Each summer, the College of Veterinary Medicine seeks out current students who have just completed their first and second year of veterinary school interested in a “research summer.”
In the Summer Scholars Research Program, students are paired with a faculty mentor conducting research on several subjects throughout the college’s academic departments including clinical medicine, animal science, public health, neuroscience and immunology. The students not only get an idea of the type of research veterinarians conduct, but they also learn about the research process.
This year, 21 rising second- and third-year veterinary medicine students participated in the program.
Third-year veterinary student Emma Moore worked in Dr. Todd Bell’s lab studying Rift Valley Fever Virus, an emerging zoonotic virus. Moore looked at two different drugs that inhibit host cell signaling pathways that the virus has been shown to manipulate to cause disease.
“Additionally, I performed assays to determine drug toxicity to host cells as well as determining the effectiveness of the drugs in inhibiting viral replication,” Moore said. “Our goal is to find existing drugs or combinations of drugs that can be repurposed to treat RVFM infections.”
Third-year veterinary student Liliana Johnson worked in Dr. Jason Pieper’s lab conducting surveys with dog owner clients to determine client preferences of medicated shampoos. Johnson hopes to determine what is important to owners as canine allergic dermatitis is becoming more common.
“Canine allergic dermatitis is often treated with topicals like medicated shampoos,” Johnson said, “and they can be used multiple times per week, so we want to ensure clients are using products they prefer to ensure best compliance.”
Second-year veterinary student Lauren McGeorge worked in Dr. Thimmasettappa Thippeswamy’s lab investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms of disease modification in experimental models of epilepsy.
“My research was focused on the impact of epilepsy on protein expression in the thalamus of the brain, specifically looking at Fyn-Tau signaling axis,” McGeorge said.
July 2025