{"id":3914,"date":"2021-06-01T23:03:26","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T23:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stagewp.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/?page_id=3914"},"modified":"2024-03-12T21:56:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T21:56:37","slug":"faculty-spotlight-2021-sparling-drechsler","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty-spotlight-2021-sparling-drechsler\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty &amp; Staff Spotlight: Yvonne Drechsler and Brandi Sparling"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"hero-secondary\">\n  <div class=\"relative bg-black\">\n                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"adhere object-cover\" src=\"\/media\/westernu\/basic-slider\/slide-default-00.jpg\" alt=\"slide-default-00\">\n      <div class=\"adhere gradient-overlay\"><\/div>\n        <div class=\"relative container pt-56 md:pt-112 pb-144 md:pb-192\">\n      <div class=\"md:flex md:justify-between px-12\">\n        <div class=\"sm:w-8\/12 md:w-6\/12 xl:w-5\/12 px-12\">\n                      <div class=\"mb-20\">\n              <div class=\"block font-sans font-bold text-14 text-white leading-130\">\n  <span class=\"inline-block\">\n    <a href=\"\/\" class=\"block hover:underline\">WesternU<\/a>\n  <\/span>\n      <span class=\"inline-block mx-6\">\/<\/span>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\" class=\"inline-block hover:underline\">College of Veterinary Medicine<\/a>\n          <span class=\"inline-block mx-6\">\/<\/span>\n      <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/faculty-and-staff\/\" class=\"inline-block hover:underline\">Faculty and Staff<\/a>\n    <span class=\"inline-block mx-6\">\/<\/span>\n    <span class=\"inline-block\">Faculty &amp; Staff Spotlight: Yvonne Drechsler and Brandi Sparling<\/span>\n  <\/div>            <\/div>\n                                        <h1 class=\"t-h1-sans  text-white\">Faculty &amp; Staff Spotlight: Yvonne Drechsler and Brandi Sparling<\/h1>\n        <\/div>\n              <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n<section class=\"relative my-48 md:my-72\">\n  <div class=\"container\">\n    <div class=\"lg:flex px-12 lg:justify-start\">\n              <div class=\"w-full lg:w-5\/12 2xl:w-4\/12 -mt-80 md:-mt-112 mb-48 px-12 lg:pr-32\">\n                              <nav class=\"py-28 px-40 2xl:px-64 rounded-5 md:rounded-8 bg-gray-darker text-white mb-40\">\n            <ul>\n                                              <li class=\"block my-8\">\n                  <a class=\"text-22 font-normal leading-130 tracking-20 text-white hover:text-yellow transition-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/faculty-and-staff\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">Faculty and Staff<\/a>\n                <\/li>\n                                              <li class=\"block my-8\">\n                  <a class=\"text-22 font-normal leading-130 tracking-20 text-white hover:text-yellow transition-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/administration\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">Leadership Team<\/a>\n                <\/li>\n                                              <li class=\"block my-8\">\n                  <a class=\"text-22 font-normal leading-130 tracking-20 text-white hover:text-yellow transition-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">Faculty<\/a>\n                <\/li>\n                                              <li class=\"block my-8\">\n                  <a class=\"text-22 font-normal leading-130 tracking-20 text-white hover:text-yellow transition-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/faculty-and-staff\/staff\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">Staff<\/a>\n                <\/li>\n                          <\/ul>\n          <\/nav>\n                            <\/div>\n      \n      \n                  \n                  \n      <div class=\"w-full px-24 wysiwyg-content lg:w-7\/12 2xl:w-7\/12\">\n        <h2>CVM Researcher Receives Cobb-Vantress Endowed Graduate Poultry Research Fellowship Award<\/h2>\n\n      <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n<section class=\"relative my-48 md:my-72\">\n  <div class=\"container\">\n    <div class=\"lg:flex px-12 lg:justify-center\">\n      \n      \n                  \n                  \n      <div class=\"w-full px-24 wysiwyg-content xl:w-10\/12 2xl:w-9\/12\">\n        <p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-3913 alignleft\" src=\"\/media\/veterinary\/images\/cvm-ofr\/sparling_drechsler.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"462\" height=\"274\" \/><\/p>\n<p>June 2021 &#8211; Western University of Health Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine researcher, Brandi Sparling, is the recent recipient of the Cobb-Vantress Endowed Graduate Poultry Research Fellowship Award. This opportunity supports her for her graduate degree, and allows her to improve an area of poultry science. Supporting PI, WesternU CVM Associate Professor Dr. Yvonne Drechsler, PhD, was glad to have supported Brandi in her effort to pursue this award.<\/p>\n<p>Brandi was driven to apply after having learned that the Cobb-Vantress Fellowship aligned with her research interests in genetics, molecular work, and immunology.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI am thrilled, and incredibly honored,\u201d Brandi stated when asked how she felt about being the recipient of this award. \u201cIt could not have come at a better time as I start my West Virginia University doctoral research at WesternU. It gives us an extra incentive to not only perform our goals, but to reach beyond them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The funds from this award will be partly used to cover a line of MHC-I genotyped leghorn type strain of chicken that is crucial for the research Brandi and Dr. Drechsler are preforming\u2014these chickens are being housed at another university for their research use. One of Brandi\u2019s personal goals will also be to lower her educational expenses, which the funding assists in. In applying to this opportunity, she admitted that she did not meet any specific challenges, but has had her fair share of difficulty finding a laboratory that fits with mentorship that would provide her with support for personal and professional growth along her journey through graduate school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConducting work in Dr. Drechsler\u2019s lab has been all I could ask for, and could not be happier with my position to conduct doctoral research\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n<p>Primarily, Brandi is focusing on an immunoglobulin-like receptor project, which was proposed under the award. Her goal is to unravel the role of specific proteins called immunoglobulin-like receptors in immune response in the chicken. This includes understanding its putative role with the major histocompatibility complex class I molecule. After understanding the immunoglobulin-like receptors role in infectious disease, they hope to incorporate that knowledge into current selective breeding programs to increase the immune competence of poultry. Dr. Drechsler explains, \u201cImmunoglobulin receptors have not been well investigated in the chicken, so short term would be establishing them as a factor in the immune response, particularly in viral infection. Long-term I would like to expand this into a model in coronavirus infection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brandi also plays smaller roles in other projects: atopic dermatitis in dogs alongside WesternU CVM Associate Professor Dr. Gagandeep Kaur DVM, PhD, and infectious bronchitis infection on renal-pulmonary gene expression regulation. Simultaneously, Dr. Drechsler has been working on exploring single-cell sequencing and epigenetics in the context of innate immune responses\u2014which ties in with previous work on chicken haplotypes and their current work.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>When asked what impact this will have on the community\u2014particularly the poultry community\u2014Dr. Drechsler made it clear that disease resistance is an important topic, but they have only scratched the surface to understand the underlying mechanisms. \u201cThere are probably conserved epigenetic mechanisms involved in this response involving the receptors and I would like to look at comparative genetics\u201d, she explained. Brandi agreed, noting that \u201cAvian coronavirus and avian infectious bronchitis virus outbreaks cause a significant stock loss and reduction in performance efficiency such as growing and egg production. Pinpointing genetic markers that contribute to disease resistance in infections like these can help mitigate production issues and contribute to bird well-being\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Brandi Sparling would like to thank Dr. Yvonne Drechsler, her major professor for making this opportunity to pursue her doctoral work in her lab. \u201cHer dedication to and review of students\u2019 work is exemplary,\u201d she notes. \u201cDr. Robert J. Taylor Jr., my co-advisor from West Virginia, who has provided encouragement and continues to be eager to help me advance the doctoral research project. My husband, Dr. Theros Ng, who has helped with clarifying my research ideas. He remains committed to seeing me finish the project, and I am thankful for his support. Ms. Lisa Griggs for helpful research direction and project-related discussions. Dr. Trinidad Cisneros for helping me settle down at WesternU and handling all logistical issues from big to small. Dr. Elton Vasconcelos for whom I am excited to work with on Next-Generation Sequencing data analysis. Also, family, friends, and colleagues for their support and guidance throughout the process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Yvonne Drechsler would like to thank \u201cCobb-Vantress and the Poultry Science Association for offering this scholarship. Opportunities for funding young talent in agricultural sciences are few. I would also like to thank our wonderful collaborator Dr. Robert J. Taylor Jr at West Virginia University. Finally I want to thank Brandi for contributing significantly to the research in my laboratory and her outstanding dedication.\u201d<\/p>\n\n      <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"parent":4076,"menu_order":3655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-3914","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3914"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7041,"href":"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3914\/revisions\/7041"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westernu.edu\/veterinary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}