The Ceva Animal Health Scientific Services Investigative Unit (SSIU) could be called the CSI of the animal health world because they operate the same way – scientifically solving mysteries and getting the bad guys.
“We are a connection between our R&D group and our customer and through that connection we solve problems for our customer,” said Ceva Scientific Services Director John El-Attrache during a recent media event. The unit involves three different arms – scientific support, laboratory services, and custom biological R&D.
Fitting in with the SSIU is the common acronym GPS which for Ceva means Genotypic and Phenotypic Selection. “We strongly believe that we have to combine both the genotype of the bug at the DNA/RNA level, as well as the phenotype, which is how the bug expresses protein, how it looks to the host and how it produces an immunological response to the host,” explained El-Attrache. Interview with John El-Attrache, Ceva Animal Health
To demonstrate how Ceva develops custom vaccines using the GPS approach, El-Attrache had the ag journalists take part in an exercise using colored balls representing different “bugs” that need to be included to fight a new disease introduction. Watch that below and learn why it’s better than we just report on new animal health vaccines instead of develop them!