Rate My Professor Alan Young

Dr. Young's research centers on immunology, with emphasis on domestic animals' immune responses to zoonotic diseases, lymphocyte migration and recirculation, B cell trafficking, and prion diseases including scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in deer, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy. He founded the Multistate Research Committee addressing BSE in the United States and served as Co-Principal Investigator for Rift Valley Fever vaccine development through the Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases at Kansas State University. Since 2004, he has advanced translational technologies, authoring successful Phase I and II SBIR projects in collaboration with federal laboratories and institutions in the United States and Canada. In 2011, he established Medgene Labs LLC, where he serves as Chief Scientific Officer, developing vaccines and diagnostics for diseases such as Rift Valley Fever Virus, Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, and Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus, with partnerships including the Centers for Disease Control, Department of Homeland Security, and University of Toronto. Key publications include 'Classical natural ovine scrapie prions detected in practical volumes of blood by lamb and transgenic mouse bioassays' (2015), 'The Skin, a Novel Niche for Recirculating B Cells' (2012), 'Salivary prions in sheep and deer' (2012), 'Classical scrapie prions in ovine blood are associated with B lymphocytes and platelet-rich plasma' (2011), and 'Effects of magnolol on UVB-induced skin cancer development in mice' (2011). He received the Dr. Sherwood and Elizabeth Berg Young Faculty Award in 2003 from South Dakota State University.