A yr of utmost pleasure and tragedy led fourth-year vet pupil Susan Arnold down a profession path she didn’t initially see for herself—on the Canine Mind Tumor Program on the College of Minnesota.
The enjoyment she skilled that yr was in discovering her ardour for neurology. Approaching the top of her program in veterinary medication on the College of Wisconsin, she’d been feeling doubt about her long-held purpose of changing into a wildlife epidemiologist.
She then began a brand new rotation within the neurology division and was instantly referred to as to motion. On her first day, a younger commonplace poodle named Batman who had been hit by a automobile was transferred to their care. He had an harm to his brachial plexus—the community of nerves within the armpit that carries motion and sensory alerts to the entrance legs. It’s a typical results of such a automobile accident, and it will possibly result in everlasting paralysis.
Arnold was liable for Batman throughout his time within the hospital, and she or he was thrilled to observe and help him as he recovered. Her expertise in that rotation gave her a brand new sense of goal and path.
The tragedy she skilled that yr occurred across the identical time. Considered one of her highschool buddies, Curtis, had been recognized with glioblastoma, an aggressive and lethal type of mind most cancers. He handed away 18 months later.
The juxtaposition of those life experiences—her discovery of her love of neurology and her ache of shedding a pal to glioblastoma, was pivotal. She quickly shifted her profession path towards neurology and neurosurgery, with a heavy emphasis on mind tumor analysis.
An internship introduced Arnold to the College of Minnesota School of Veterinary Medication (CVM) and the Canine Mind Tumor Scientific Trials Program. That program, housed on the Masonic Most cancers Heart, coordinates collaborations between medical researchers and veterinarians to diagnose mind tumors in canines and deal with them with breakthrough therapies.
“There are only a few choices for treating mind tumors in canines, so the analysis is essential for serving to canines and their households,” Arnold stated. “And we’ve additionally discovered that canines are a superb mannequin for mind tumors in individuals, so we are able to take the data we achieve and see if it may be utilized in human medication.”
Arnold, now an assistant professor at CVM, splits her work between medical neurology at CVM’s Veterinary Medical Heart, and a researcher within the Mind Tumor Program. Moreover, Arnold is ending her PhD at CVM in comparative and molecular biosciences. Her PhD includes analysis into mind tumor remedy responses regarding genetic variations amongst canine breeds. This work, too, has translational potential for human mind tumor victims, because it might present clues to the genetic foundation of why some individuals reply to remedy and others don’t.
“I can say confidently that there isn’t any place as sturdy because the U of M for collaborative translational mind tumor analysis,” Arnold stated. “We’re one of many only a few veterinary medical faculties in a significant metro space that’s residence to so many healthcare corporations and is on the identical campus as a human medical college, a most cancers heart, and plenty of different glorious analysis departments. Once I take into consideration doing this work elsewhere—it’s doable, but it surely wouldn’t be practically as environment friendly or expansive as it may be right here.”
That is tailored from the unique story printed by the School of Veterinary Medication.
