About Science Team
Our Veterinarian
Dr. Sandra, PhD, DVM
“As a veterinarian, I noticed many unmet needs resulting in dog disease and recurring health issues. Tailjoy’s science team leaves no stone unturned when formulating for the modern dog’s environment and needs.”
Co-Founder, Chief Veterinarian, and Head of Pet Health Marketing at Tailjoy
Dr. Sandra’s life and career reflect her passion for science and medicine, her dedication to teaching and research, and of course, her deep love of animals.
Her approach to veterinary medicine is based on a respect for the special bond between humans and animals. She has dedicated her life to this calling of protecting, advocating, and caring for animals – those who cannot speak their needs.
She brings a powerful synthesis of experience, knowledge, and compassion to the mission of Tailjoy, always with a focus on resilience, early disease prevention, and longevity in our pets.
Bringing Her Unique Expertise to the Animal Health Industry
Dr. Sandra’s research has focused on the neurology of pain in humans and animals, as related to conditions such as diabetic neuropathy, as well as the mechanisms of pain management in diseases such as osteoarthritis. She is well published in her field and has been an invited speaker at educational and science conferences.
Her clinical expertise comes from decades in her field, including in her role as Chief of Staff in the veterinary hospital setting. She practiced across all areas of medicine for dogs, cats, and exotic animals.
As Dr. Sandra’s interests expanded to include whole-industry thinking, and how she might push the field of veterinary medicine forward, she refocused her expertise toward developing strategy and product innovations in the pet health space. Though she was able to touch individual lives as a vet in the hospital, her work as a pet health executive has allowed her to make a greater difference for all dogs.
Delivering Whole-Dog Solutions with Tailjoy
Dr. Sandra has worked closely with thought leaders in Europe and the United States in areas such as endocrinology (diabetes and CKD), cardiology, neurology, and vaccines. Her leadership roles have also included marketing strategy and product development in the areas of oncology, metabolic, and dermatology.
Following her calling has brought her to Tailjoy, where Dr. Sandra is instrumental in our mission to bring products to the marketplace that deliver on the needs of pets.
Leadership
- Chief of Staff, general practice veterinary hospital (South Florida)
- Global Technical Manager, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health global headquarters (Germany)
- Marketing Pipeline Manager, Boehringer Ingelheim
- Global Pet Health New Product Planning & Strategy, Elanco
- Senior Marketing Director for Companion Animal Internal Medicine & Dermatology Therapeutics and Vaccines, Elanco
- Co-Founder, Chief Veterinarian, and Head of Pet Health Marketing at Tailjoy
Education & Research
- PhD in Anatomy and Cell Biology (University of North Dakota, School of Medicine & Health Sciences), focus in Neuroscience
- Teaching Assistantship in Human Anatomy and Neuroanatomy (University of North Dakota, School of Medicine & Health Sciences)
- Postdoctoral Fellowship (Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard University)
- Veterinary Degree (North Carolina State University)
- Founder of NCSU chapter, Student International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management
- Studies in Conservation Medicine under Dr. Cobus Raath (South Africa)
Our Animal Nutritionist
Scott Baker, Animal Nutritionist
“The difference in Tailjoy is in our formulations. No matter how good the ingredient, the only way it can benefit the animal is if it’s in a usable form. The best products in the world can’t be accessible to a pet without the appropriate delivery method or manufacturing process.”
Head of Product Sourcing and Manufacturing at Tailjoy
Growing up on a hog and cattle farm in western Illinois, Scott’s interest in animal science began early. He has always been actively involved in his family farm as well as the local agricultural community. His passion led him to realize how key nutrients have profound implications for an animal’s broader health.
Scott’s approach to animal nutrition is based on combining the most effective manufacturing processes with the best quality ingredients in optimally usable forms:
“No matter how good the ingredient, the only way it can benefit the animal is if it’s in a usable form. The best products in the world can’t be accessible to a pet without the appropriate delivery method or manufacturing process.”
Scott’s expertise in ingredient sourcing, manufacturing design and process, as well as his key relationships in the industry helps bring best practices into everything Tailjoy produces.
Animal Feed, Nutrient Analysis, and Manufacturing Expertise
Scott’s work in companion animal nutrition began in university in the States but later expanded with an opportunity to experience feed and farming industry practices in Europe as a visiting scholar in the Netherlands. His research assistantship at a feed research lab offered a chance to study the links between lab and farm.
When he returned to the US to pursue his Master’s degree, he expanded his scholarship to cover major aspects of animal nutrition, including regulatory requirements, ingredient processing, and manufacturing.
Scott’s Master’s thesis was on the bioavailability of phosphorus in swine from feed ingredients, focusing on the availability of a nutrient through bioavailability versus digestibility. He utilized unique ways to model data to correlate bioavailability and digestibility, using the sensitive environmental ingredient, phosphorus, as the target nutrient in the model. Because the balance of phosphorus in the body and environment is essential to life, understanding the availability of this ingredient was an important foundation that informs Scott’s work at Tailjoy.
Interestingly, it is around this key nutrient that Scott and Dr. Madsen first connected, and they continue to collaborate on its research.
A Lifetime of Farming & Nutrition Experience
Scott is currently back home on the family farm in Illinois. He is actively involved in the pet food and animal nutrition industry while also working on the farm.
Scott’s professional career began as a research analyst, working with farm and companion animal nutrition. He spent over nine years in his role as a product management for companion animal specialty products and commercializing innovation. As he continued to build his expertise in North American production and manufacturing, he expanded product portfolios and increased their footprint to other areas of the world by taking on roles in global marketing strategy, large global team project management, and global companion animal strategy.
Scott had an opportunity to work in a rotational program to learn all the major positions of a manufacturing plant. He synthesized this experience with his work at Truow – where he was involved with the design, manufacturing, and marketing of soft chews – and saw the need in today’s pet health market.
Based on his lifetime of farm experience and 12+ years in manufacturing and animal nutrition, Scott has published in general animal science journals as well as presented globally as an invited speaker in the pet food industry on topics such as innovation in pet foods and the science behind the innovation of premium products.
Education
- Animal Science BA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Animal Nutrition MS
- Research assistantship as visiting scholar at feed research lab, Netherlands
Our Nutritional Biochemist
Fred Madsen, PHD
“Tailjoy products help dogs identify self from non-self with the understanding that gut health is the basis of immunity. A dog’s environment is our focus and how we formulate our products with information to help reduce biological stress”
Dr. Madsen started his formal education with a B.S. degree in chemistry from Austin Peay in 1968, and culminated it with a Ph.D. in Physiology-Animal Nutrition from the University of Tennessee in 1974. After completing his Ph.D. which was centered on mathematical modeling of metal movement in animals, he took a position at the Atomic Energy Commission’s Comparative Animal Research Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. While at the Comparative Animal Research Laboratory, he conducted research in metal metabolism and endocrinology publishing several papers on the relationship between dietary metals and insulin metabolism. Through these early achievements he became one of the very few to become a full member of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences before the age of 30.
Following this experience, he developed a host of nutritional products and ingredients including Optimins®, a line of chelated minerals that are marketed world-wide. Following his tenure with these large corporations he became a partner and owner of Suidae Technology Corporation where he managed product development, technical services, and marketing. Here he became interested in nutrient-gene interactions and their collective effects on animals. Some of the concepts he developed and marketed were colonization- resistant anti-inflammatory nursery diets, meal-time synchronization, and technology that takes advantage of epigenetics and the “womb effect.”
In 2003, he sold his interest in Suidae Technology and followed his passion of the power of nutrition and animals and started his own company called Madsen Nutrition Services, Inc, with a mission to bring advanced biochemistry to the animal nutrition and veterinary industries. In addition, he also maintains an active animal nutrition practice consulting in the areas of swine diet formulation, metal digestion biochemistry, nutritional immunology and specialized supplements for stressed animals. Dr. Madsen has a special interest and specialization in hyperimmune protein technology and methods on how to obtain the maximum benefits from its use in pets and livestock. He is a leader in the understanding of how animals are informed by other species about the surrounding environment and how this information can be utilized to improve the health, vitality, and longevity of pets and farm animals.
Since graduation, Dr. Madsen has an impressive record of publishing over 100 scientific papers and abstracts in various scientific journals across extensive areas of animal nutrition and the power of nutrition in the health and well-being of animals. He has authored or co-authored six book chapters on nutrition, nutrition-disease and digestive physiology. He is also the co-author of a popular book on methylation and its relationship to disease in humans. Dr. Madsen has been a frequent contributor to numerous agricultural magazines and invited speaker world-wide on a variety of nutritional subjects. He has lectured on topics ranging from the chemistry of the digestive process to practical clinical nutrition of pets and livestock. Dr. Madsen’s perspective and approach of biology and animal nutrition is a compilation of all the knowledge and experience that he has gained during a lifetime of studying researching, and working with many great scientists, scholars, and friends from across the globe. As our nutritional biochemist at TailJoy, Dr. Madsen uses this extensive and deep understanding of the foundational building blocks of nutritional biology to bring together not only best data-driven, highest performing ingredients for health needs, but in the specific combination that maximizes the effects of each – bringing to your dog the most powerful nutritional ingredients.