A veterinarian, who is a research expert on the functional adaptation and regeneration of bone in humans and animals, has been appointed the new Head of Bristol University’s Veterinary School and Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences. 

Professor Joanna Price has joined the University from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, where she was Head of the Department of Veterinary Basic Sciences.   Her research interests include mechanically related functional adaptation in bone, which is significant primarily in human osteoporosis, the biology of antler regeneration in deer, the potential application(s) of bone biomarkers in horses as predictors of fracture, and the epidemiology of equine musculoskeletal injuries particularly the genetics of fracture and tendon injury.

Professor Price commenting on her appointment said: “I am delighted to be returning to Bristol as Head of the Vet School.  The Vet School has always had a reputation for its teaching, research and clinical work, which must now be modernised and enhanced. I look forward to working for and with its talented community to bring this into effect. “

Jo Price graduated as a veterinary surgeon from Bristol University in 1983.  She then spent three years in first opinion equine clinical practice and two years in small animal practice returning as a lecturer in Veterinary Anatomy before undertaking her PhD training in Sheffield with Professor Graham Russell FRS, funded by a five-year Wellcome Trust Veterinary Training Fellowship.  Her PhD studies on regenerating bone in deer antlers were followed by a Wellcome funded postdoctoral fellowship working on bone’s adaptation to mechanical loading in Professor Lance Lanyon’s laboratory at the Royal Veterinary College.  She was then awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship to continue with her research on antler regeneration with Professor Mike Horton in the Department of Medicine at University College London.  She returned to the Royal Veterinary College in 2000 as a senior lecturer, was appointed Professor of Veterinary Anatomy in 2005 and was Chair of the College’s Basic Science Department until 2008.  She joined the University of Bristol on October 1 2009.