With pet owners willing to pay big money for special operations, many veterinary surgeons are taking up lucrative specialist private practices. Recruiting graduates into academia has become difficult. This could be detrimental, as graduates are well-suited to address animal-health crises, such as infectious diseases, as well as basic biomedical questions.

“We are losing a core of faculty that have taught students in the past,” says Michael Kotlikoff, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. In response, Cornell has created a two-year clinical-fellowship programme as a route for academics. Until now, veterinary students with academic inclinations have had only a handful of joint doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM)–PhD programmes to apply to. Those who realize their academic calling during a DVM must follow up with a PhD. Kotlikoff was inspired by programmes for academia-bound physicians eager to combine basic research skills with clinical training. “Nobel prizewinner Harold Varmus followed this route — obviously with great success,” says Kotlikoff.

Sophy Jesty, one of the first three fellows on the Cornell programme, jumped at the chance of a two-year paid fellowship: $60,000 salary and $15,000 in research funds. “I was never that interested in stepping out of clinics long enough to earn a PhD,” she says. Jesty, a trained cardiologist, says that this experience will probably steer her towards academia, ideally as a clinical professor spanning the gap between basic science and the clinic.

Last year, the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine set up a similar programme, focused on translational research in infectious diseases. It plans to offer fellowships in three other areas — comparative oncology, regenerative medicine and stem-cell biology — as funding becomes available. “We're looking for people who want to cure, not manage, disease,” says Joan Hendricks, the school's dean.

Kotlikoff and Hendricks say that veterinary medicine offers unique biomedical insights, particularly into naturally occurring genetic diseases that are also found in humans. And its cutting-edge resources could benefit other fields. Cornell's biobank of canine DNA contains a huge suite of tissue samples, and blood tests will aid canine genetics and other research.

Kotlikoff and Hendricks hope other schools will adopt similar approaches, and convince veterinary scientists this is a viable career path.