Emily Rout, DVM, PhD, DACVP
Assistant Professor, Veterinary Hematopathology
I was raised in a small town in New Jersey called Pennington. Growing up, we had horses and dogs which fostered a love for animals from an early age. My uncle was an equine vet; I had the opportunity to shadow him throughout my school years. I loved it and I knew I wanted to work in the field in some capacity.
I went to Colby College in Maine for my undergrad degree. After college, I did research at the National Institutes of Health for three years. The lab I worked in studied hematopoiesis, specifically disorders of red blood cell development. This experience got me interested in research, especially diseases and tumors of the blood and immune system.
After that research experience, I came to Colorado State University for veterinary school. I did a small animal emergency internship at a veterinary emergency hospital in Fort Collins. In 2014, I returned to CSU for a combined clinical pathology residency/PhD program. I completed my PhD in the Clinical Hematopathology lab under the mentorship of Dr. Anne Avery, studying B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia in dogs. Since graduating in 2020, I have worked in the CSU Clinical Hematopathology lab.
As a veterinary clinical pathologist, my research is focused on lymphoma and leukemia in small animals. My work involves characterizing specific subtypes of tumors in dogs and cats and evaluating clinical outcomes to better define disease entities and prognosis. I also study underlying breed predisposition and genetic risk factors, as well as correlating features of tumors in dogs and cats with counterparts in people, establishing the dog and cat as translational models.
Some of my current projects include a canine nodal small B lymphoma study. Small cell B cell lymphoma accounts for ~12% of canine B cell lymphoma cases, and these cases generally have a more aggressive disease with a median survival time of just seven months. Despite the prevalence and aggressive course of small cell B cell lymphoma, little is known about the molecular mechanisms driving these tumors. With funding from the AKC Canine Health Foundation, we are currently conducting a study to perform whole exome and RNA sequencing to characterize mutations and gene expression changes in 50 dogs with nodal small cell B cell lymphoma.
We are also working on a feline intestinal lymphoma study. Small cell T cell intestinal lymphoma is one of the most common tumors in cats. This tumor is challenging to diagnose and differentiate from inflammatory bowel disease. I am currently working on a study assessing the correlation between histologic diagnosis, clonality testing, and STAT5B mutation analysis in diagnosing intestinal lymphoma in 160 cats with chronic gastrointestinal disease. We are also performing RNA sequencing on the biopsies to identify changes in pathways involved in oncogenesis and immune function that correlate with progression to intestinal lymphoma. The goal of this study is to better define this disease, improve diagnosis and determine if there are human parallels.
Overall, our team is trying to better understand what drives these cancers so that we can improve treatments and outcomes for patients.
As a researcher at the FACC, it has been really rewarding to discover new lymphoma and leukemia subtypes and describe the clinical features and outcomes of those diseases. This improves the information available to clinicians and pet owners. It is also really rewarding to develop new tests to improve lymphoma diagnostics so that we can better diagnose and characterize these tumors.
I am also an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, & Pathology department. I teach vet students veterinary hematopathology. Class topics include hematopathology and disorders of the immune system. I also help to mentor veterinary students and graduate students training in the CSU Clinical Hematology laboratory.
Outside of work, I love to hike and trail run with my dog, Duck. Duck is a German shorthair pointer; she’s getting gray but she still loves to swim and explore new trails with me. I also enjoy skiing, cooking, and reading.