Brittany Hale, Class of 2015, was invited to present a poster at the annual conference of the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine.
The summer after her first year of veterinary college, Brittany Hale went to France through an OSU student exchange program. She really enjoyed the research portion of that experience, so upon returning to Corvallis, she contacted Dr. Luiz Bermudez, head of CVM’s Department of Biological Sciences, and asked if there were any opportunities to work on research here. Dr. Bermudez referred Hale to Dr. Debbie Mustacich, a CVM Assistant Professor who works at the Linus Pauling Institute.
Dr. Mustacich put Hale to work on a project testing the use of alpha-Tocopherol, the natural form of Vitamin E, in conjunction with cancer drug Cisplatin, to treat late stage ovarian cancer. Cisplatin causes neuropathy (nerve damage) in patients and the reason is unknown. Vitamin E is an anti-oxidant and Dr. Mustacich hypothesis is that the neuropathy may be caused by oxidative damage and depletion of alpha-Tocopherol.
Hale worked for more than a year helping Dr. Mustacich test the alpha-Tocopherol/Cisplatin combination on female rat models. Hale was involved in all aspects of the project including histology and necropsy, as well as animal treatment, care, and health monitoring.
Hale is quick to acknowledge the contributions of other students working in the Mustacich lab: Shannon Pease, Giovanna Cotto, Devin Corrigan and Andrea Methven. She particulary stressed how hard Methven worked. “She contributed a ton to the research,” says Hale. “She worked hand-in-hand with me on the animal work, assays, and data analysis.”Hale was especially interested in the data analysis. “I like trying to see trends,” says Hale. “I like trying to figure out what might be the cause of what we are seeing in the data.”
Although, results on the effect of alpha-Tocopherol on Cisplatin-caused nerve damage will not be available until all the histology testing is completed, early data analysis did present an exciting, new finding: The rats who were treated with Cisplatin plus alpha-Tocopherol had fewer tumors compared to those treated with Cisplatin alone. Hale submitted these results to the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine (SFRBM) and received a travel award to present her research at their international meeting in San Antonio. Only ten U.S. researchers received this award. “It was well deserved,” says Mustacich. “Brittany has put in many long hours and done outstanding work.”
The demands of third-year of veterinary college, and upcoming fourth-year rotations, mean Hale won’t be doing more research for a while, but she hopes to pursue it again in the future. “I probably won’t go solely into research, because I really like the medicine aspect as well.” She is hoping to combine future practice with clinical research. “It would be a cool way to bring something extra to your practice, where clients could participate, maybe cut down on their treatment costs, and get treatment they wouldn’t otherwise have access to.”
Brittany Hale is a 2013-2014 recipient of the Ruth F. Thompson Scholarship.
