Veterinary School's Meng appointed to National Institute of Health committee
Dr. X.J. Meng, a physician and Ph.D. virologist in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology (DBSP) at Virginia Tech, has been appointed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to serve a three-year term on the Scientific Review Team for the Drug Discovery and Mechanisms of Antimicrobial Resistance Study Section.
“Members are selected on the basis of their demonstrated competence and achievement in their scientific discipline as evidenced by the quality of research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals, and other significant scientific activities, achievements and honors,” said Dr. Toni Scarpa, director for Scientific Review at NIH.
Membership on an NIH study section represents a substantial commitment of time and energy as well as a unique effort to make material contributions to the nation’s biomedical research effort, according to Scarpa. Members of study sections review grant applications submitted to NIH, and make recommendations to the appropriate NIH committees and advisory boards.
“Dr. Meng’s appointment on this prestigious NIH committee is an affirmation of his scientific achievements and his international reputation as a virologist and it reflects very positively on our college,” said Gerhardt Schurig, dean of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.
Meng, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology (DBSP), operates a world-renowned laboratory in the college’s Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases (CMMID) that is exploring Hepatitis E virus as well as several other zoonotic diseases.
His research interests include studying the molecular mechanisms of viral replication and pathogenesis, developing vaccines against viral diseases, the study of emerging and re-emerging zoonotic viral diseases, human, swine and avian Hepatitis E viruses, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, and porcine circovirus.
Prior to joining the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in 1999, Meng served as Senior Staff Fellow of the Molecular Hepatitis Section of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Meng earned his M.D. from Binzhou Medical College in Binzhou, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; his master's degree from the Virus Research Institute, Wuhan University College of Medicine, Wuhan, Hubei, Peoples Republic of China; and a Ph.D. in from Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine.
The Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM) is a two-state, three-campus professional school operated by the land-grant universities of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and the University of Maryland at College Park. Its flagship facilities, based at Virginia Tech, include the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, which treats more than 40,000 animals annually. Other campuses include the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Va., and the Avrum Gudelsky Veterinary Center at College Park, home of the Center for Government and Corporate Veterinary Medicine. The VMRCVM annually enrolls approximately 500 Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and graduate students, is a leading biomedical and clinical research center, and provides professional continuing education services for veterinarians practicing throughout the two states. Virginia Tech, the most comprehensive university in Virginia, is dedicated to quality, innovation, and results to the commonwealth, the nation, and the world.
