NIH/Merck Summer Research Program for Veterinary Students
Schedule | Events | Application | Participating Faculty
Graduate Groups | Funded Projects | Other Programs
List of Funded Projects
- Funded Projects - 2007
- Funded Projects - 2006
- Funded Projects - 2005
- Funded Projects - 2004
- Funded Projects - 2003
- Funded Projects - 2002
- Funded Projects - 2001
- Funded Projects - 2000
2007 Project Titles
Student: Aimee Colbath
Title of Project: Geographic Risk Factors for Escherichia coli Infection in Cattle in Pennsylvania and New York State
Mentor: Gary Smith
Department: Clinical Studies, New Bolton Center, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Heather Fowler
Title of Project: Characterization of Novel Type 1 and II Transforming Growth Factor-Beta Receptors in Schistosoma mansoni
Mentor: Ed Pearce
Department: Pathobiology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Maureen Gates
Title of Project: Analyzing the Spread of West Nile Virus Through Mosquito Vectors: A Meta-Analysis
Mentor: Raymond Boston
Department: Clinical Studies, New Bolton Center, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Randi Gold
Title of Project: Pathophysiology of Canine Hip Dysplasia: Does Capsular Fibrosis Serve as Biological Compensation for Hip Laxity and Osteoarthritis
Mentor: Gail Smith
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Michael Jennings
Title of Project: Optimization and Clinical Implementation of Stem Cell-Seeded Nanofiber-Based Tissue Engineered Constructs for Meniscus Repair
Mentor: Robert Mauck
Department: Orthopaedic Surgery, Medicine
Student: Melissa Lewis
Title of Project: Characterization of Cerebrocortical Dysfunction in Feline Niemann-Pick Type C (NPC) Disease
Mentor: Charles Vite
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Peter Midgley
Title of Project: A Mathematical Model for the Transmission Dynamics and Control of Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) Infection in Wild Ethiopian Wolves (Canis simensis)
Mentor: Gary Smith
Department: Clinical Studies, New Bolton Center, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Jamie Minnella
Title of Project: Development and Assessment of a Real-Time PCR Assay for Rapid Detection of Salmonella in Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Settings
Mentor: Shelley Rankin
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Michelle Nelson
Title of Project: Yersinia pestis Virulence Protein Purification and Experimental Mutant Production
Mentor: Dieter Schifferli
Department: Pathobiology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Brianne O'Loughlin
Title of Project: Cross Species Comparison of Congenital Heart Defects Involving the Genes Edg2 and MAPK1
Mentor: Sulagna Saitta
Department: Pediatrics, Medicine
Student: Laura Pell
Title of Project: Generation of Canine Single Chain Fragment Variable Antibody Libraries for the Identification and Targeting of Tumor-Associated Antigens in the Dog
Mentor: Nicola Mason
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Miriam Sadek
Title of Project: Mitochondrial Respiratory Stress Induced Tumor Invasion Through Activation of a Novel NFκB Pathway
Mentor: Narayan Avadhani
Department: Animal Biology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Abigail Shearin
Title of Project: Cystinuria in Dogs
Mentor: Paula Henthorn
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Marissa Sue
Title of Project: Positive Serodiagnosis for Toxoplasma gondii and Leptospira spp. And its Correlation to Serum Biochemical Parameters in Medium and Large Carnivores of Emas National Park, Brazil
Mentor: Karen Rosenthal
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Nancy Hyun Joo Sung
Title of Project: Identification of Correlations Between Canine Behavioral Traits and Specific Health Problems
Mentor: James Serpell
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Samuel Tucker
Title of Project: Innervation of the Canine Intervertebral Disc: An Immunohistochemical Study
Mentor: Thomas Schaer
Department: Clinical Studies, New Bolton Center, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Melissa Vetter
Title of Project: L1 Retrotransportation in a Transgenic Rat Model
Mentor: Haig Kazazian
Department: Genetics, Medicine
Student: Andrea Weissman
Title of Project: A Time Interval Study of the Effect of Intermittent Hypoxia on Nitrate and Nitrite Concentrations in Drosophila melanogaster
Mentor: Cindy Otto
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Lisa Berman
Title of Project: Characterization of the Role of Intestinal Epithelial Cells in the Regulation of CD4+T Helper Cell Responses Following Gut Nematode Infection.
Mentor: David Artis
Department: Pathobiology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Megan Brace
Title of Project: Multi-Drug Resistant Slmonella Newport in Equine Colic Patients: Can Outcomes and Cluster Analysis Aid in the Development of Better Infection Control and Therapeutic Strategies.
Mentor: Helen Aceto
Department: Clinical Studies, New Bolton Center, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Cara Catanese
Title of Project: Studies on Binding and Invasive Properties of Yersinia pestis Autotransporters.
Mentor: Dieter Schifferli
Department: Pathobiology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Jennifer Dietz
Title of Project: Longevity of Motility of Spermand Bacteria Present in Equine Semen Stored in Semen Extender Containing Pipercillin.
Mentor: Patricia Sertich, Charles Benson
Department: Clinical Studies, New Bolton Center, Veterinary Medicine and Pathobiology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Carrie Ellis
Title of Project: Expression and Identification of Yersinia pestis Surface Proteins for Future Vaccine Development Against Plague
Mentor: Dieter Schifferli
Department: Pathobiology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Jennie Kim
Title of Project: The Effects of L-NAME and Hypoxia on Drosophila Melanogaster.
Mentor: Cindy Otto
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Melissa King
Title of Project: An Analysis of the Oral Rabies Vaccination (ORV) Program in New York State.
Mentor: Gary Smith
Department: Clinical Studies, New Bolton Center, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Diana Knight
Title of Project: Assessing the Effects of Cued Fear Conditioning and the Role of the Amygdala in REM Sleep Patterns of Male S-D Rats.
Mentor: Adrian Morrison
Department: Animal Biology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Catherine Kusiak
Title of Project: Lysosomal Storage Diseases: An Evaluation of Cardiovascular Function.
Mentor: Meg Sleeper, Mark Haskins
Department: Pathobiology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Simon Long
Title of Project: The Functional Role of the Membrane Glycoprotein and Small Envelope Protein in the Mouse Hepatitis Virus.
Mentor: Susan Weiss
Department: Microbiology, Medicine
Student: Katherine McKeown
Title of Project: Utilizing cDNA Subtraction to Examine the Effects of MacroH2A Deletion in a Colony of Knockout Mice.
Mentor: John Pehrson
Department: Animal Biology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Catherine Morrow
Title of Project: Factor XI Deficiency in Kerry Blue Terriers: Frequency and Impact of SINE Insertion.
Mentor: Urs Giger
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Diana Niculescu
Title of Project: Gene Expression in Cone Photoreceptors of Normal Dogs with Achromatopsia.
Mentor: Andras Komaromy
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Sharon Parker
Title of Project: Meloxicam Use in Avian Rehabilitation: Dosage Requirements and Efficacy, as Compared to Aspirin and Butorphanol.
Mentor: Erica Miller, Lisa Murphy
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine, and Pathobiology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Maria Raymond
Title of Project: Effects of Co-Engagement of Toll-Like Receptors (TLRs) and Complement Receptors.
Mentor: Oriol Sunyer
Department: Pathobiology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Michael Reese
Title of Project: Assessment of Cryocapacitation and Its Relation to Fertility of Frozen Bovine Sperm.
Mentor: Ina Dobrinski
Department: Clinical Studies, New Bolton Center, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Brigid Reilly
Title of Project: Use of a Novel Yeast Two-Hybrid System to Identify Homotypic and Heterotypic Interactions of Herpes Simplex Virus Glycoproteins.
Mentor: Roselyn Eisenberg, Gary Cohen
Department: Pathobiology, Veterinary Medicine
Student:
Title of Project: Cell fate of Notochordal Cells During Late Embryonic and Postnatal Life in Rodent Model.
Mentor: Tom Schaer
Department: Clinical Studies, New Bolton Center, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Miriam Sadek
Title of Project: Role of Mitochondrial Stress Signaling in the Pancreatic Tumor Invasion.
Mentor: Narayan Avadhani, Gopa Biswas
Department: Animal Biology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Lindsay Thalheim
Title of Project: Transcriptional Regulation of the Intra-S-Phase Regulator of CDC7 in Human Myeloid Leukemic Cells: A New Downstream Target of the C-Myb Protooncogene.
Mentor: Alan Gewirtz
Department: Hematology-Oncology, Medicine
Student: Amanda Theodore
Title of Project: The Role of Regulatory T Cell Function in Leishmania mexicana Infection.
Mentor: Phil Scott
Department: Pathobiology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Rachel Toaff-Rosenstein
Title of Project: Evaluation of the Insulin Gene and DLA-DRB2 Alleles as Genetic Markers for Diabetes Mellitus in Samoyed and Australian Terrier Dogs.
Mentor: Rebecka Hess, Paula Henthorn
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Angharad Knight Waite
Title of Project: Molecular Cloning of Canine OX40L and Functional Evaluation of its Co-Stimulatory Effects on Canine T Cell Subsets.
Mentor: Nicola Mason
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Connie Yeh
Title of Project: Functional Study of the Insulin Receptor Kinase IRK-1 from Strongyloides stercoralis Using Caenorhabditis elegans as a Genetic Surrogate.
Mentor: James Lok
Department: Pathobiology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Donniel Astor
Title of Project: Induction of the Unfolded Protein Response in Flies with Long-Term Intermittent Hypoxia
Mentor: Cindy Otto
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia , Veterinary Medicine
Student: Lisa Berman
Title of Project: Characterization of the Novel Canine and Feline Erythrocyte Antigens Dal and Mik
Mentor: Urs Giger
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Megan Brace
Title of Project: A Mathematical Model for the Transmission Dynamics and Control of Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Wild Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes)
Mentor: Gary Smith
Department: Clinical Studies, New Bolton Center, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Amy Brazil
Title of Project: Impact of Stress and Dietary High Fat on Learning and Memory
Mentor: Tracy Bale
Department: Animal Biology, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Janik Gasiorowski
Title of Project: Electrotransfer of Plasmid DNA in the Equine Flexor Tendon
Mentor: Dean Richardson
Department: Clinical Studies, New Bolton Center, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Kelly Giunta
Title of Project: Generation and Characterization of Equine Embryonic Stem Cell Lines
Mentor: John McLaughlin
Department: Clinical Studies, New Bolton Center, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Ryan Gorman
Title of Project: Development of Real-Time 16S rRNA Gene Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay to Diagnose Septic Peritonitis
Mentor: Shelley Rankin
Department: Clinical Studies, Philadelphia, Veterinary Medicine
Student: Asal Homayouni
Title of Project: The Role of TSR Proteins in Myc-Overexpressed Cells of Mouse Colon Cancer
Mentor: