Rate My Professor Jenessa Winston

Jenessa Winston is an Associate Professor in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, specializing in Small Animal Internal Medicine. She earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from North Carolina State University in 2011 and a PhD in Comparative Biomedical Sciences with an Infectious Disease concentration from the same institution between 2013 and 2019. Board-certified as a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (DACVIM), Winston completed her veterinary internship, residency, and doctoral training at NC State University before joining Ohio State. In her clinical role, she contributes to the Companion Animal Internal Medicine service at the Veterinary Medical Center, overseeing patient care in internal medicine cases.

Winston's research program focuses on microbiome and metabolomics, with emphasis on fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), bile acid metabolism, and infectious diseases in companion animals. As director of Ohio State’s Companion Animal Fecal Bank, she leads clinical trials including FMT for canine parvovirus and the SLIM study evaluating FMT for obesity management in obese cats and dogs. She chairs the Companion Animal Fecal Microbiota Transplant Consortium, uniting researchers from 18 institutions worldwide. Her influential publications include "Diversification of host bile acids by members of the gut microbiota" (Gut Microbes, 2020), "SARS-CoV-2 infection in free-ranging white-tailed deer" (Nature, 2022), "Inhibition of spore germination, growth, and toxin activity of clinically relevant C. difficile strains by gut microbiota derived secondary bile acids" (Anaerobe, 2017), and "Impact of microbial derived secondary bile acids on colonization resistance against Clostridium difficile in the gastrointestinal tract" (Anaerobe, 2016). Winston has earned the Graduate Faculty Mentorship Award for Health Sciences Graduate Studies (2023-24) and the Charles C. Capen Teaching Excellence Award for Graduate Education (2023). She mentors doctoral and master’s students, residents, and DVM scholars, and spearheaded the college’s combined Small Animal Internal Medicine Residency and PhD program. Her work advances microbiome-directed therapeutics, highlighting pets as models for human diseases like obesity and infectious conditions.