Gregg Adams is alerted to a visitor in his office by the muffled bark of the large chocolate Labrador sprawled beneath his desk.
Sage is a regular visitor and volunteer patient at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, where his owner teaches students and studies animal reproduction.
Adams received the distinguished researcher award at this year’s University of Saskatchewan convocation ceremony for groundbreaking work in reproductive biology and medical imaging.
“It feels so good to have a pat on the back. That kind of recognition reinvigorates us and the whole reproductive science group,” he said.
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Using vaginal ultrasound scans, he identified a series of follicular wave patterns in menstrual cycles of cattle that were similar to cycles of various animals species from horses to rhinoceroses.
“It lets you see without hurting the animal,” said Adams of the non-invasive tests.
Adams is applying that knowledge to humans through his work with researchers Roger Pierson and Angela Baerwald from the U of S’s college of medicine.
The research could be applied to control similar wave patterns in humans and prevent contraception. In bovines, it can be used to schedule when an animal is ready for insemination.
“We can induce the follicular waves when we want to,” Adams said.
Pierson has collaborated with Adams since their graduate school years in Wisconsin.
He called Adams a broad visionary with a bent for comparative biology who is adding knowledge about the world’s species.
Both men are trying to better understand reproduction, with Pierson focused on designing new methods of human contraception and ovarian stimulation. He said cows and horses are good models for human medicine.
“Every mistake we make in a horse or a cow or a llama is one we don’t make in a woman,” Pierson said.
Discovery Magazine ranked their research as one of the top 100 science stories of 2003.
Adams, a graduate of the U of S vet college and the University of Wisconsin, has studied alpacas, monkeys, muskoxen, caribou and seals. He and his wife, who raised three children, often travel together to collect data on caribou and harbour seals.
“It surprises me how many species we know little about,” he said.
Adams comes from a long line of medical practitioners from his veterinarian father and brother, to a great-grandfather who was a doctor. His photograph in a human anatomy class as a young medical student in 1891 adorns Adams’s office in the new research wing.
“I was one of few kids who knew early on what they wanted to do,” said Adams, who as a boy often accompanied his father on farm calls.
In the future, he plans to combine a biomedical imaging and therapy beamline, currently being built at the Canadian Light Source on campus, with ultrasound scan studies.
He will also move to an acreage where he plans to do more research on a herd of 50 llamas and alpacas.
