EMS research grants and travel scholarships awarded
16 January 2012
Five veterinary students have now been selected to receive extra-mural study (EMS) research grants this year from the RCVS Charitable Trust; four travel scholarships have also been granted to veterinary surgeons to make short, research-related visits to veterinary or medical centres.
Gemma Dryburgh (pictured), a veterinary student at the University of Edinburgh, is one of the EMS research grant recipients.
She will receive £500 to undertake a research project entitled Bone Reabsorption in High Milk-Yielding Dairy Cattle versus Beef Cattle.
“It is important to me that I gain some experience in research to really open my horizons in the world of veterinary medicine into all avenues of work for once I'm qualified, and also to further my knowledge and experience,” says Gemma.
“I wish to see just how much of their own bone mineralisation dairy cattle sacrifice in order to keep up with the high milk-yields that human consumption demands.
"Knowing these values may allow feed rations to be more accurately made up to help reduce bone reabsorption and increase the welfare of dairy cattle.”
She thanked the Trust for its support. “I am thoroughly honoured to receive such a wonderful opportunity of being able to carry out my own research project,” Gemma says.
“Although a £500 grant may sound relatively small beer, EMS research grants are useful to veterinary students,” says RCVS Trust Director Cherry Bushell.
“Gaining experience of research can help stand students in good stead for their later careers – whether as researchers or as practitioners.
"Similarly, the relatively modest travel scholarships we award can be useful, for example, by supporting the dissemination of research findings at conferences.”
These awards will be made are as follows:
RCVS Trust extra-mural studies research projects:
| Joseph Clarke |
University of Edinburgh |
Investigating anaesthetic and analgesic protocols for use in animal birth control and rabies eradication programmes in the developing world |
| Gemma Dryburgh |
University of Edinburgh |
Bone reabsorption in high milk-yielding dairy cattle versus beef cattle |
| Christopher Snow |
Royal Veterinary College, University of London |
Analysis of faecal cortisol levels and behavioural data from released Asian elephants from a rehabilitation centre in Sri Lanka |
| Emily Ulfelder |
Royal Veterinary College, University of London |
Analysis of microparticle formation in feline arterial thromboembolism (FATE) |
| Kostijin Van Ginkel |
University of Nottingham |
Veterinary pathobiology clinical EMS research internship based at the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory |
RCVS Trust travel scholarships
| Stephanie Dakin |
To present PhD findings about the role of inflammation in equine tendinopathy at the annual meeting of the International Society of Tendon and Ligament and Orthopaedic Research Society, Moscone West Convention Centre San Francisco, USA |
| Timothy Williams |
To present research into deleterious effects of over-treatment of feline hyperthyroidism on renal function can be reversed by dose adjustments to anti-thyroid medication at at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Forum, New Orleans, USA |
| Pablo Alarcon Lopez |
To present PhD work: cost of post-weaning multi-systemic wasting syndrome in pigs and cost-effective analysis of different control strategies at the International Pig Veterinary Society (IPVS) congress 2012, Jeju, Korea and the 13th Symposium of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics (ISVEE) 2012, Maastrich, The Netherlands |
| Claire Okell |
To present a study of "Health in Emergencies and Refugee Health" at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark |