Virginia Luis Fuentes graduated from Cambridge and after five years in small animal practice became a Lecturer in Veterinary Cardiology at Edinburgh. She completed a PhD in ultrasound studies of canine dilated cardiomyopathy, and became an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA from 1997-2001, and was a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University, USA from 2001-2003. She has been a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Veterinary College (London, UK) since 2004. She is a Diplomate of the American and European Colleges of Veterinary Internal Medicine (in cardiology)