2017 Summer Research Studentships
Students interested in working on a particular summer research studentship project should contact the faculty member directly in advance of the competition closing date of February 10, 2017 to discuss possible involvement with the project.
Faculty will select the student based on the following criteria:
· Academic record (i.e., transcripts provided by the student)
· General interest in research and the summer research project
· Willingness to adhere to the terms and conditions of the Studentships particularly the commitment to be present for a maximum of 35 hours per week during the entire 16-week period of the research project. As students will receive 4% vacation pay on their hourly rate, it is expected that they will work full-time (35hrs/week) for the entire 16 weeks.
· Restrictions as stated in the award.
Faculty will inform the Associate Dean Research and Innovation at of the name of the student chosen for the summer research student assistantship by February 13, 2017.
Please note that the competition closing date has been extended owing to the delay in posting the positions.
Below is a list of the 2017 summer research studentship project titles. It is followed by a list of project descriptions that include names and departments of faculty contacts.
James and Marjorie Pinkney Award Summer Research Studentship – Animal Welfare (Restricted to DVM students )Euthanasia of poultry by physical and gas methods: use of telemetry for welfare evaluation
Dr. Robert Ward Woolner Summer Student Research Funding – Small Animal Veterinary Medicine (Restricted to DVM students)
Evaluating cross-matching techniques to increase blood transfusion safety in cats and dogs
Merial Veterinary Scholars Program Scholarships (Restricted to DVM students)
Safety evaluation of a novel nanoparticle imaging agent in dogs
Identification and quantification of circulating osteosarcoma tumour cells in the blood of dogs with osteosarcoma and correlation with the development of clinical metastasis
Andrea Leger Dunbar Summer Research Studentships (No Restrictions)
Production of an avian bornavirus reverse genetics platform
Differential gene expression during the mare-embryo dialogues associated with normal and failing pregnancies
Assessing the distribution and abundance of Ixodes scapularis in Ontario
Development of a vaccine to protect against Toxoplasma gondii infection in sheep
Cytologic profile of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in Ontario horses diagnosed with inflammatory airway disease in association with air pollution: a retrospective study
Creation and validation of companion animal cancer cell lines for translational research
The impact of nidogen-1 on mammary tumor development and progression
An investigation into the epidemiology of babesiosis in Ontario ticks and cervids
Determination of important causes of morbidity and mortality in captive psittacine birds submitted to the Ontario Veterinary College Teaching Hospital: management and treatment implications
Antibody specificity in canine cancers
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) Summer Research Studentships (No Restrictions)
Comparison of surgical site infection rates following open or minimally invasive surgery in dogs
Effect of different carbohydrate sources on glycemic index, starch fractions and appetite-related gut hormones in dogs
Investigating the occurrence of Echinococcus multicularis in wild small mammals
Mental health support for agricultural producers: A scoping review of Ontario, Canadian, and international support programs
In vivo tracking of equine stem cells following intravenous injection
MicroRNAs as markers and mediators of embryo development
Assessment of prevalence of Equine Herpesvirus-1, and relative risk of abortion in Ontario breeding farms
Genetic selection for disease resistance: adapting High Immune Response Technology for application in the beef industry
Efficacy of NSAIDs when compounded (mixed) with iron dextran on pain relief following castration in piglets
Peripheral blood mononuclear cell activation dynamics during bovine intestinal Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis infection
Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development (MAESD) Summer Research Studentships (Restricted to DVM Students)
Exploring the use of emerging technology in veterinary medicine and its impact on the bonds among veterinarians, clients and their animals
Changes in nasal populations of bovine respiratory pathogens: effect of aerosol immunostimulation and relationship to development of pneumonia
Profiling adaptive immunity in canine autoimmune thyroiditis
Attitudes towards lifetime use and cumulative endpoints for research and teaching animals
Elucidation of the oncogenic mechanism of the envelope (Env) protein of Jaagsiekte Sheep Retrovirus (JSRV)
James and Marjorie Pinkney Award Summer Research Studentship – Animal Welfare (Restricted to DVM students) (1 project)
Project Title: Euthanasia of poultry by physical and gas methods: use of telemetry for welfare evaluation
Faculty Contact: Patricia Turner (Pathobiology)
Project Description: On-farm euthanasia has become a priority issue for all livestock and poultry sectors in Canada and elsewhere. Recent undercover investigations of Canadian poultry producers, including egg and turkey farmers, have brought on-farm euthanasia to the forefront of public concern. It also highlighted the significant need for science-based recommendations for appropriate euthanasia techniques concerning poultry of all ages, types and sizes, including day old layer chicks, mis-sexed roosters on pullet farms and adult hens and toms. The scientists working on this project (Turner, Widowski, Torrey, etc) have received requests from individual egg, broiler, and turkey farmers, staff at EFC and veterinarians in the layer and turkey industries for information concerning euthanasia. The results of this project will provide much needed data to back up decisions about humane techniques to use on poultry farms and will provide direct benefits to poultry farmers making those decisions. The results can be used to directly inform recommendations in the Animal Care Programs for each of the industries. The specific research for this summer will involve instrumenting cull chickens and turkeys with telemetry devices to record EEG and ECG activity during euthanasia using either physical methods or CO2 gas inhalation. This information is needed to determine what birds experience before and after loss of consciousness (sensibility). The summer student will assist with poultry anesthesia, surgical prepping and monitoring, telemetry analyses, and behavioural scoring to assess bird welfare.
Dr. Robert Ward Woolner Summer Student Research Funding – Small Animal Veterinary Medicine (Restricted to DVM students) (1 project)
Project Title: Evaluating cross-matching techniques to increase blood transfusion safety in cats and dogs
Faculty Contact: Shauna Blois (Clinical Studies)
Project Description: Blood transfusion is an essential part of therapy for critical small animal patients. Crossmatching (CM) is a method used to test blood compatibility between a blood donor and an intended recipient, prior to blood transfusion, to decrease risk of transfusion reactions. CM is performed by sending a sample away to a reference laboratory, or less often in a clinic using very laborious techniques. As a result, CM is often not performed because results will not be immediately available for patients needing emergency transfusion, or because the test is too time-consuming to perform in the clinic. New in-clinic CM kits provide rapid CM results for cats and dogs, but the accuracy of such kits is unknown and therefore needs to be explored.
This study aims to compare the accuracy of in-clinic CM kits in cats and dogs to standardized laboratory methods (the gold standard). CM will be performed on blood samples collected from patients that are in need of transfusion, and 2 different in-clinic CM techniques will be compared to the gold standard technique. In addition to testing accuracy of point-of-care CM kits, rates of incompatible CM among clinical populations will also be tracked in this clinical project. This project is funded by PVC Pet Trust.
Student responsibilities include: 1) assisting in recruitment of patients in need of transfusion at the OVC-HSC; 2) organizing sample collection; 3) performing in-clinic CM; 4) assisting with data collection for a retrospective study in support of this project (data analysis of medical records from the OVC-HSC of patients that have previously undergone transfusion); 5) participating in other clinical trials and research projects with the small animal internal medicine service as time allows.
By the end of the 16-week work placement, the student will become familiar with many aspects of clinical research, and will have the opportunity to be an author on manuscripts related to this research project.
Merial Veterinary Scholars Program Scholarships (Restricted to DVM students) (2 projects)
Project Title: Safety evaluation of a novel nanoparticle imaging agent in dogs
Faculty Contact: Michelle Oblak (Clinical Studies)
Project Description: This research project involves the evaluation of the safety of a novel imaging agent for both preoperative and intraoperative imaging in dogs. This project is AUP approved and funded in collaboration with a researcher at the University Health Network. In patients with cancer, evaluation for metastasis often occurs both prior to surgery and at the time of the procedure. Frequently, preoperative imaging and surgery occur days to weeks apart. This time difference results in multiple injections required for evaluation and can also cause inconsistent results. The agent we are evaluating would allow for a single injection at the time of imaging. As a result of the nanoparticles, the agent becomes trapped in the area of interest, prolonging its effectiveness and allowing for visualization for days-weeks after injection. There are 2 phases to this study. The first phase involves intravenous (IV) injection of the agent for evaluation in 6 purpose bred dogs. This phase of the research will involve safety evaluation as well as imaging at the time of injection and 24, 48, 72h, 7 & 14 days post injection to see how long the agent remains visible. As part of this research project, you will have the opportunity to practice patient handling, injection techniques, monitoring and IV catheterization (depending on training levels). You will also be assisting with post-procedure monitoring, medication administration, venipuncture and care for the dogs. After a period of washout, the second phase of the study will occur. Phase 2 involves local injection of the imaging agent for evaluation of sentinel lymph nodes (SLN). In this phase, the agent will be administered locally and the dogs monitored for safety, drainage to the SLN as well as imaging similar to the previous study. The student selected for this research project will play a very important role in data collection and have the opportunity to present the research at the OVC CORE program and is required to attend the Merial-NIH Veterinary Scholars Program Symposium to be held this year at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda Marylan, USA from August 3-6 (all expenses paid). Depending on the interests and aptitude of the individual they will also participate in manuscript preparation and presentation of this research at future conferences.
Project Title: Identification and quantification of circulating osteosarcoma tumour cells in the blood of dogs with osteosarcoma and correlation with the development of clinical metastasis
Faculty Contact: Brigitte Brisson (Clinical Studies)
Project Description: Osteosarcoma (OSA) is a common, aggressive and highly metastatic primary malignant bone cancer of dogs. Current standard of care consists of limb amputation to control local disease + chemotherapy to control metastatic progression. Despite this, many patients treated by amputation + chemotherapy will develop radiographic evidence of metastasis early in the course of disease. In veterinary medicine, metastasis is typically screened by thoracic radiographs with lung metastasis being visible only once they are 0.5-1cm in size making it a poor early indicator of metastasis. There is no current means to predict metastasis in dogs at this time.
Circulating tumour cells (CTC’s) are being studied and are used clinically as an indicator of prognosis in human patients with certain cancers and have not yet been assessed in dogs, but could be beneficial to clients and clinicians making decisions about cancer treatment for their pets. In particular, it may allow identification of patients that do not respond to certain chemotherapy protocols allowing for a change in treatment prior to the development of gross / clinical evidence of metastasis and to predict prognosis for individual patients which may guide owner decision-making.
The objectives of this study are to: 1) establish and validate a protocol for detecting and quantifying CTCs in veterinary OSA patients (completed summer 2016); 2) quantify OSA CTCs in dogs treated with amputation + chemo and correlate CTCs with clinical development of metastasis; and 3) assess the utility of a commercial cell enrichment tube (OncoquickTM) for identification and quantification of CTCs. This project represents a unique, novel and exciting opportunity to develop an accurate, minimally-invasive and applicable method for identification of metastatic disease prior to clinical detection that will allow tracking of disease progression and monitoring response to chemotherapy, and help to predict prognosis. This study has an approved AUP and is funded by the Ontario Veterinary Pet Trust.
The student will participate in case recruitment, will be exposed to the clinical treatment of dogs with OSA within the OVCHSC, will help with sample collection (blood and bone) and will learn laboratory methods of flow cytometry as they perform the analysis of blood samples for this study. Knowledge of flow cytometry techniques is considered an asset but is not a requirement as it can be learned. The student will be given the opportunity to co-author a publication that stems from the research and to attend rounds / clinics when possible. The student will participate in the CORE program and is required to attend the Merial-NIH Veterinary Scholars Program Symposium to be held this year at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda Marylan, USA from August 3-6 (all expenses paid).
Andrea Leger Dunbar Summer Research Studentships (No Restrictions) (10 projects)
Project Title: Production of an avian bornavirus reverse genetics platform
Faculty Contact: Leonardo Susta (Pathobiology)
Project Description: Avian bornavirus (ABV) is an emerging virus that has been recently detected in an increasing number of avian species, including psittacine birds, waterfowl and finches. Aquatic bird bornavirus (ABBV, a type of ABV) is highly prevalent in wild waterfowl in Canada, in which it infects the nervous system. Given the broad host range of ABVs, transmission and establishment of ABBV in poultry species is a possible threat, and warrants further studies on ABBV virulence and disease inducing ability. A reverse genetic platform for production of recombinant ABBV strains could immensely enable future studies on the biology of this virus. For instance, recombinant ABBV strains expressing the green fluorescent protein could allow better tracking of the virus in experimentally infected birds; modification of single genes could assess their contribution to virulence; rational attenuation of recombinant viruses could lead to vaccine production.