The Master of Science Seminar and Examination of Laura Victoria Quishpe Contreras

Biography

Laura V. Quishpe Contreras is a final-year Master’s student in the Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences program at Virginia Tech, also having finished her first year as a Clinical Pathology resident. He completed her Veterinary Medicine degree at the National University of Colombia, in Colombia. She completed a Master’s degree at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil. In 2023, she served as a research assistant in Serpa lab, and in 2024, she worked as a resident, actively involved in teaching activities with fourth-year DVM students. Her next step is to finish her residency at Cornell University and then, passionate about teaching as she is, she’s planning to stay in academia. Laura enjoys tasting new foods and drinks, reading detective-themed books, playing videogames and spending time with her family and friends.

Funded by

• VMCVM Office of Research and Graduate Studies

Awards and Academic Achievements

• BMVS department’s nominee for the Graduate Teaching Excellence Award, 2025.
• 2016 SABER PRO Distinction (Resolution 19806, December 2nd, 2015),
• National Education Ministry of Colombia (Recognition awarded to a group of Veterinary Medicine students that had the highest scores at the national exam for the area in the given period).

Lay Language Abstract 

There are two gastrointestinal diseases of great relevance in cats: lymphoma, a type of cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Cats that have either of these diseases can exhibit the same clinical symptoms, such as vomiting, diarrhea, and weight loss. The diagnosis is challenging, and many of the routine tests end with similar results. To obtain a definitive answer, an intestinal biopsy is typically performed; however, in some cases, it is not sufficient. Developing less invasive techniques that can also accurately differentiate between entities requires a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms of both diseases at a molecular level. In this study, we aim to apply a technique that combines the architecture of the organ and genetic information to identify genes found in different proportions in cat samples for both lymphoma and IBD, and to compare them with healthy controls. A total of 26 genes were found to be different between the samples when grouped by disease. When examining each of the disease groups and comparing the gene proportion in three specific areas, differences are also observed, which may be relevant for future studies that aim to utilize the same genes and molecular techniques for diagnostic purposes. Finally, this is the first time the method, named spatial transcriptomics, has been applied to cat samples.

Publications

De Carli S, Breyer GM, Lopes CE, Zitelli LC, Contreras LV, Valle SD, Siqueira FM. Characterization of the cervicovaginal microbiota of female beef cattle harboring Campylobacter fetus subsp. venerealis using 16S rDNA gene sequencing. FEMS Microbiology Ecology. 2023 Apr;99(4): fiad029.

Silva JH, Contreras LV, Ponath CF, Bondan C, Machado MC, González F. Blood concentrations of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium and dietary cation-aniondifference in dairy cows. Arquivo Brasileiro de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia. 2023 Feb 10;75:12736.

Batista CP, Gonçalves RS, Contreras LV, de Faria Valle S, González F. Correlation between liver lipidosis, body condition score variation, and hepatic analytes in dairy cows. Brazilian Journal of Veterinary Medicine. 2022;44.

Eder VD, Zardo IL, Quishpe Contreras LV, Valle SD. Primary erythrocytosis in a bitch: clinical and laboratorial aspects. Acta scientiae veterinariae. Porto Alegre, RS. Vol. 50, supl. 1 (2022), Pub. 807, 6 p.. 2022.

Zubieta AS, Marín A, Savian JV, Soares Bolzan AM, Rossetto J, Barreto MT, Bindelle J, Bremm C, Quishpe LV, Valle SD, Decruyenaere V. Low-intensity, high-frequency grazing positively affects defoliating behavior, nutrient intake and blood indicators of nutrition and stress in sheep. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 2021 Jun 22;8:631820.

Valle SdF, Contreras LVQ. Hematologia e alterações hematológicas em ruminantes domésticos (Hematology and hematologic alterations in domestic ruminants). Rev Bras Buiatria. 2021;4(3):59-81.

Contreras LV, Pöppl ÁG. Hiperadrenocorticismo atípico e hipotiroidismo canino. Revista MVZ Córdoba. 2019 Jun 24;24(2):7262-7.

Presentations

Quishpe Contreras L, Lin T., Huang P., Serpa P., Santos A. Mystery slide presentation: Carcinoma of unknown primary origin. In: 2024 ACVP/ASVCP Annual Meeting. 2024, Seattle, Washington.

Quishpe Contreras L, Hoffmann J, Bondan C, Furlanetto TW, González FD, Valle SF. Application of a Ssandell-Kolthoff reaction-based technique to measure urinary iodine of dairy cattle: a pilot study. In: 2023 ACVP/ASVCP Annual Meeting. 2023, Chicago, Illinois.

Bilhalva L, Contreras L, Zwarg, T, Saliamis N, de Jesus J, de Lemos E, Valle S. Intracytoplasmatic corpuscles in basophils from three garden tree boas (corallus hortulanus) negative for reptarenavirus. In: 2022 ACVP/ASVCP Annual Meeting. 2022, Boston, Massachusetts.

Contreras, L. V. Q.; Andreola F, Eder V, Borenstein AP, Kaefer K, Fogaca T, Bilhalva L, Almeida B, Valle SF. Comparison between RBC variables in cats according to FIV/FeLV infection status. In: 2021 ACVP/ASVCP Virtual Annual Meeting. 2021, Virtual.

Contreras, L. V. Q.; Almeida SSN, Soares ABU, Borenstein APS, Kaefer K, Andreola FJ, Valle SF. How clinical pathologist are doing on quarantine? Impact of SARS-COV-2 pandemic on working activities and use of virtual continuing education tools for clinical pathologists of Brazil. In: 2020 ACVP, ASVCP, ISACP Virtual Annual Meeting.

Contreras, L. V. Q.; Almeida, SSN, Eder VDP, Almeida BA, Valle SF. Avaliação dos parâmetros eritrocitários de felinos testados para FIV e FeLV no hospital de clínicas veterinárias da UFRGS. In: VIII Congreso Estadual ANCLIVEPA – RJ. 2019, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Contreras LVQ, Castillo MAC, Almeida SSN, Valle SF. Physical, biochemical and cytological findings of chylous and pseudochylous effusions in small animals. In: ASVCP and ACVP Concurrent Annual Meeting – 2019. 2019, San Antonio, Texas.

Examination Graduate Committee

Major Advisor/Chair:

Priscila B. S. Serpa, DVM, MSc, DSc, DACVP (Clinical)
Adjunct professor
Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology

Graduate Advising Committee Members:

Stella de Faria Valle, DVM, MSc, PhD
Professor
Department of Veterinary Clinical Pathology – Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul,
Brazil

Kevin Lahmers, DVM, PhD, DACVP (Anatomic)
Clinical professor
Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology

Hehuang “David” Xie, PhD
Professor
Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology