evaluate host response to a variety of vaccines in young and aged host with a goal to identify the basis for weak immune response in susceptible hosts.

3) Identification and evaluation of anti-viral and anti-inflammatory agents to reduce hCoV disease severity.
Another focus of our laboratory is to identify potential antiviral and anti-inflammatory agents to prevent and treat severe disease caused by CoVs. The antiviral agents target different viral proteins that are critical for virus replication. We utilize both invitro and standard and transgenic mice infected with WT, variant, and mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2, and MERS-CoV to assess the protective efficacy.

Dr. Costa is a board-certified internist with a specialization in small animal internal medicine. After earning her degree from Escola Universitaria Vasco da Gama in Portugal, she relocated to the United States of America to pursue a rotating internship, followed by a combined residency in small animal internal medicine and a Master's program at Washington State University (WSU). Following that, Dr. Costa completed an accelerated Ph.D. in veterinary pharmacogenomics through the Program of Individualized Medicine (PRIMe), where she developed a passion for clinically relevant research.

Dr. Costa has worked as a clinical instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and as an internist in large private practice referral centers in the states of Kansas and New York. Her clinical expertise includes the diagnosis of complex medical conditions and managing comorbidities in dogs and cats, with a particular focus on personalized medicine and geriatric care.