Research Day

Research Day is a showcase of cutting-edge research projects and approaches from members of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences community. The annual symposium is an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to present their work and talents, connect with other students and faculty at CSU, and learn about other disciplines.

Join us for a celebration of diverse and exciting achievements in basic, translational, clinical, and outcomes research, as well as lively discussions and multidisciplinary collaborations across the fields of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences. All members of the local community are encouraged to participate in this free event. Use #CVMBSResearchDay to share your photos of Research Day!

2025 award winners

Oral Presentations

Foundational, Early Career

First place: Hannah Baun (BMS), Identification and evaluation of transcriptomic markers for assessing bovine embryo quality from individual embryos or biopsies. Mentor: J Barfield

Second place: Maelle Coupannec (ERHS), Radium Purification: Turning Radioactive Mine Tailings into Targeted Cancer Treatment. Mentor: R Sudowe

Third place: Isabella Sabino (CS), Innate immune pathway activation to modulate mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) interaction with synovial cells in osteoarthritis. Mentor: L Pezzanite

Foundational, Advanced Career

First place: Hayley Templeton (BMS), Calcitonin Gene Related Peptide Mediates Gut Alpha Synuclein Aggregation in a Mouse Model of Parkinson’s Disease. Mentor: S Tobet

Second place: Chase Khedmatgozar (MIP), Axonal transport of alpha-synuclein prion strains. Mentor: A Woerman

Third place: Eric Palmer, Osteosarcoma exosomes induce a tumor-promoting, inflammatory phenotype in lung fibroblasts and enhance OS metastatic colonization of the lung. Mentor: D Regan

Clinical, Early Career

First place: Camille Stewart (CS), It runs in horses – investigating potential causes of equine fecal water syndrome. Mentor: G Landolt

Second place: Kaytlyn Salmons (ERHS), Household air pollution and telomere length among women in Guatemala and Peru: the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) trial. Mentor: M Clark

Third place: Margaret Cook (CS), Admission variables associated with outcome in canines with bite wound trauma (12,412 cases): an ACVECC-VetCOT registry study. Mentor: K Hall

Clinical, Advanced Career

First place: Grace Jakes (CS), Stress, Bovine Respiratory Disease, and Pulmonary Mucosal Innate Immunity: Single-Cell Transcriptomic Responses in the Bovine Lung. Mentor: S Raabis

Second place: Kelly DeBie (ERHS), Analyzing Racial and Ethnic Disparities and Cause-Specific Infant Mortality in Texas After Implementation of a Six-Week Abortion Ban. Mentor: A Neophytou

Third place: Jesse Johnson (ERHS), Spleens with disseminated lymphoma exhibit higher SUVmax, MTV, and TLG on 18F-FDG PET/CT. Mentor: E Randall

Translational, Early Career

First place: Rebecca Makii (MIP), Understanding the role of oncogenic MYC signaling in the canine metastatic osteosarcoma tumor immune microenvironment. Mentor: D Regan

Second place: Quinn McConnell (CS), Investigation of the role of ganglioneuritis in intractable axial skeleton pain in horses. Mentor: L Pezzanite

Third place: Sara Cook (MIP), Characterizing the DNA mutation profile for canine peripheral T cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified. Mentor: A Avery

Translational Advanced Career

First place: Alissa Threatt (ERHS), Aspirin-Triggered Resolvin D1 and IL-22 influence pulmonary and neurological inflammation in response to agriculture dust exposure. Mentor: T Nordgren

Second place: Samantha Thomas (MIP), WEEV got the power: Neurovirulence in a novel mouse model of Parkinson’s disease. Mentor: L Kendall

Third place: Levi Flom (BMS), Synaptic plasticity within cocaine-seeking neuronal ensembles. Mentor: AC Bobadilla

Poster Presentations

Foundational, Early Career

First place: Emma Szegvari (MIP), Evaluating fibrilization kinetics of novel a-synuclein mutations by cell infection and liposome membrane binding assays. Mentor: A Woerman

Second place (tie): Caroline Kern-Allely (MIP), Clear the Air: Respiratory Disease and Air Pollution in Dairy Calves. Mentor: C Duncan

Second place (tie): Omar Yanouri (ERHS), Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 1 and 2 Double Knockout Protects Against Dopaminergic Neuron Loss Induced By Sub-Chronic Dieldrin Exposure. Mentor: R Tjalkens

Third place: Anna Valeria Castro Romero (BMS), Elucidating the mechanisms of frequency-invariant coding in the periaqueductal gray. Mentor: C Vaaga

Foundational, Advanced Career

First place: Elena Lian (MIP), Implications of clinically-relevant mutations in ubiA, a cell envelope biosynthetic gene, for Mycobacterium abscessus infection. Mentor: M Jackson

Second place: Jessica Kincade (BMS), Postnatal moo-omics of cattle fetally infected with bovine viral diarrhea virus. Mentor: T Hansen

Third place: Megan Aalto (CS), Establishment of updated hematology and biochemistry reference intervals for New Zealand White rabbits. Mentor: K Sikes

Clinical, Early Career

First place: McKennon Wiles (BMS), American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) extracts reverse stress-induced behavioral abnormalities. Mentor: S Kim

Second place: Jean Carlos Alvarado Colon (CS), Effects of EIDD-2801 on clinical remission and FCV shedding on cats with chronic gingivostomatitis. Mentor: M Lappin

Third place: Dayoung Oh (CS), Comparative outcomes of stereotactic body radiation therapy alone versus stereotactic body radiation therapy with toceranib for feline oral squamous cell carcinoma. Mentor: MK Boss

Clinical, Advanced Career

First place: Samantha Masca (CS), Validating a computer-assisted surgical navigation system in the equine cervical spine. Mentor: J Easley

Second place: Kate McCaw (CS), The translation of a curvilinear osteotomy from plan to patient using guided TPLO is more accurate compared to the traditional technique. Mentor: Clara Goh

Third place: Katya Spitznagel (CS), Influence of butorphanol with or without methadone on fentanyl induction dose in dogs undergoing interventional treatment of pulmonic stenosis. Mentor: K Mama

Translational, Early Career

First place: Chris Ruscher (CS), Maternal obesity is associated with inflammation in embryos of the preeclamptic-like BPH/5 mouse. Mentor: J Hatzel

Second place: Emmanuel Oyewole (ERHS), TLR2 and TLR3 drive distinct inflammatory pathways following organic dust exposure: Targets for therapeutic intervention in occupational lung diseases. Mentor: T Nordgren

Third place: Scott Roh (BMS), Prenatal exposure to valproic acid reduces synaptic δ-catenin levels and disrupts ultrasonic vocalization in neonates. Mentor: S Kim

Translational Advanced Career

First place: Christian Sewor (ERHS), Cross-sectional associations between 48-hour fine particulate matter exposure and blood pressure among adults in rural Rwanda. Mentor: M Clark

Second place: Jorge Mendieta Calle (MIP), A neonatal immunodeficient mouse model for Zika viral induced ocular pathology. Mentor: R Akkina

Third place: Ahmed Gad (CS), Investigating the role of circadian rhythms in bovine oviductal organoids and their functional implications. Mentor: F Hollinshead

Undergraduate Poster Presentations

Foundational

First place: Emma Hinchliffe (BMS), Haploinsufficiency of the autism-associated δ-catenin mutation is sufficient to induce social dysfunction in mice. Mentor: S Kim

Second place: Olivia Martinez (MIP), Investigating the effects of temperature change on oviposition and progeny development of Aedes aegypti and Culex tarsalis mosquitoes. Mentor: R Kading

Third place: Lauren Bennett (MIP), Evaluating the presence of Chronic Wasting Disease in free-range White-tailed deer in Arkansas. Mentor: C Mathiason

Clinical

First place: Olufunmilayo Garner (CS), Uncovering the enemy: investigating methods to increase GD2 expression in canine tumor cell lines using epigenetic modifiers. Mentor: D Thamm

Second place: Isla Wilson (Animal Sciences), Duration and efficacy of a single pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy on lameness associated with osteoarthritis of the tarsus. Mentor: C Fedorka

Third place: Emma Bovaird (ERHS), Analyzing changes in amino acid blood metabolites relevant to cognitive development in children aged 24-59 months being treated for severe acute malnutrition with and without rice bran supplementation. Mentor: E Ryan

Translational

First place: Lauren Hives (MIP), Metal Matters: Unraveling the Role of Transition Metals in Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm Formation. Mentor: C Gries

Second place: Alex Baeckler (MIP), Optimization of an in vitro model of the osteosarcoma metastatic microenvironment. Mentor: D Regan

Third place: Lydia Jenkins (MIP), Analysis of Neuronal response in an in vitro model of chronic pain. Mentor: K Popichak

Golden Pipette

Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology

Green Pipette

Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology