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Dr. David R.Gross entered private veterinary practice after earning the DVM degree from Colorado State University in 1960. A few years later he developed an abiding interest in cardiovascular physiology. In 1974 he was awarded the PhD degree in physiology from the Ohio State University beginning a 36-year career in academics that culminated as professor and head of the Department of Veterinary Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

His academic career first took him to Texas A&M University, where he spent 16 years and became a full professor. The Texas experience was followed by 5 years at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, as Director of the Cardiovascular Surgery Research Laboratories in the Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. In 1995 he accepted the position at the University of Illinois.

Dr. Gross’ research career encompassed 58 funded projects totaling over $5.5 million and 91 papers published in refereed journals using a wide variety of animal models. Ironically his most-cited research papers received no external funding. He and his colleagues showed that feeding dietary cholesterol to rabbits induced Alzheimer’s-like lesions in the brain. Their work also showed that surgery involving cardiopulmonary bypass resulted in Alzheimer’s-like brain lesions in pigs. With another group of colleagues he helped pioneer minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting techniques using the pig as a model.

Dr. Gross retired in 2006 and is now Professor Emeritus. The 3rd edition of his reference text; Animal Models in Cardiovascular Research is now available from Springer. http://www.springer.com/life+sci/zoology/book/978-0-387-95961-0

References:

Sparks, D.L., Liu, H., Gross, D.R., Scheff, S.W., Increased Density of Cortical Apolipoprotein E Immunoreactive Neurons in Rabbit Brain After Dietary Administration of Cholesterol, Neuroscience Letters, 187: 142-144, 1995

Sparks, D.L., Gross, D.R., Hunsaker, J.C. III, Neuropathology of mitral valve prolapse in man and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) surgery in adolescent Yorkshire pigs. Neurobiology of Aging, 21(2):363-372, 2000

Robinson, M.E., Gross, D.R., Thielmeir, K.A., Hill, B.B., Zeman, W.F., Development of a minimally invasive technique for coronary revascularization in a porcine model, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 64(1): 64-69, 1997

Robinson, M.C., Gross, D. R., Zeman, W., and Stedje-Larsen, Minimally Invasive CoronaryArtery Bypass Grafting: A New Method Using an Anterior Mediastinotomy, J Cardiac Surg,10:529-536, 1995