Jürgen A. Richt, DVM, PhD, FAAAS
Regents and University Distinguished Professor, Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology; College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
Dr. Richt came to Kansas State University in 2008 as The Regents and University Distinguished Professor and Kansas Bioscience Eminent Scholar. In 2010, he became Director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases (CEEZAD; www.ceezad.org) and in 2020 Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center on Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (CEZID; www.k-state.edu/cezid). He received his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from the University of Munich and a PhD in Virology and Immunology from the University of Giessen, both in Germany. After coming to the United States in 1989, he completed three years of postdoctoral/residency studies at The Johns Hopkins University and later served for eight years as a Veterinary Medical Officer at the National Animal Disease Center (USDA-ARS) in Ames, Iowa. He has edited several books, obtained several patents, published more than 330 peer-reviewed manuscripts and raised more than $65 million in grants for veterinary research.
Dr. Richt is a pioneer in veterinary science, most notably in the “One Health” field. His work on high-consequence pathogens with zoonotic and transboundary potential led to strategies to identify, control and/or eradicate such agents. His basic and applied research includes studies on animal influenza viruses (swine, bat and avian), animal prion diseases including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), Rift Valley Fever virus (RVFV), African Swine fever virus (ASFV), Mpox virus (MPXV), SARS-CoV-2 and Borna Disease virus (BDV).
Dr. Richt established the first reverse genetics system for swine influenza virus (SIV) and made seminal contributions to the development of a modified live SIV vaccine (“Ingelvac Provenza™”) as well as to understanding the virulence of the reconstructed 1918 “Spanish Flu” virus in livestock. Presently, the Richt Lab is developing knock-out pigs that are less susceptible to SIV infections using CRISPR-Cas9 technology in order to protect both animal and human health. He also developed a Newcastle Disease virus-vectored vaccine for highly pathogenic avian Influenza (HPAI), which is mass applicable.
Dr. Richt identified an atypical BSE case with a causative mutation in the prion protein gene (“genetic BSE”), used gene-editing approaches to develop the first prion protein knock-out cattle that are resistant to prion infection, and provided valuable information on host range of animal prions essential for risk analysis.
Dr. Richt’s RVFV work led to the development of novel domestic and wild ruminant models for RVF and a safe, efficacious, and DIVA-compatible subunit vaccine that is presently undergoing USDA licensure. For ASFV, he is developing subunit and modified live virus vaccine candidates as well as Point-of-Need diagnostics (sold as “PenCheckTM”) to protect swine from this devastating disease. In the past few years, he worked on the establishment of preclinical animal models for SARS-CoV-2 to determine the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, and the susceptibility of livestock species to Mpox virus.
As founding Director of the DHS CEEZAD and the NIH CEZID Centers, he is supporting NIH, DHS and USDA in protecting public health and U.S. agricultural systems from devastating animal and zoonotic diseases.He is editor-in-chief for Virus Genes and serves on editorial boards for other scientific journals, among them Advances in Virus Research, Emerging Microbes and Infections, and Animal Diseases, among others.
In 2011, Dr. Richt received the Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence. In 2018, Dr. Richt was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was recipient of the 2021 Excellence in Research Award from the American Academy of Veterinary Medical Colleges. That same year, Dr. Richt was named winner of the Dolph Simons Award for Biomedical Research by the University of Kansas. He is an extraordinary professor at the University of Pretoria, and has received an A rating from the National Research Foundation of South Africa.
