Veterinarian who cloned first mule dies

Fort Collins, Colo.

-- Gordon Woods, DVM, PhD, who successfully cloned the first mule and explored human health-issues through work on animals, died Aug. 20 at age 57.

In 2003, Woods led a team of researchers at the University of Idaho in cloning the first mule.

His cloning work was part of larger research goals of increasing reproductive performance in horses and decreasing the severity of age-onset diseases in humans, according to his biography on the Colorado State University Web site. He conducted his most recent research at CSU.

Woods hoped to show that a calcium channel blocker in equines has an analogous regulator in humans. His upcoming research may have proved that correcting deficiencies in calcium levels and performance of the blocker can correct disease symptoms in equines and humans.

Woods received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Idaho, his DVM degree from CSU and his PhD in reproductive biology from the University of Wisconsin. Before joining the faculty at CSU in 2007, his career included a period in private practice as well as teaching and research at Cornell University, the University of Idaho and Washington State University.The family asked that the cause of death remain confidential, a CSU spokeswoman said.

Funeral services were scheduled for Wednesday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Moscow, Idaho.