Principle Investigator and Veterinary Oncologist
Carlos Rodriguez, Jr., DVM, PhD Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Oncology.
Dr. Carlos O. Rodriguez, Jr. DVM, PhD has been working in specialty practice in Dallas/Fortworth, San Francisco, San Rafael, Berkeley and Sacramento. Between 2003 and 2015, he served as a lecturer in medical oncology at UC Davis where he helped train medical oncologists, oncology interns and more than 1500 students. His academic endeavors included drug development and pharmacology of anti-neoplastic drugs, aerosol chemotherapy for osteosarcoma, and pegylated arginine deiminase for melanoma. He has authored chapters in oncology textbooks and over 50 scientific articles. He has served as chair on both the ACVIM Oncology Exam Committee, and on the grant review committee for Morris Animal Foundation.
Dr. Carlos O. Rodriguez, Jr. was raised in a suburb of Chicago. He attended the University of Illinois for both undergraduate (Microbiology, ‘86) and veterinary studies. He graduated in 1990. He performed his rotating internship in small animal medicine and surgery. He then completed a residency in medical oncology in 1994. He moved to Houston, Texas to pursue his PhD in biochemistry at The University of Texas-Houston MD Anderson Cancer Center. His research there focused on an old anti-viral drug (synthesized in 1964) that had been rediscovered for its use in T-cell leukemia (1996). His work helped to fast track the drug, nelarabine, for FDA approval in the treatment of T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children and adults.
He is currently working again in private practice where he covers maternity leave, vacations, and faculty vacancies for Medical Oncologists across the United States. In his copious free time, he plays contrabassoon in numerous community orchestras and chamber music groups in the San Francisco Bay Area. He shares his life with his wife, a veterinary criticalist; a tiny Siamese cat, Violet (3); and five barely house broken, rescued wiener dogs Bruno (15), Bertie (13), Sausage (12), Penny (11) and Piper (4). He does not follow sports.