Texas Tech vet students publish horse MEED, dog cancer studies
Bottom line
Two fourth-year students at Texas Tech University’s School of Veterinary Medicine, Kayden Tanner and Marshall Mays, have published peer-reviewed studies that add early clues in two difficult disease areas: multisystemic eosinophilic epitheliotropic disease, or MEED, in horses, and osteosarcoma in dogs. Tanner’s paper, published in Animals on May 21, 2026, used whole-genome sequencing from an affected horse and 40 control genomes to identify more than 6.3 million variants and point to disrupted epithelial, cytoskeletal, and immune-regulation pathways in MEED. Mays’ paper, published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science on June 5, 2026, found that tamoxifen plus cisplatin produced synergistic inhibition of canine osteosarcoma cell viability in a D-17 cell-line model, with synergy scores rising over time. Both projects were completed under the mentorship of postdoctoral fellow Tomas Lugo and associate dean for research Thu Annelise Nguyen at Texas Tech. (newswise.com)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the significance is less about an immediate practice change and more about where the evidence may be heading. MEED is rare, severe, and often fatal within a year of diagnosis, so even a first genomic map can help frame future diagnostic and mechanistic work. On the oncology side, the dog study is preclinical and in vitro, but it speaks to a familiar challenge: osteosarcoma outcomes remain poor despite standard chemotherapy, and the authors’ findings suggest combination strategies could merit further translational study before any clinical use is considered. The work also reflects how veterinary schools are pushing student-led research into clinically relevant, One Health-adjacent questions. (newswise.com)
What to watch: Watch for follow-up validation, especially additional equine MEED cases, and any move from the osteosarcoma cell-line findings into animal studies or clinical trials. (madbarn.com)
Key facts
- Institution
- Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine
- Students
- Kayden Tanner and Marshall Mays
- MEED paper journal and date
- Animals, May 21, 2026
- MEED study design
- Whole-genome sequencing of one affected horse and 40 control genomes
- MEED finding
- More than 6.3 million variants, with disrupted epithelial, cytoskeletal, and immune-regulation pathways
- Osteosarcoma paper journal and date
- Frontiers in Veterinary Science, June 5, 2026
- Osteosarcoma model
- D-17 canine osteosarcoma cell line
- Osteosarcoma finding
- Tamoxifen plus cisplatin synergistically inhibited cell viability
Two fourth-year veterinary students at Texas Tech University have landed international journal publications with projects that touch two very different, but clinically important, problems: a rare, progressive equine disease with little molecular characterization, and canine osteosarcoma, where new treatment strategies are still badly needed. The papers, highlighted by Texas Tech in a July 17, 2026 announcement, come from the lab of associate dean for research Thu Annelise Nguyen and were mentored by postdoctoral fellow Tomas Lugo. (newswise.com)
The backstory matters here. Texas Tech’s veterinary school is still relatively young, and the university framed the publications as notable not just for the science, but because the students started with little laboratory research experience. In the school’s account, Lugo served as corresponding author on both papers and helped build the computational and modeling framework behind the work, while Nguyen described the speed of the students’ progress as unusual for research newcomers. (newswise.com)
Tanner’s MEED paper appears to be the first population-genomic look at the disease. According to the study abstract, the team performed roughly 40× whole-genome sequencing on one affected horse and compared the results with 40 control genomes. They identified more than 6.3 million variants, with moderate- and high-impact variants enriched among rare and private mutations absent from controls. Rather than pointing to one obvious causal mutation, the analysis supported a model of cumulative protein-altering changes affecting epithelial integrity, microtubule dynamics, cytoskeletal organization, and immune regulation. That’s important because MEED is poorly understood, and Texas Tech said affected horses are commonly euthanized within a year of diagnosis. (madbarn.com)
Mays’ osteosarcoma study was more translational, but still firmly preclinical. In the Frontiers in Veterinary Science paper, the authors tested tamoxifen and cisplatin in D-17 canine osteosarcoma cells and used the Zero Interaction Potency model to quantify drug interaction. The study found synergistic inhibition of cell viability, with overall synergy scores increasing from 7.63 at 12 hours to 14.39 at 48 hours, where scores above 10 indicate synergy in the study framework. The paper also reported that, at 24 hours, a combination of 151 μM cisplatin and 52 μM tamoxifen achieved about 50% inhibition, while cisplatin alone required a higher concentration to reach the same effect. The authors interpreted that as evidence that tamoxifen may potentiate cisplatin. (frontiersin.org)
Industry reaction was limited at the time of writing, and I didn’t find outside expert commentary directly addressing these two Texas Tech papers. Still, the broader oncology context helps explain why the dog study may draw attention. Recent reviews and guidelines continue to describe canine osteosarcoma as a high-morbidity disease where standard care has changed little in decades, even as comparative oncology and novel therapeutics expand. That makes any credible signal around combination therapy worth watching, while also underscoring the gap between an in vitro result and a treatment recommendation for patients. (oaepublish.com)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, these papers are best read as early-stage signals, not near-term changes to case management. The MEED work offers a starting framework for future molecular diagnostics and may help pathologists and internists think more systematically about epithelial barrier dysfunction and immune dysregulation in suspected cases. The osteosarcoma paper is more immediately legible to clinicians because it tackles drug synergy in a familiar disease area, but the findings remain cell-line data only. For general practitioners and specialists alike, the practical takeaway is that research momentum is building around both rare-disease genomics and combination oncology strategies, yet neither paper supports changing clinical protocols today. (madbarn.com)
There’s also a workforce angle. Texas Tech explicitly tied the publications to mentorship, research training, and the students’ career development, and that resonates in a profession looking for stronger clinician-scientist pipelines. Student-driven studies won’t solve MEED or canine osteosarcoma on their own, but they can expand the evidence base in areas where veterinary medicine still has thin data, especially when the work is published in peer-reviewed journals and connected to One Health thinking. (newswise.com)
What to watch: The next milestones are straightforward: replication of the MEED genomic findings in additional horses, and progression of the osteosarcoma work from in vitro testing into animal models or clinical investigation. Until then, these publications are best seen as promising building blocks, and as a reminder that some of the most useful veterinary research stories start well before a product, protocol, or guideline changes. (madbarn.com)