Introducing Lindsey Kock and Jenna Dockweiler
Meet Lindsey Kock, DVM, and Jenna Dockweiler, MS DVM, DACT, CCRT, CVAT as they prepare to discuss canine DNA testing.
Sponsored by Embark
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Hello friends and welcome to VetPerspective. Canine DNA testing has been on the rise for the past four years, becoming more popular in pets than ever. Today, we’re going to discuss the importance of DNA testing, how it works, and provide clients with a unique opportunity of customized care. My Name is Dr. Adam Christman, Chief Veterinary Officer here at DVM360. Thank you so much for joining us. We want to thank our friends from Embark for supporting this great discussion and let’s meet our wonderful colleagues! We have Dr. Lindsey Kock here and Dr. Jenna Dockweiler. How are you, my friends?
Lindsey Kock, DVM, and Jenna Dockweiler, MS DVM, DACT, CCRT, CVAT: Doing good, thanks!
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Thanks for being here! Okay, so a little bit of information about our wonderful friend, Dr. Kock. She is a second-generation veterinarian from Nebraska, began her academic journey at Doane college, earning a degree in biology with a minor in chemistry. Lindsey completed her formal veterinary education as a member of the second class in the professional program in VetMed through the University of Nebraska and Iowa State University. Launching her career as an associate mixed animal veterinarian in Southwest Iowa, Lindsey was awarded the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association’s Rising Star in 2015.
After four years in clinical practice, Lindsey traded in her truck for an office job and had the opportunity to travel around the world leading the companion animal genomics business at Neogen. She was awarded Neogen’s Animal Safety Product and Marketing Manager of the year in 2020.
In 2022, Lindsey founded Deep Dive, DVM Veterinary Consulting, focusing on the adoption of data-driven technologies and animal health. Concurrently, she serves as the head of the Healthcare Product Management Division at Edcetera. Under her guidance, Edcetera’s Veterinary Portfolio, featuring prep, tech prep, etcetera, has flourished, providing essential resources for board exam preparation and professional development. We know how important that is, right?
We also have Dr. Jenna Dockweiler with us. She graduated from Kansas State University’s College of Vet Medicine with honors in 2014 and completed her small animal rotating internship at Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital in 2015. She then completed her comparative theriogenology residency at Cornell University in 2017 and became a diplomat of the American College fo Theriogenologists that year. She practiced small animal theriogenology and general practice for four years prior to becoming a veterinary geneticist with Embark veterinary.
In her spare time, Dr. Dockweiler enjoys photography, hiking, and competing in performance events and conformation with Welsh Springer Spaniels. Those are beautiful!
Jenna Dockweiler, MS DVM, DACT, CCRT, CVAT: Absolutely.
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Fan favorite, right?
Jenna Dockweiler, MS DVM, DACT, CCRT, CVAT: Of course.
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: All right, everybody. We want to chat about the very basics about canine DNA testing. You know, it’s been so popular as you know, Jenna. Let’s kind of take a little bit of a step back and talk about DNA testing in general. Give us a little overview of how Embark DNA testing works and is a blood test necessary?
Jenna Dockweiler, MS DVM, DACT, CCRT, CVAT: Absolutely. It is a simple cheek swab that can be performed at home or in the clinic. It’s a soft swab, so it’s not bristly. It’s very comfortable for the patient. You collect that simple little cheek swab, pop it into the mail with our prepaid USPS mailers, and send it off to the lab. At our lab, what happens is the DNA sample from the patient is amplified. So, many copies are made of that DNA. It is washed over our microarray platform, which just looks like a little microscope slide that has thousands of tiny little beads on it, and those beads are called probes. And each one of those little probes is designed to assess the genome at a predetermined location. Those probes could be relevant to health conditions. They could be relevant to physical traits, breed ancestry, or just be pointed at areas of interest in the canine genome. Once we have our genotype—at all of those over 230,000 predetermined locations—we then can provide a report that gives breed ancestry, health conditions, and physical traits.
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Okay, what’s the turnaround time for that?
Jenna Dockweiler, MS DVM, DACT, CCRT, CVAT: About two to four weeks from when we receive the sample from the lab, we’ll have results back to you.
