X. J. Meng honored with Pfizer Award for Research Excellence
X.J. Meng, of Blacksburg, Virginia, a physician and Ph.D. virologist in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM) at Virginia Tech, was awarded the prestigious Pfizer Award for Research Excellence during ceremonies associated with the college’s 2007 Research Symposium.
“Dr. Meng is a prolific researcher whose work enjoys an international reputation,” said VMRCVM Dean Gerhardt Schurig. “His research initiatives in virology serve at the nucleus of a major research initiative at Virginia Tech and we are very pleased to see him honored in this way.”
The Pfizer award, established in 1985, is a nationally recognized award sponsored by Pfizer Animal Health, a division of healthcare giant, Pfizer, Inc. The purpose of this award is to “foster innovative research, on which the scientific advancement of the profession depends, by recognizing outstanding research effort and productivity.”
Meng, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, operates a world-renowned laboratory in the college’s Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases 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.
Meng is also serving on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Scientific Review Team for the Drug Discovery and Mechanisms of Antimicrobial Resistance Study Section. Members of study sections review grant applications submitted to NIH, and make recommendations to the appropriate NIH committees and advisory boards.
Prior to joining the VMRCVM 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.
Meng earned an M.D. from Binzhou Medical College in Binzhou, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; a M.S. in Microbiology and Immunology from the Virus Research Institute, Wuhan University College of Medicine, Wuhan, Hubei, Peoples Republic of China; and a Ph.D. in Immunobiology from the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Preventive Medicine at the 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.
