As UGA VetMed’s first Faculty Innovation Fellow, Dr. Canaan Whitfield-Cargile will help colleagues connect with opportunities to advance their discoveries
Scientific discovery does not end when a study is published. But too often, promising breakthroughs fail to make the leap from the laboratory to the marketplace because researchers lack the partnerships and infrastructure needed to move their ideas forward.
Dr. Canaan Whitfield-Cargile (DVM 2006) wants to ensure research by the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine doesn’t stop at publication. As the college’s first faculty innovation fellow, Whitfield-Cargile will spend the next two years serving as a liaison between the college and UGA’s Innovation District, helping researchers and clinicians turn promising ideas into real-world solutions.
“The reason most of us conduct research is to improve the lives of patients, whether those patients are animals or people,” Whitfield-Cargile said. “Publishing the work is important, but it cannot be the endpoint. We also need to think about how a discovery can be translated into something clinicians and patients can actually use.”
The innovation district exists to foster partnerships between the university and industry in various ways. The faculty fellowship program trains participants in business development, strategic planning and campus resources so they can serve as ambassadors and advisers within their colleges.
“Some of the most impactful relationships between research and industry occur in the medical field,” said Chris Rhodes, executive director of the UGA Innovation District. “Bringing medical research discoveries out of the lab and into the marketplace has the potential to save lives. We’re excited to see how Dr. Whitfield-Cargile leverages his fellowship experience to help his colleagues in vet med bring medical advancements to light.”
Whitfield-Cargile is an associate professor of large animal surgery and currently holds the Crosswell Chair of Large Animal Medicine. An equine surgeon and translational scientist, he divides his time among clinical practice, research and teaching.
A native of South Carolina, he attended Clemson University before earning his veterinary degree from UGA in 2006. His interest in equine surgery began while working as a student surgery technician at UGA’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, where he was introduced to the specialty by Drs. Eric Mueller, Andrew Parks, Randy Eggleston and John Peroni.
After veterinary school, Whitfield-Cargile completed a large animal surgery residency and earned a PhD at Texas A&M University. He subsequently joined the Texas A&M faculty, where he developed his clinical expertise and established a research program focused on equine gastrointestinal health, wound healing and translational medicine. He remained there until 2022, when he returned to UGA as a faculty member.
Dr. Canaan Whitfield-Cargile examines a horse at the annual Equine Summit at the UGA Veterinary Teaching Hospital. (Lawton Harris/UGAVetMed)
His work focuses on wound healing, equine gastrointestinal health, the effects of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on the digestive system, and the influence of the gut microbiome on overall health. Although much of this research begins with problems affecting veterinary patients, it also has potential applications in human medicine.
For promising discoveries to benefit patients, researchers must think beyond publication and identify practical pathways for moving their work into broader use, Whitfield-Cargile said. Commercialization is one of the most effective ways to accomplish that.
“Commercialization is sometimes treated like a dirty word in academia, but it is really a mechanism of delivery,” he said. “A discovery cannot help patients if it remains in a laboratory or a scientific paper. Commercialization is often what turns that discovery into something veterinarians, physicians and patients can actually use.”
As a faculty innovation fellow, Whitfield-Cargile hopes to make that process more accessible by connecting colleagues with the expertise, partnerships and resources available through UGA’s Innovation District.
“I’ve been doing this work for 20 years and I have a thousand ideas, and I’m not the only one,” he said. “My colleagues have tremendous ideas, but most of us were never trained to evaluate their commercial potential or navigate what comes next. We often stop at the idea stage because the next steps are unfamiliar. I want to help bridge that gap.”
