Special Research Days Spotlight PVM’s Role in Scientific Discovery that Benefits Animals and People

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Dr. Amelia Woolums, a Purdue Veterinary Medicine alumna who holds a named endowed professorship in Beef Cattle Health and Reproduction at Mississippi State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, gave the PVM Research Day Keynote presentation.

Three special days of research presentations during the spring semester showcased the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine’s basic and clinical research that holds promise for improving health and well-being for animals and humans. The college hosted both the annual PVM Research Day, and a special two-day program of research presentations called “Industry Partner Days,” in April. Both events gave attendees a close look at leading-edge research studies being conducted by PVM research teams.

The annual PVM Research Day featured presentations of research findings by faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students. The day began with the keynote Phi Zeta lecture, which was given by Dr. Amelia Woolums (PU DVM ’88), a Purdue Veterinary Medicine alumna and the Mikell and Mary Cheek Hall Davis Endowed Professor of Beef Cattle Health and Reproduction in the Department of Pathobiology and Population Medicine at Mississippi State University (MSU).

Sharon Meoli, of the DVM Class of 2025, talks to a Research Poster Session attendee about her First Place poster in the DVM Student Research category, entitled, “Antigenic Evaluation and Proteomic Profiling of Excretory-Secretory Proteins of Sarcocystis Neuron.”

Visiting Purdue as a PVM Research Day speaker was like a homecoming for Dr. Woolums. After earning her Purdue DVM degree in 1988, Dr. Woolums went on to complete an internship at Kansas State University and a residency at the University of Saskatchewan, before earning her PhD in comparative pathology at UC Davis, where she studied cell-mediated immune response of cattle to BRSV vaccination.

A Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists, Dr. Woolums works in the Large and Food Animal Medicine specialty service of the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine’s Animal Health Center. She also teaches veterinary students and conducts research on Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) prevention, antimicrobial resistance in BRD, and vaccination and immunity in cattle and calves. Dr. Woolums entitled her keynote presentation, “Inflammation and Immunity in Respiratory Disease: What Can We Learn from Cattle?”

At the beginning of her talk, Dr. Woolums referenced her days as a Purdue student and shared a special message for today’s students. “When I was a vet student here, I thought that it really was not right for my professors to have to do research because I thought they should really focus their time on teaching us and helping the animals in the clinic,” Dr. Woolums said. “And those are still very important things but when I went off to do my residency in internal medicine, I learned about a whole lot of things that I didn’t understand at all and I realized that research is how we better understand those things. And so it’s ironic to come here as someone who now really loves doing research and wants to encourage veterinary students to think about working on research and even if you don’t end up doing research, appreciating and understanding why other people need to. You’ll be ahead of where I was, when I was sitting where you are.”

The Research Day agenda also featured a series of parallel panel sessions covering the themes of Animal Welfare, Clinical Research and Comparative Oncology. The talks were recorded and the recordings can be accessed via the PVM Research Day website.

Shatha Mufti, a PhD student in the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences Program, with her faculty mentor, Dr. Riyi Shi, and her 2nd place prize winning poster in the Basic Research category.

During the noon hour, attendees were able to view research posters describing research projects conducted by graduate students, residents and veterinary students. The more than 70 posters on display were judged by a panel of research scholars who selected first and second place winners in each of three categories: Basic Research, Clinical/Applied Research and DVM Student Research. The largest category was the Basic Research group, which included 34 posters. The Clinical/Applied Research category had 15 posters while the DVM Student Research category had 18 posters, and four posters were submitted in the Non-Competitive category. Congratulations to the following award recipients:

Basic Research

First Place: Rodrigo Ferreira, graduate research assistant in the Department of Comparative Pathobiology
Second Place: Shatha Mufti, PhD student in the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences Program

Clinical/Applied Research

First Place: Eva Kao-Whitesell, DVM, Small Animal Internal Medicine resident in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences
Second Place: Ellen Kuerbitz, DVM, Oncology resident in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences

Click here to view the Research Day Poster Session abstracts

The afternoon agenda included presentations by finalists in the Osborne Award Competition.

The first place speaker, Jessica Linder, DVM, a neurology resident, gave a talk entitled, “Placement of a Programmable Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt for Hydrocephalus in a Dog.”
The second place finalist, Brad Lytle, DVM, a cardiology resident, spoke on the topic, “Pulmonary Stent Angioplasty in a Dog with Right-Sided Congestive Heart Failure and Pre-Pulmonary Coronary Artery.”
The third place Osborne Award finalist was clinical pathology resident Camila Benaduce E. Mello, whose presentation was entitled, “Disseminated T-Cell-Rich B-cell Lymphoma in a Horse with Sezary-Like Cells in Peripheral Blood and Presumptive Developmental Transition.”

Additional afternoon talks were given by scholars who received special research awards:

Dr. Rebecca Wilkes, the outgoing president of Phi Zeta, with PhD student Ying Cheng Chen, recipient of the 2O24 Phi Zeta Omicron Chapter Graduate Student Research Award

2O24 Phi Zeta Omicron Chapter Graduate Student Research Award recipient Ying Cheng Chen, a graduate research assistant in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, spoke on the topic, “Evaluating Human IL27-Expressing Oncolytic adenovirus for Treating Prostate Cancer.”
The recipient of the 2024 PVM Graduate Student Research Award, Grace Mulia, graduate research assistant in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, gave a presentation entitled, “Developing an lnterleukin-27 Targeted Gene Therapy to Reduce Inflammation in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.”
Dr. Nelly Elshafie, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Comparative Pathobiology, won the 2024 Manuscript Award, and gave a presentation entitled, “miRNome Expression Analysis in Canine Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma.

Dr. Nelly Elshafie, postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Comparative Pathobiology, received the 2024 Manuscript Award

The PVM Research Day presentations concluded with a talk by the recipient of the 2023 Zoetis Award for Veterinary Research Excellence, Dr. Kari Ekenstedt, associate professor of anatomy and genetics in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, who addressed the topic, “Genomic Applications in Dog Genetic Diseases.” Following Dr. Ekenstedt’s talk, attendees reconvened in the Veterinary Medical Library for a reception and awards presentation.

Purdue’s Omicron Chapter of the Society of Phi Zeta – the Honor Society of Veterinary Medicine – participates in the Research Day and as part of the program, introduced newly inducted Phi Zeta members. The PVM Research Day was sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim, Elanco, Zoetis, VMRD, and the American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF).

Industry Partner Days

Dr. Timothy Lescun, director of the Center for Clinical Translational Research and professor of large animal surgery, describes the center’s research activities during the Welcome Lunch that kicked off the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Industry Partner Days in Purdue’s Stewart Center April 16.

The college’s Industry Partner Days April 16-17 were held in Purdue University’s Stewart Center and began with a welcome lunch featuring comments from Dr. Karen Plaut, executive vice president for research; Dr. Timothy Lescun, director of the Center for Clinical Translational Research; and Dr. Ramaswamy Subramanian, director of the Bindley Bioscience Center. Participants then had the opportunity to attend multiple 20 minute sessions during the afternoon and the following morning featuring College of Veterinary Medicine scholars sharing about their areas of research. The presentations were grouped into eight categories.

On the afternoon of April 16, a total of 16 sessions covered topics under the headings of Diagnostics, Drug Discovery and Delivery, Antimicrobial Resistance, and Comparative Oncology. The following morning, participants were able to select from an additional 16 presentations related to the categories of Immunotherapy and Vaccines, Novel Technologies, Neuroscience/Ophthalmology, and Equine Medicine.

Additionally, at the conclusion of the afternoon presentations on April 16, attendees were able to peruse more than two-dozen research posters during a Poster Session and Reception. The posters covered both basic research and clinical/applied research, and gave industry representatives the opportunity to talk with graduate students, residents and postdoctoral researchers about their research projects.