By Sarah Carey
Dr. Rafael Bisinotto, a faculty member in the UF College of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, has received a 2022 Excellence Award for Assistant Professors from the University Provost’s Office.
A member of the UF Large Animal Hospital’s food animal reproduction and medicine service, Bisinotto joined UF’s faculty in 2017 as an assistant professor. His research interests lie in improving reproductive health and fertility in dairy cattle.
“One of the main challenges facing humankind during the 21st century is the production of sufficient amounts of affordable, safe, and nutritious food to support a growing population while minimizing the environmental impact of agriculture, ensuring optimal animal welfare, and overcoming public concerns with use of biotechnology,” Bisinotto said. “The overarching goal of my research program is to help meet such challenges by advancing dairy production systems.”
Currently, his research team is focusing on describing changes in the uterine microbiome and metablome in cows with uterine disease postpartum associated with subsequent incapacity to maintain pregnancy.
“Besides expanding our current understanding of uterine health in mammals, results are expected to provide the basis for the development of novel strategies to prevent and treat uterine diseases,” Bisinotto said.
Prior to joining UF’s faculty, Bisinotto was an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota for two years after performing postdoctoral research at Cornell University. He received his M.V. degree from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2007, an M.S. in animal molecular and cellular biology from UF in 2010 and a Ph.D. in animal science at UF in 2014.
While at UF, Bisinotto received the college’s C.E. Cornelius Young Investigator Award in 2021 for his research and was acknowledged for his teaching in 2019 as the Class of 2020’s Professor of the Year. He received the National Milk Producers Federation Richard M. Hoyt Award in 2015 and has published his research prolifically in many peer-reviewed journals and has received over $2.3 million in research funding as primary or co-investigator from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other sources.
The Provost’s Office offers the Excellence Awards for Assistant Professors to recognize junior faculty for excellence in research. Awards consist of a one-time allocation of $5,000 in support of research that can be used to fund travel, equipment, books, graduate students and other research-related expenses.