| Faculty Advisor |
Andrea Cupp
|
|---|---|
| Contact Email | acupp2@unl.edu |
| Website | |
| Advisor College: |
Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
|
| Potential Student Tasks |
Responsibilities include general lab maintenance and assisting graduate students and post-doctoral researchers with experiments and analysis. Student researchers will be expected to keep an organized and detailed lab notebook. |
| Student Qualifications |
We are looking for students with an interest in animal science and/or reproductive biology. We are looking for student researchers who are detail-oriented and excited to learn new skills. Student researchers must be willing to work in a team and troubleshoot alongside others to help solve problems. |
| Training, Mentoring, and Workplace Community |
Our lab is very teamwork-oriented, as many projects need multiple sets of hands. Incoming student researchers will be working alongside a graduate student or a postdoctoral researcher to complete a project, with flexibility to answer new questions based on the student’s specific interests. We are passionate about working with students to figure out their future goals and help them obtain the skills to reach those goals. We are flexible to accommodate for student class schedules. Student researchers will also be contributing to a project that aims to improve both human and agricultural health. Students who have worked in our lab are often co-authors on scientific abstracts and papers in peer-reviewed journals. Many of our students have been successful in obtaining jobs, internships, and have been accepted into professional programs (medical school, vet school, dental school). |
| Available Positions |
2
|
About 15% of cattle in our herd have higher than normal levels of androstenedione (a hormone used to make testosterone). These cattle (high A4 cows), also have irregular reproductive cycles because of ovarian abnormalities such as decreased progression of ovarian follicles. This is similar to what is seen in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Other ovarian abnormalities include excess inflammation and collagen buildup, which is also similar to what is seen in PCOS but also the ovaries of aging women. We have been able to reverse some of these effects in tissue culture by treating ovarian cortex with the vascular endothelial growth factor A 165 (VEGFA 165), a growth factor involved in the generation of new blood vessels. However, exactly how the inflammation and collagen buildup remains unknown. Also, it is not known how the excess levels of androstenedione results in excess inflammation and collagen buildup. For this project we will be observing the effects of androstenedione on bovine ovarian cortex on collagen levels and inflammation, as well as determining the effects of senolytics (chemicals used to reverse effects of aging) on the ovaries of high A4 cows.