Phi Zeta Student Research Day is held annually to honor the scholarly achievements of VMD and VMD-PhD students at Penn Vet. The event showcases excellence in student research and academics while providing an opportunity for students, residents, and faculty to connect and enhance collaboration between basic and clinical researchers. It also allows colleagues and classmates to hear about the exciting research taking place.
Held on March 22, this year’s program featured six oral presentations by students (basic and clinical research), who were chosen by a faculty panel of judges. Outstanding presenters of abstracts received awards of excellence following their oral presentations.
The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Amy LeBlanc, Director of the CCR Comparative Oncology Program at the National Cancer Institute, NIH. In this position, she directly oversees and manages the operations of the Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium, which designs and executes clinical trials of new cancer therapies in tumor-bearing pet dogs.
Dual Degree VMD-PhD Awards
1st Place - Nathaniel Sotuyo
Stem cell-derived interneuron transplants as a treatment for Dravet syndrome (Co-mentors:
Drs. Ethan Goldberg and Stewart Anderson, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia)
2nd Place - Jeffery N. Carey
Regulated stochasticity in a bacterial signaling network permits tolerance of a rapid
environmental change (Mentor: Dr. Mark Goulian, University of Pennsylvania)
3rd Place - Ian Penkala
Transcriptional regulation of alveolar epithelial cell fate and plasticity during lung
development (Mentor: Dr. Edward Morrisey, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine)
Veterinary Student VMD Awards
1st Place - Megan L. Clark
Leishmania-specific skin resident CD4 T cells are formed from recently activated effector
T cells (Mentor: Dr. Phillip Scott, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine)
2nd Place - Jonah Binstock
The role of type III collagen in the fibrotic response: therapeutic strategies to engineer regenerative and tumor micro environments (Mentor: Dr. Sue Volk, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine)
3rd Place - Jenna Schoenberger
The cellular basis of enhanced intestinal regeneration through calorie restriction (Mentor: Dr. Christopher Lengner, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine)
Best Poster Awards
1st Place
Tertiary lymphoid organs in a natural model of multiple sclerosis. Megan McGeehan, Priscilla Farias, Miles Miller, Lara Cheslow, Melissa Sánchez, & Jorge Iván Alvarez, Department of Pathobiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine
2nd Place
Biosensing of biofilm: detecting the volatile organic compounds (VOC) of biofilm using a dog’s nose. Meghan Ramos, Cynthia M. Otto, Dara Hofmann, Annemarie DeAngelo, and
Thomas P. Schaer, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine
3rd Place
Characterizing immune regulation of canine heartworm Dirofilaria immitis infection in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Ariel M. Aguiar, James B. Lok, Thomas J. Nolan, Letitia K. Thompson, Elizabeth Edgerton, and Michael Povelones, Department of Pathobiology,
University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine