2024 Fall Membership Meeting

left to right: Dr. Lane Christenson, Alex Grey, and Dr. Maggie Behnke

KCAALAS hosts fall vendor fair and membership meeting at University of Kansas.

Join us October 10, 2024 from noon until 4pm at the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, KS at Memorial Union for lunch, networking and learning about mice in space and the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) of the USDA located in Manhattan, KS.

If you plan to attend in person, please park in the Mississippi Street garage (1200 Blk Mississippi St, Lawrence, KS 66044) and enter Memorial Union (1301 Jayhawk Blvd, Lawrence, KS 66045) from there. We will meet in the Kansas room, located on Level 6.

If you’re curious about cost of the event, please see below:
– $5 for 2024 members
– $10 for non-members (this includes the cost of 2025 membership)
– Virtual attendees are no cost!

For those attending in-person there will be raffle items up for grabs! KC Zoo tickets, Visa gift cards and more!

Dr. Lane K. Christenson is an Professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. He received his Ph.D. from Iowa State University and completed his postdoctoral work at the Oregon National Primate Research Center and University of Pennsylvania before joining KUMC. Dr. Christenson’s research focuses on uncovering the complex events occurring in the ovary at the last stages of follicular development and the onset of luteal function. Recent work in the laboratory has focused on post-transcriptional regulation both microRNA, RNA editing and circular RNA and investigations into the role extracellular vesicles (exosomes and microvesicles) play in ovarian function (oocyte maturation, granulosa cell function) and in ovarian cancer. Dr. Christenson is a past Section Director of the Frontiers in Reproduction Course held at the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA and is currently the Society for Study of Reproduction’s Treasurer.
Dr. Maggie Behnke is the Attending Veterinarian and Director of the Animal Resources Unit at the National Bio and Agro-Defense facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kansas. She received her B.S. from Rutgers University and her DVM from the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine (UFCVM) , before completing a Laboratory Animal Medicine Residency at University of Florida’s Health Science Center. Dr. Behnke became board certified in Laboratory Animal Medicine in 2011. After working as a Clinical Associate Professor at UF for more than five years, she relocated to Kansas. Dr. Behnke held roles as the IACUC and IBC manager at Kansas State University, then as the Associate Director for the Comparative Medicine Group, also at Kansas State. Now, Dr. Behnke resides in Manhattan with her husband, son and daughter.
Alex Grey, RLATG, ILAM, CMAR. I started my career in animal medicine in the US Army, way back in 1994, where I served for 20 years as an Animal Care Specialist. Of that 20, 15 years were in clinical medicine, and five were at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR). I fell in love with research and after I retired, I joined the Southwest National Primate Research Center at Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. I started at “Biomed” as a research support technician, but was quickly asked to manage the clinical care of both the rhesus macaque breeding colony and the retired chimpanzee colony. My teams provided the absolute best care to almost 1,000 rhesus and 110 chimpanzees. Fun fact, a family unit of 5 chimps recently retired to Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida. Looking for a change of pace after 6 years of Texas heat, I found my way to the USDA and the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kansas in 2020 as an Animal Health Technician (Compliance Officer). Seeing that my true passion is helping people become the best they can be in our field, my Attending Veterinarian, Dr. Maggie Behnke, shifted me into my current role as the Training Specialist for the Animal Resources Unit.

Huge thank you to our diamond sponsors of 2024 Fall Meeting!

KCAALAS Winter Meeting

December 14, 2023 from 12-3:30pm at

Stowers Institute for Medical Research

This meeting will be held in person and online.

Lunch will be provided to those attending in person.

All in person registered attendees should have received an email with instructions on parking and how to gain access to the building. You should have also received a QR code from Stowers Service Now that you can scan for parking and to check in.

For virtual attendees you should have received an email with the Zoom information and your amended schedule.

If you have registered for this event and did not receive the relevant communications please contact news@kcaalas.org as soon as possible. Be sure to check junk and/or spam folders prior to contacting us.

This event has been sponsored by the following

“Swine in Biomedical Research” presented by Dr. Rachel Bardot from Altasciences Preclinical Columbia

2019 Fall Member Meeting

The 2019 Fall member meeting was held on September 24, 2019 at The University of Kansas Lawrence campus. The meeting included talks from KU researchers and a facility tour.

2019 Homes for Animal Heroes

Run for Research Awareness 5K

KCAALAS held it’s 3rd annual Homes for Animal Heroes (HAH) 5k event on June 1, 2019 at Bar K in KCMO. We had a great turnout and the weather was great for a walk.

Thanks to all who helped us raise $435 for HAH!