Veterinary Research Day
One day a year, student and resident researchers at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University (Cummings School) gather together to present their work to fellow students and faculty through poster presentations.
On September 5, 2025, Cummings School celebrated its 36th Veterinary Research Day last week with presentations, lectures, and awards. Cheryl London, D.V.M., Ph.D., DACVIM (oncology), V90, Associate Dean of Research, thanked all the participants and judges, noting the tough competition with all the phenomenal research posters and presentations.
The 2024 Junior Faculty Research Award recipient, Cornelia Peterson, D.V.M., Ph.D., DACVP, presented "Taking the Scenic Route: Reflections on a Non-Linear Research Journey." Noa Berlin, D.V.M., DACVECC, was named the 2025 recipient.
2025 Winners
Clinical and Translational Research
Anastasia Iglikova V28
Advisor: Dr. Vanessa Yang
"Short and Long-Term Efficacy of Medical Management in Acute Canine Primary Angle Closure Glaucoma"
Alanna O'Callahan V28
Advisors: Dr. Heidi Goethert, Dr. Sam Telford
"Seroprevalence Survey of Jamestown Canyon Virus in Resident New England Horses"
International/Conservation Medicine Research
Kiran Sarvepalli V27
Advisor: Dr. Felicia Nutter
"Minimally Invasive Sampling Detects EEHV1 in Asian Elephants"
Basic Research
Ella Arms V28
Advisors: Dr. Patrick Skelly, Dr. Akram Da’darah
"One-Way Schistosomes Control the Immune Response"
Graduate Students
Sergio Hernandez, Ph.D. candidate
Advisor: Dr. Yi-Pin Lin
"Divergent Immune Signatures of U.S and European Borrelia spp. Underlie Clinical Heterogeneity in Lyme borreliosis"
House Officers/Postdoctoral Fellows
Idrissa Sanago, Postdoctoral Fellow
Advisor: Dr. Jonathan Runstadler
"Development of well-differentiated tracheal epithelial cell culture models to study respiratory pathogens in wildlife"
Archive Veterinary Research Day Winners
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Clinical and Translational Research
Christian Lugo V26
Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Rozanski
“Is There a Role for Computed Tomography in Canine Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax?”Kelsey Murphy V27
Advisor: Dr. Heather Gardner
“Leveraging Circulation Transcriptional Markers to Identify Early Signatures of Metastasis in Canine Osteosarcoma”International/Conservation Medicine Research
Kiran Sarvepalli V27
Advisor, Dr. Amanda Martinot
“Detection of Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV-1) in FFPE Samples from Neotropical Primates”Basic Research
Lucille Pellegrino V27
Advisor: Dr. Kumari Andarawewa
“The Effect of the Vendor Specific Gut Microbiome on Tumor Development”Graduate Student Research
Chantal Aaron
Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Byrnes
“Age- and Sex-Specific Effects of Oxycodone Self-Administration during Gestation on Offspring Reward Motivation”House Officers/Postdoctoral Fellows Research
Dr. Katilee Jacobs, Resident
Advisors: Drs. Carrie Wood and Heather Gardner
“Optimizing Low-Volume Blood Biopsy in Feline Cancer”2024 Junior Faculty Research Award Winner
Dr. Cornelia Peterson, assistant professor of anatomic pathology in the Department of Comparative Pathobiology
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Clinical and Translational Research
Noah Dwyer V26
Advisor: Dr. Heather Gardner
“Characterizing Monocyte-Dependent Gene Expression in Metastatic Canine Osteosarcoma”International/Conservation Medicine Research
Tiffany Kim V26
Advisors: Drs. Paul Ling, Christine Molter, and Felicia Nutter V93
“First EEHV Species-Specific Antibody Profile of a Fatal EEHV2-HD Case”Basic Research
Maryann Makosiej V26
Advisors: Drs. Kelly Metcalf-Pate and Michael Birnbaum
“Engineering Retroviruses for Targeted Cellular Cancer Therapies”Graduate Student Research
Erin King, Ph.D. candidate
Advisor: Dr. Megan Mueller V13
“U.S. Pet Ownership Trends During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Households with Adolescent Children”House Officers/Postdoctoral Fellows Research
Dr. Nicole Dowgos, Resident (Anesthesia)
Advisor: Dr. Emily McCobb V00, VG02
“Veterinary Students’ Attitudes toward Anesthesiology as a Specialty”Courtney Lungerm Resident
Advisor: Dr. James Fox
“Gastric Coinfection in Thiopeptide-Positive Cutibacterium acnes Decreases FOXM1 Expression and Alters Helicobacter pylori-induced Pathogenesis in a Murine model of Gastric Cancer"2023 Junior Faculty Research Award Winner
Dr. Ian DeStefano, assistant clinical professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences
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Clinical and Translational Research
Nicole Moyer V25
“Using Extracellular Vesicles to Treat Progressive Canine Mitral Valve Degeneration”International/Conservation Medicine Research
Elise Westervelt V24
“Spatial heterogeneity in Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Outbreaks Among Terns and Gulls in New England”Basic Research
Tara Francis V25, and Chloe Hill V25
“The Optimization of a Murine Model for Shiga Toxin Producing E. coli Infections”Hannah Reichert V24
“Hepatic Cytokine Profile of Alcohol-fed, IL-1β Transgenic Mice: a Potential Model of Alcoholic Steatohepatitis”Graduate Student Research
Laura Borkenhagen, Ph.D. candidate
“Inference of Viral Phenotype through Machine learning Approaches – An Influenza Test Case”Rachel Kanefsky V24
“Gene Expression Signatures Predict Response to Chemoimmunotherapy in Canine Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma”House Officers/Postdoctoral Fellows Research
Dr. Katie Dittrich, Resident
“Veterinary Students’ Attitudes toward Anesthesiology as a Specialty”2022 Junior Faculty Research Award Winner
Dr. Heather Gardner, assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences
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