Graduate students
VECCTTR supports graduate trainees working in comparative translational models of injury and critical illness. Projects span in vivo and ex vivo models, biospecimen science, and device/diagnostic validation, all of which are built to answer clinically relevant questions in both veterinary and human medicine.
What graduate students do:
- Contribute to study design, protocol development, and hands-on data collection
- Learn biospecimen handling, biobanking workflows, and reproducible research practices
- Build skills in statistics, figure generation, and scientific writing
- Present at lab meetings, and (when applicable) conferences
Undergraduate students
Undergraduate students can gain research experience in a fast-paced translational lab environment, or on the clinic floor within the emergency room. Roles may include sample processing, data entry/quality control, basic bench techniques, and support for ongoing studies.
Typical undergraduate projects/tasks:
- Participate within a robust clinical trials team
- Sample processing support (labeling, aliquoting, inventory)
- Database curation and basic analysis
- Literature review, figure, and table preparation for manuscripts
- Assisting with method validation and bench workflows under supervision
Research areas
Students may contribute to projects in:
- Trauma and hemorrhagic shock
- Resuscitation strategies and blood product innovation
- Endothelial glycocalyx biology and inflammation
- Pharmacokinetics in critical illness
- Monitoring and diagnostic validation (tissue oxygenation, point-of-care platforms)