Rate My Professor Alan Young

His research employs domestic animal models for biomedical applications, with emphasis on responses to zoonotic diseases and development of vaccines and diagnostics. A pivotal achievement is invention of Medgene Labs' precision platform technology, a baculovirus expression vector system using insect cells for rapid, safe vaccine production without live viruses; it originated from U.S. Department of Homeland Security-funded Rift Valley fever virus research in the mid-2000s. The platform supports vaccines against epizootic hemorrhagic disease, porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, tick infestations, and others, advancing one-health approaches to vector-borne diseases. Key publications include "A Glycoprotein Subunit Vaccine Elicits a Strong Rift Valley Fever Virus Neutralizing Antibody Response in Sheep" (2014), "Effects of Magnolol on UVB-Induced Skin Cancer Development in SKH-1 Mice" (2011), "Alpha-Santalol, a Chemopreventive Agent against Skin Cancer" (2010), and studies on bovine viral diarrhea virus and prion proteins. Young founded Medgene Labs in 2011 as Chief Scientific Officer and currently serves as Chief Technology Officer, leading collaborations with Kansas State University, CDC, USDA centers, and others on Phase I/II SBIR projects and international vaccine efforts.