UF veterinary grad student selected to attend NIH research festival

The research findings of University of Florida veterinary graduate student Shasta McClenahan will be featured in a poster presentation slated for the second annual National Institutes of Health-sponsored National Graduate Student Research Festival, to be held Oct. 11 in Bethesda, Md.

McClenahan's research involves the isolation and characterization of caliciviruses from marine mammals. Calciviruses can cause blisters on the flippers and in the mouths of marine mammals, and have caused spontaneous abortions in pregnant animals.

"These marine caliciviruses are unique in that they can move from the ocean into the terrestrial environment, where they infect many other animal species, livestock and even humans," McClenahan said.

Her project began as a collaboration with Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which are investigating the declines in the Steller sea lion population in Alaska.

The event will be held at the NIH's main campus. One of the festival's goals is to help graduate students meet NIH investigators with whom they may wish to pursue postdoctoral training.

"Several hundred students from all over the country applied for this privilege, and those selected represent the 'creme-de-la-crème' of our future scientists," said Carlos Romero, Ph.D., a scientist in the department of infectious diseases and pathology at UF's College of Veterinary Medicine and McClenahan's graduate program supervisor.