Dr. Jan Suchodolski wins 2024 AVMA Career Achievement in Canine Research Award

(SCHAUMBURG, Illinois) June 12, 2024—The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has named Dr. Jan Suchodolski, Professor and Holder of the Nestle Purina Chair in Microbiome Research at Texas A&M University, as the winner of the 2024 AVMA Career Achievement in Canine Research Award.

This award honors an AVMA member's long-term contribution to the field of canine research. The AVMA Council on Research selects the recipient.

"Dr. Suchodolski's pioneering work in defining the gastrointestinal microbiome in dogs has revolutionized our understanding of canine health and disease," said Dr. Rena Carlson, president of the AVMA. "His research has had a profound impact on veterinary medicine and has paved the way for new diagnostic tools and treatment approaches."

A 2003 graduate of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Dr. Suchodolski is a board-certified veterinary microbiologist and serves as the Associate Director and Head of Microbiome Sciences of the Gastrointestinal Laboratory at Texas A&M University. He has authored or co-authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications, been cited over 10,000 times, and has a field citation ratio of 3.66, indicating his papers are cited 366% more often than papers from other investigators in his field.

Dr. Suchodolski was the first researcher to study the massive impact of antibiotics on the canine gut microbiome in his paper “The effect of the macrolide antibiotic tylosin on microbial diversity in the canine small intestine as demonstrated by massive parallel 16S rRNA gene sequencing” in BMC Microbiology in 2009. Since then, he has initiated and/or participated in multiple additional studies on this issue which has become an important focus of efforts to improve antimicrobial stewardship in the medical and veterinary profession.

His research has also led to improvements on how the gut microbiome can be evaluated in the clinical setting: “A dysbiosis index to assess microbial changes in fecal samples of dogs with chronic inflammatory enteropathy,” published in FEMS Microbiology Ecology in 2017, established a new and simplified method to assess the fecal microbiome relying on the accessible technology of quantitative PCR and validating an index named the fecal dysbiosis index. This index, available commercially through the GI Laboratory, offers an affordable method to get a glimpse of gut microbiome health in clinical cases of dogs with GI diseases.

Dr. Suchodolski's research has earned him numerous accolades and honors throughout his career. In 2016, he received the Zoetis Award for Research Excellence and the Outstanding Research Leader Award, Convocation, CVM from Texas A&M University. He was also elected as a Fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association, a rare honor for a veterinarian.

Dr. Suchodolski serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Morris Animal Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic funders of veterinary research. His work has been recognized through invited presentations at major conferences worldwide, including 17 keynote or featured lectures in just the past 3 years across Europe and the United States.

“I am very honored I was selected by the AVMA Council on Research to receive the prestigious career achievement award,” said Dr. Suchodolski. “I’m thankful for this recognition and would also like to acknowledge and thank all my collaborators and students that have worked with me for the past 20 years.”

To learn more about the AVMA Career Achievement in Canine Research Award and past recipients, visit www.avma.org/awards.

For more information, contact Michael San Filippo, media relations manager, at 847-732-6194 (cell/text) or msanfilippoavma [dot] org (msanfilippo[at]avma[dot]org).