Dr. Jiming Feng has been selected to participate in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Hypoglycemia & Diabetes course held in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. After reviewing his application and all supporting documents, they awarded him the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. 

Dr. Ahmed Abdelmoneim's trainee, Emma Tsai, an undergraduate, has been awarded the Outstanding Senior Award from the College of Science, and she also received the LSU Distinguished Communicator Medal. Congratulations Emma!! We are so proud of all of the winners!

Dr. Ethan Anderson was celebrated tonight at a special event on his LSU Alumni Association Rising Faculty Research Award! We build teams that win at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine! Ethan is a wonderful member of our biomedical science community—talented, astute, & innovative!

A special thanks to all the students in the graduate program for hosting last week’s departmental seminar speaker, Dr. Ellen Hoffman from Yale University. Additional thanks go to Melanie Wilson from Dr. Abdelmoneim’s lab for doing an outstanding job of introducing the speaker and emceeing her talk. This was a wonderful student-led effort to cap off our seminar series for the year! 

Congratulations to Anthony Ayanshina from Dr. Anderson’s lab recently passed his American Society for Clinical Pathology Board of Certification (ASCP BOC) exam!

Congrats to Angel Casillo from Dr. Abdelmoneim's lab on passing her General Exam!! This marks a major milestone on her academic journey. She will now continue to her dissertation research examining the effects of Environmental Pollutants on the Development of the Nervous System in Zebrafish.

The 3rd Annual Neuroscience Symposium led by Dr. Alexander Murashov at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine was a resounding success, with almost 200 attendees, a fabulous keynote speaker, & impactful science present in abundance. Congratulations, Alex & organizing team—what a milestone moment for the Baton Rouge chapter of the Society for Neuroscience!

It's National Engineers Week and we spotlight Dr. Alexander Lee, assistant professor of anatomy, who blends engineering and biomechanics to create practical, high-impact solutions. Dr. Lee is developing anatomically precise, 3D-printed prosthetics that restore mobility in animals while also building interactive teaching tools that make complex anatomy more accessible for students. His work focuses on improving function, flexibility, and affordability, while collaborations with clinicians extend these innovations into surgical planning, visualization, and medical device development, advancing both clinical care and education.

“My goal is to push the boundaries of how we use technology, whether it's designing prosthetics that enhance the lives of animals and humans or developing tools that empower students," he said. Read the story: https://www.lsu.edu/vetmed/blog/2026/alexander_lee.php

Congratulations to our departmental contingent to the Annual Society of Toxicology Meeting! In the last week of March, the labs of Drs. Noel, Abdelmoneim, and Dugas travelled to the sunbaked hinterlands of San Diego to present their work to an international throng eager to hear their findings. Special congratulations to Nicole Akers and Melanie Wilson from the labs of Drs. Dugas and Abdelmoneim for winning top honors in their respective sectional categories! This was an amazing showing for our CBS students! 

Dr. Michael Skinner, The Eastlick Distinguished Professor from the Center of Reproductive Biology, School of Biological Sciences from Washington State University, Pullman Washington, gave a very enlightening presentation on "Environmental Exposure Induced Epigenetic Transgenerational Inheritance Impacts on Reproduction, Disease Etiology and Evolution". Department Head, Dr. Alexander Muravshov, hosted this seminar.

Sadia Islam Sinza, a Graduate Assistant in Dr. Ogundele's lab, presented "VTA-hippocampal Computation of Reward Contexts" in Thursday's Breakfast Break for Science. 

Congratulations to Dr. Alexander Murashov & organizing team for putting together another fantastic Annual Neuroscience Symposium at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine this week. I’m looking forward to making my opening remarks! This is the third of these annual symposia, which are going from strength to strength—with a record number of registrants this year!  #LSUVetMed: Proudly serving #Louisiana, impacting the world as part of our Statewide University!

Allison Vestal-Laborde has been chosen as the recipient of the 2026 CBS Staff Service Award. This special honor celebrates her valuable contributions and the positive influence of her work on training DVM students.

The CBS Team showing up and out for the SEC Food Fight Challenge! We donated 327 items to our Vet Med Pocket Food Pantries! Even Aries, the newly rescued pup from CCA, got in on the action! 

The CBS team of graduate students, staff, and faculty at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine represented us so well at the Society of Toxicology Meeting in San Diego. We swept the board in awards and accolades, showcasing our outstanding science!

Here are the details, with my warm congratulations to all:

• Dr. Alexandra Noël mentored and recruited students in the Undergraduate Education Program
• Dr. Noel chaired and spoke in a session entitled, "Take a deep breath....hold it! Rising cardiopulmonary toxicity and regulatory concerns of nontobacco-derived nicotine and CBD vaping products”
• Nicole Akers won first-place poster presentation award from the Medical Devices Specialty Section
• Dr. Ahmed Abdelmoneim won the 2026 Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award from the Comparative Toxicology, Pathology and Veterinary Specialty Section
• Dr. Abdelmoneim also won the New Career Scientist Award from the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Section
• Melanie Wilson won second-place poster presentation award from the Reproductive and Development Toxicology Specialty Section
• Dr. Tammy Dugas and former graduate student Dr. Ankit Aryal won 2025 Best Paper Award from Cardiovascular Toxicology
• Nicole Akers, Russell Morales-Rubio (Dugas team) and Shilpa Thota (Noël team) received travel awards to attend the Society for Experimental Biology & Medicines satellite conference on New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) to Understand Human Health and Disease across Diverse Populations

Henri D. Noel, an undergraduate student working in Dr. Fabio Vigil's laboratory. Henri has just been accepted into the "Summer Undergraduate Research Program in Neuroscience (NeuroSURP)" at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of Rutgers University. 

Congratulations to our very own LSU Alumni Association Rising Faculty Research Award winner, winning a $5,000 cash award, Ethan M. Anderson!

Warm congratulations to Dr. Masami Yoshimura, retiring today after 21 years of dedicated service to LSU School of Veterinary Medicine. An expert in adenylyl cyclase type 7 & alcohol consumption in innate pulmonary immune responses, he leaves a profound legacy of scientific mentorship to many students, postdoctoral scientists, & peers.

Poorna Sai Vaddi, in Dr. Francis’ lab, received an award to attend the IDeA State Trainee Cancer Research Conference. Also, our former student, Ankit Aryal from Dr. Dugas lab, had his manuscript selected as the 2005 Paper of the Year in Cardiovascular Toxicology!

Biplov Sapkota gave a work-in-progress seminar on Oncolytic Viral Therapies for Pancreatic Cancer with Drs. Francis and Kousoulas.

Abhishek Pandit successfully defended his dissertation! His dissertation explored a novel model and approach for treating heart failure with preserved ejection fraction in Dr. Francis’ lab with collaborations with Dr. Allerton. It is an exciting end to this part of his academic journey, but just the start of his next adventure; he will be shortly moving to Indiana University to start a postdoctoral position.

CBS would like to report that LSU School of Veterinary Medicine is now a member of the Clinical & Translational Science Award One Health Alliance (#COHA), with huge thanks to Dr. Levent Dirikolu & Catherine Takawira for doing the heavy lifting! 

“3Q with Oliver,” is an interview with CBS' Dr. Levent Dirikolu, Director of our Center for Clinical Innovation at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine! What an insightful dive into the fantastic work that this center does! 

WATCH THE VIDEO

CBS graduate students are our most important resource in a laboratory. They bring new ideas and a fresh outlook on our work. Congratulations to Ankit Aryal, one of our outstanding former graduate students in Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine's Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences and LSU Superfund Research Program trainee for spearheading our initial forays into miRNAs and their interface with pollutant-induced cardiopulmonary diseases. A manuscript based on the project he initiated was just selected as Best Paper Award for 2025 in the journal Cardiovascular Toxicology. Please join me in congratulating Ankit! #Wediscover, #LSUSRP, Stephania Cormier, Alexandra Noël, Ph.D., Ashlyn C. Harmon. The title of his publication was, "AhR Activation at the Air-Blood Barrier Alters Systemic microRNA Release After Inhalation of Particulate Matter Containing Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals."  

CBS has outstanding graduate students, who contribute so much to all our missions at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine! Angel Casillo, a talented PhD student in Dr. Ahmed Abdelmoneim’s group, will present her work on behavioral impacts of environmental contaminant exposure at Thursday’s Breakfast Break for Science seminar.

After 20 remarkable years at LSU Vet Med, Dr. Frederic Gaschen is retiring. Since joining the LSU Vet Med faculty in 2006 as Professor of Small Animal Medicine, Dr. Gaschen has taught countless veterinary students. He has been a dedicated clinician, a successful researcher, a leader within the LSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital, and—most importantly—a generous mentor and colleague. Dr. Levert Dirikolu, CBS professor (right), congratulating Dr. Gaschen.

What a fantastic day we had at Phi Zeta Research Emphasis Day! Our trainees truly did an amazing job, and I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to each of you for your effort and dedication. We are so proud to celebrate several wonderful awardees:

• Nyah Shepherd - DVM student (Murashov)
• Biplov Sapkota - graduate student category (Francis)
• Demetrius McAtee, Caiden Ingram - graduate student category (Abdelmoneim, Noel)
• Martha Schwall, Shallinie Thangaduarai - postdoc category (Anderson, Murashov)

Congratulations are in order! Big winner Tuesday night at the Research Awards Reception and the Phi Zeta Induction Ceremony. Dr. Brooke Dubansky was awarded the Andrew Lackner Mentorship Award.

Ignitius Lim and Biplov Sapkota were selected as the Departmental Nominees for the LSU Dissertation Year Fellowship. We want to wish them good luck in the competition!

Exciting news in CBS! We are thrilled to share that Rana Fallahsafa has been accepted to the prestigious Allen Institute workshop on brain dynamics and has been awarded $1,500 in travel funding to attend. The workshop, titled "Describe Your Neurons Like the Allen Institute," was held April 6–8, 2026, in Seattle.

It is tailored for early-career scientists, including graduate students, postdocs, and data analysts, focusing on mastering neuronal cell type classification and refining research techniques. This is excellent news for Rana and our CBS department, demonstrating our students' strong motivation, rigor, enthusiasm, and passion for science! 

Great news, Ahmed Abdelmoneim has been chosen by the Executive Board of the Comparative Toxicology, Pathology, and Veterinary Specialty Section (CTPVSS) at the Society of Toxicology (SOT) as the recipient of the 2026 CTPVSS Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award! He will be giving a short 5-minute talk at the section’s business meeting later this month and will receive a Certificate of Recognition at the SOT Annual Meeting in March. 

International Day of Women and Girls in Science emphasizes closing the STEM gender gap to tackle global challenges and boost innovation. The day was established by the United Nations to support gender equality and strengthen the role of women and girls in scientific and technological advancement worldwide. This year, we spotlight Dr. Tammy Dugas, associate dean for research and graduate education at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, whose science hero is Marie Curie. “Her perseverance in science, despite her position as a woman in a man’s world, is inspiring. In 2015, I was honored to participate as a Professeur Invitée at the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Sorbonne University). My mother also instilled in me at a young age, ‘Whatever you can see in your mind and believe, you will achieve.’” Later today, we will feature Dr. Dugas’ mentee, Nicole Akers, LSU Vet Med DVM/PhD candidate.

We continue our celebration of International Day of Women and Girls in Science with Nicole Akers, DVM/PhD candidate at LSU Vet Med, whose mentor is Dr. Tammy Dugas, featured earlier today. “My superpower is perseverance. In science, perseverance is necessary to bypass obstacles and move forward. Marie Curie is my science hero. Not only was she the first woman to win a Nobel prize, but also the first person to win it twice. She sacrificed much in dedication to her research.” #EveryVoiceInScience #WomenInScience #SheischangingSTEM #WeDiscover #LSUResearch

The results are in! We’re officially a research powerhouse at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, advancing animal and human health to better lives! We’ve leapt from 9th to 6th highest National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded veterinary school in the nation according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research! Huge thanks to all our talented biomedical & veterinary scientists, as well as to our awesome Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Education, Dr. Tammy Dugas Newman & her outstanding team!

CBS has some of the most talented trainees! Shilpa Thota, a post-doctoral researcher in Dr. Noel's lab and Nicole Akers, DVM/PhD student from Dr. Dugas' lab both have been honored with the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine (SEBM) Young Investigator Awards! They were honored with travel awards in the amount of $1000 each and this will enable them to attend and present abstracts at the 2026 Experimental Biology and Medicine Conference in San Diego, CA, in March. Congratulations ladies, great job!

Our Scientist of the Day at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine is Elena Pak, laboratory manager for Dr. Alexander Murashov’s research group. Not only is Elena a talented scientist but she is also a skilled and compassionate mentor to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a postdoctoral scientist in the lab. Congratulations, Elena! We’re all very proud of you! Geaux #LSUVetMed Tigers!

CBS proudly announces the 2025 recipients of the CBS Heidi Lott award.  Congratulations to both lgnitius Lim and Melanie Wilson for being chosen as our award winners for 2025.  The ad hoc committee composed of Drs. Levent Dirikolu, Michelle Osborn and Alexandra Noël, reviewed the applications and based on the selection criteria, the cumulative GPA, and the first authored publications, the committee awarded the 2025 Heidi Lott Award to two outstanding PhD students.