SEC honors associate dean with 2024 Faculty Achievement Award

Research + scholarly endeavors

Bartol is most proud of his extensive reproductive and developmental biology research, and rightfully so. 

“I am, at my core, a reproductive and developmental biologist and physiologist,” Bartol said.

He credits research done by University of Florida (UF) Professor Donald Barron and Bartol’s wife, Anne Wiley, as the catalyst for the research driving the core of his reproductive sciences program at Auburn. 

In fact, Wiley worked in Bartol’s lab as a senior research associate for almost 40 years (and they’ve been married even longer). Together, they have engaged in research involving large domestic animals that has immediate impact in production animal agriculture and can translate to the human condition. 

With colleagues from UF and Texas A&M University, Bartol has contributed to the field of domestic ungulate uterine developmental biology, specifically with the development of the Uterine Gland Knock-Out Model (UGKO). This helps scientists consider how the animal’s developmental trajectory affects their reproductive efficiency or fertility and fecundity in adulthood.

Also, Bartol and his colleagues at Rutgers University coined the term lactocrine, which is the transmission of milk-borne bioactive factors from mother to offspring by consequence of nursing. They also proposed the lactocrine hypothesis and demonstrated lactocrine programming. 

“This work in uterine development and maternal lactocrine programming of postnatal development has broad implications for reproductive efficiency and health,” Bartol said. “We need to understand a great deal more about how mother’s contributions to development in the early postnatal period support an optimal organizational developmental trajectory for both economically important domesticated animals and children.”

A leader of many

Once Bartol became associate dean of research and graduate studies in 2009, his leadership responsibilities broadened, and he was able to facilitate the actions of large groups of gifted scientists. 

Bartol serves as administrative principal investigator for Auburn’s Detection Canine Science Innovation, Technology and Education program, better known as DCSITE, and he is “so proud of how the program has evolved.”

Bartol’s achievements also include: 

• Founding director of the AU Cellular and Molecular Biosciences (CMB) program; 
• Founding AU Campus Coordinator of the Alabama EPSCoR Graduate Research Scholars program;
• Interim director of the AUCVM Scott-Ritchey Research Center;
• Establishment of the Animal Health and Agro-/Bio-Defense Program (AHAD) as a component of USDA-ARS National Program 103;
• Advancement of the Auburn University Equine Plasma Project;
• Administrative lead on establishment of undergraduate Public Health minor and the BS in Public and One Health (PAOH) program;
• Development of global Online Reproductive Science & Health Course; and 
• Establishment of first AUCVM mentored undergraduate research course options

Auburn offers perfect environment

Bartol credits Auburn with providing him with an environment in which he could achieve many things. 

“I appreciate Auburn for its environment, the collegiality and, of course, the students,”  Bartol said. “That’s the main reason people in academia stay. Auburn has bright students and attracts bright students.”