Research Day

Each spring, the college sets aside a day to celebrate our diverse research activities and to build our research community.

RESEARCH DAY – APRIL 17, 2024

Research Day features formal presentations as well as afternoon poster session, where college researchers including veterinary students, graduate students, trainees, staff, and faculty members present their research progress. A keynote speaker from outside of the college, whose work broadly addresses college research efforts, is selected.

Research Day is also a time to recognize outstanding effort with the presentation of graduate student awards and the initiation of new members into Phi Zeta, the honor society of veterinary medicine.

The Pensinger Lecture in Comparative Medicine; Keynote Address


After completing his DVM at the University of Illinois in 1960, Dr. Robert Pensinger studied at the University of Pennsylvania under David K. Detweiler, who has been called the “Father of Veterinary Cardiology.” Dr. Pensinger went on to practice as a veterinary cardiologist in Santa Cruz, Calif. In 2003, he and his wife established the Dr. Robert and Cynthia Pensinger Fund to support an annual lecture in comparative medicine.

The 2023 Pensinger Lecturer

Dr. Natasha Olby completed her veterinary degree at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom in 1991. After a brief period spent in mixed general practice, she returned to Cambridge to complete a PhD and post-doctoral fellowship in spinal cord injury and a surgical training.

Following completion of her PhD and post-doctoral research, she moved to North Carolina State University to do a neurology/neurosurgery residency and she has stayed on the faculty at NCSU since then. She is currently a Professor of Neurology/Neurosurgery and holds the Dr. Kady M. Gjessing and Rahna M. Davidson Distinguished Chair in Gerontology.

She is a past president of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Neurology specialty and has published over 190 scientific papers, as well as more than 35 book chapters. She is co-editor of the BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Neurology.  Her research interests are spinal cord injury, neuropathic pain in Chiari like Malformations and neurodegenerative diseases. She has long had an interest in aging of the nervous system, a process that is magnified in neurodegenerative diseases, and she now runs the Canine Neuro-Aging Program. This longitudinal study is focused on quantifying decline in sensory, motor and cognitive function with a view to facilitating pathophysiological discovery and performing therapeutic trials. In all fields, her research uses clinical cases to generate translational data and she focuses on training future clinician scientists.

In her keynote presentation titled: Bringing Research into Clinical Practice: Development of the Canine Neuro-Aging Program she will describe her approach to performing robust research using clinical cases to identify and mitigate age related problems.

Itinerary


LAC 100, Veterinary Teaching Hospital Animal Clinic

8:00 a.m.

Welcome
Peter Constable, Dean

Presentation of Graduate Student Awards
Annette McCoy, Interim Dean of Research and Advanced Studies

  • Joseph A. Alberts Award, for an outstanding College of Veterinary Medicine graduate student
  • Dr. Victor E. O. (Ted) and Carroll J. Valli Award, for an outstanding graduate student in pathology or clinical pathology

Miranda Vieson, Secretary, Mu Chapter of Phi Zeta

  • Phi Zeta Literary Award — Basic Science
  • Phi Zeta Literary Award — Clinical Applied Science

Phi Zeta Initiation
Annette McCoy, Associate Professor
President, Mu Chapter of Phi Zeta

Student Lightning Talks
Six student abstracts will be selected. The presenting author will have 3 minutes and one PowerPoint slide to present a preview of their poster and attract an audience for the Poster Session. Faculty judges will evaluate the quality of the lightning talk and the poster presentation and award prizes of $500 that can be used toward research-related activities. Three total prizes will be given. Speaker names and presentation titles will be announced no later than March 31, 2024.

  • Mary Bunnell
    Prenatal Phthalate Exposure Alters the Pattern of Fetal and Neonatal Endocrine Puberty in a Sex-Specific Manner
  • Maris Daleo
    Development and Validation of Quantitative PCR Assay for Detection of Spheniscidae alphaherpesvirus 1 in Penguins
  • Shanny H. Kuo
    Pseudomonas aeruginosa Volatile Organic Compounds Cause Airway Mucus Hypersecretion by Activating the AhR Signaling and by Polarizing Toward a M1 Macrophage, Neutrophils, and Type 17 Immune Responses
  • Maria Nava
    Role of Cryptosporidium parvum Calcium-dependent Protein Kinase 5 (CDPK5) in Parasite Virulence and Transmission
  • Alison Neff
    Mono-2-ethylhexyl Phthalate Alters the Expression of Oocyte-derived Factors and Functional Targets in Ovarian Antral Follicles
  • Ana Nobrega
    Is It Really Expired? Comparisons of NEW and EXPIRED VCM VET™ Viscolelastic Coagulation Testing Cartridges Using Horse Blood

Break

9:00 a.m.

The Pensinger Lecture in Comparative Medicine; Keynote Address
Natasha Olby, Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery
Dr. Kady M. Gjessing and Rahna M. Davidson Distinguished Chair in Gerontology
North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine

Bringing Research into Clinical Practice: Development of the Canine Neuro-Aging Program

Break

10:15 a.m.

Student Speaker Competition
Six student abstracts will be selected. The presenting author will have 12 minutes for their presentation and 3 minutes to answer audience questions. Faculty judges will evaluate the quality of the presentation and three speakers will win $1,000 that can be used toward research-related activities. Speaker names and presentation titles will be announced no later than March 31, 2024.

  • Mitchell Ashkin
    Propofol-sparing and Hemodynamic Effects of Guaifenesin Co-induction in Sheep
  • Siqi Li
    Immunogenicity Characterization of a Multivalent Vaccine for Porcine Post-weaning Diarrhea
  • Jinrui (Grace) Lyu
    The α5-selective Positive Allosteric Modulator, MP-III-022, Rescues postoperative Cognitive Impairments in Aged Mice
  • Amanda Seelman
    Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Target Validation and Combinatorial Strategies to Circumvent Small Molecule Therapeutic Resistance in Canine Metastatic Insulinoma
  • Ye Tian
    Membrane Phospholipid Remodeling Modulates Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Progression by Regulating Mitochondrial Homeostasis
  • Yung-Tien (Yvette) Tien
    Unraveling the “Lytic Switch“ Switch From Latency to Reactivation of Marek’s Disease Virus (MDV)

Atrium, Veterinary Medicine Basic Sciences Building

12 noon

Boxed Lunch (must be registered for afternoon session to receive lunch)

12:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m.

Poster Session
View a complete list of abstracts.

Sponsors


Zoetis Logo

Research Day activities are co-sponsored by Zoetis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Phi Zeta, and the College of Veterinary Medicine Office of Research and Advanced Studies.