Poster days highlight graduate research

During the two-day event, U of S students, faculty and staff had a chance to stop by and talk to graduate students about their research findings. The graduate student investigators also answered questions from a team of judges who evaluated all of the research posters before choosing three award recipients in three different categories.

Dr. Douglas Freeman, dean of WCVM, and Dr. Baljit Singh, the college's associate dean of research, distributed a total of $1,350 in bursaries to nine graduate students for their exceptional research posters during a luncheon on March 19.

Here is the list of award recipients in the three categories:

Microbiology-parasitology

• First prize: Aline Costa de Freitas, Veterinary Microbiology (supervisor: Dr. Janet Hill): Research title: Differences in the vaginal microbiomes of pregnant and non-pregnant women.

• Second prize: Matheus Costa, Veterinary Microbiology (supervisor: Dr. Janet Hill). Research title: Development of in vitro organ culture (IVOC) for investigation of spirochetosis in swine.

• Third prize: Maria Fernanda Mejia-Salazar, Veterinary Pathology (supervisor: Dr. Trent Bollinger. Research title: Paparazzi-ing mule deer to unravel environmental prion contamination.

Clinical-reproduction-phyisology

• First prize: Miriam Cervantes, Veterinary Biomedical Sciences (supervisor: Dr. Gregg Adams). Research title:  In vitro embryo production using in vivo matured oocytes collected transvaginally from wood bison (Bison bison athabascae).

• Second prize: Jesus M. Palomino, Veterinary Biomedical Sciences (supervisor: Dr. Gregg Adams). Research title: Effectiveness of washing procedures for removing Brucella abortus from in vivo-derived wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) embryos.

• Third prize: Jewel Milo, Small Animal Clinical Sciences (supervisor: Dr. Elisabeth Snead). Research title: A new method for measuring glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in cats; a comparison of four methods.

Immunology/toxicology

• First prize: Kalhari Goonewardene, Veterinary Pathology (supervisor: Dr. Susantha Gomis). Research title: Metabolomic profile of broiler chickens following administration of oligodeoxynucleotides containing CpG motifs (CpG-ODN).

• Second prize: Asha Perrera, Veterinary Pathology (supervisors: Drs. Catherine Soos and Karen Machin. Research title: Metabolomics: A novel tool to assess stress in wild birds.

• Third prize: Derek Green, Veterinary Biomedical Sciences (supervisor: Dr. David Janz). Research title: Contamination and multi-decadal decay of reservoir-liberated mercury in a downstream fishery: effects of fish trophic level, size, and age.

Click here to view the complete list of graduate students who participated in the 2015 event. Click here to view a photo gallery of the 2015 award recipients.