VBS News

During the “Future Leaders in Nutrigenomics” Conference on May 13, 2013, Dr. Kaushal was recognized for his outstanding achievements and promise in the field.

Dr. Van Saun, Professor and Advisor in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences (VBS) at Penn State, was presented with the 2013 Excellence in Academic Advising Award on May 4th, 2013. Colleagues, Drs. Nuket Acar and Lester C. Griel, asserted that nominating Dr. Van Saun was the right decision. His enthusiasm, hard work, and expertise encourage each student he advises to think beyond the classroom or laboratory to make a better world.

Mike Henry, a Shreyer Scholar and recent IID graduate, has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarship. He will be working in Africa for the next year as a Fulbrighter prior to attending medical school at Columbia.

The Penn State Pre-Vet Club held the annual Pre- Vet Club Symposium on March 23, 2013. The Symposium

On Saturday, March 23, the Penn State Biomedical Sciences Club held its 4th annual undergraduate conference. This all-day event featured six prominent biomedical scientists.

Samantha Fanelli is a Penn State University senior majoring in Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences major and minoring in Equine Science, She is President of PSU’s Pre-Vet Club, and will be attending the School of Veterinary Medicine at University of Pennsylvania to pursue Veterinary Medicine this fall.

Clinical assistant professor of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences highlighted in Eberly College of Science, Science Journal.

Shakira Nelson, a PhD student in Pathobiology, has been accepted into the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Prevention Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program (CPFP).

This document answers many of the questions frequently asked by hunters who wish to have their deer tested for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).

IID student and Biomedical Sciences Club President Alyssa Patt is a winner of the 2012 College of Agricultural Sciences Internship Award for her summer work at the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Alison Franklin was named Penn State's Outstanding Adult Student for 2012.

2nd Annual Combined Molecular Medicine, Molecular Toxicology, Immunology and Infectious Disease and Pathobiology Graduate Program Research Retreat Highlights Faculty and Graduate Student Research Projects.

Dr. Hovingh was awarded the Animal Welfare Advocacy Award by the PVMA. He was recognized for his leadership role in developing effective dairy welfare programs, addressing pain management issues in livestock, and for serving as an instructor for dairy welfare programs both nationally and internationally.

Title of the talk: Targeted vaccination approaches against intracellular bacteria: Lessons learned from Chlamydia trachomatis Location: W203, Millennium Science Complex Date: Tuesday, August 7, 2012 Time: 10:00AM-11:00AM

A week long camp for high school students grades 11-12 who are interested in science and love learning! The camp runs from June 24-29, 2012 on the University Park campus. Click this news item to find out more!

Congratulations are in order to several Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences (VBSC) students who received awards at the Student Awards Recognition ceremony held Sunday March 18, 2012. Also, a student at University of Pennsylvania writes back to share her appreciation for the things she learned as a VBSC student now that she is attending veterinary school!

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Curt Omiecinski, Josh DeKeyser, Elizabeth Laurenzana, Eric Peterson and Tao Chen in receiving the honor of 2012 Society of Toxicology (SOT) Board of Publications Award for the Best Paper in Toxicological Sciences. The title of the paper is Selective Phthalate Activation of Naturally Occurring Human Constitutive Androstane Receptor Splice Variants and the Pregnane X Receptor. Dr. Omiecinski and others were honored at the SOT Awards Ceremony on Sunday, March 11, 2012.

The 2012 Osborne and Mendel Award for recent basic research accomplishments in nutrition, from American Society for Nutrition, in Bethesda, MD

The goal of the Biomedical Sciences Club Undergraduate Conference is to give current undergraduate students the opportunity to meet with distinguished professionals in the field of biomedical science.

Penn State scientists find an inspiring collaboration. Dr. Prabhu, who specializes in the health benefits of fish oil, and Dr. Paulson, who is studying the stem cells that cause Leukemia, connected their seemingly separate study areas during a weekly faculty lunch -- the result? A possible cure for Leukemia.

UNIVERSITY PARK — One sentence from a 6,500- plus word article in the medical journal Blood jumped out at Robert Paulson. So he headed to the lab next door and handed the article to K. Sandeep Prabhu. “Oh, wow,” Prabhu recalled saying. “We have that compound.” The two researchers in the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences had the same thought. “We should give this a try,” Paulson said. A year and a half and many experiments on mice later, Paulson and Prabhu think they’ve discovered a medical breakthrough that could potentially benefit thousands of leukemia patients a year. They’ve discovered that a compound produced from fish oil appears to not only kill certain leukemia cells in mice but kill the stem cells that cause the cancer. “So there seems to be no relapse. And that’s the key thing,” Paulson said in an interview last week. “And if we can translate that into the clinic, it’ll be a big breakthrough.” There are lots of questions and experiments ahead for them. They need more funding and resources. But they’re cautiously optimistic that the treatment could work in people.

On January 18, 2012 Bortree Seminar Speaker starts up for the spring semester and the first speaker is Dr. Cynthia Baldwin from the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Baldwin's seminar title is "Bovine gamma delta T cell responses to important bacterial pathogens: role of the unique WC1 pattern recognition receptors" Her host is Dr. Joy Pate,Professor of Reproductive Physiology in the Department of Dairy and Animal Sciences. This Bortree Seminar is being held in 301D Life Science Building at 11:00 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012.

A compound produced from fish oil that appears to target leukemia stem cells could lead to a cure for the disease, according to Penn State researchers. The compound -- delta-12-protaglandin J3, or D12-PGJ3 -- targeted and killed the stem cells of chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML, in mice, said Sandeep Prabhu, associate professor of immunology and molecular toxicology in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences. The compound is produced from EPA -- Eicosapentaenoic Acid -- an Omega-3 fatty acid found in fish and in fish oil, he said.

This program is a career exploration for students in 6th through 9th grade who have a strong interest in science and mathematics and a demonstrated desire to choose veterinary medicine or biomedical sciences as their future career.

Spotlight on May 2011 Graduate with a Masters in Pathobiology, Yuting Bai. By: Avery August, advisor, Cornell University

A note from Dr. Kapur about our graduating students and the highlights for VBSC, IID, and TOX majors.