The Master of Science Seminar and Examination of Sai Navya Vadlamdui

Biography

Sai Navya is a master’s student in the Department of Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences. She is working on developing novel diagnostic methods for the diagnosis of lymphoma in canines under the mentorship of Dr. Priscila Serpa. She completed her Veterinary Medicine degree from Sri Venkateshwara Veterinary University, India, in 2022. She will be starting a PhD in the BMVS department in fall 2024.

Funded by

Veterinary Memorial Funds
The Office of Research and Graduate Studies

Awards and Academic Achievements

Outstanding Master’s Student Award, College of Veterinary Medicine, 2024.

Lay Language Abstract 

Lymphoma is a type of blood cancer affecting white blood cells. Canine lymphoma is a common neoplasia, with an incidence rate of 20 to 100 cases per 100,000 dogs, making it a significant research focus. Current diagnostic methods are invasive and costly. Additionally, the wide variety of tumor types in lymphoma makes it challenging to determine the exact subtypes, which is crucial for selecting the best treatment approach.

To overcome these challenges, we proposed a less invasive method known as "liquid biopsy". This technique involves taking a blood sample of a dog to find cell-free DNA from tumor cells using Next-Generation Sequencing technologies. Our goal was to see if blood DNA could provide the same information as tumor DNA. In our study, we worked with five dogs diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma through traditional methods. We collected blood, tissue from needle biopsies, and buccal swabs from each dog. We then performed DNA extraction and sequencing on these samples.

Our findings showed that 1.7-50% of the mutations in tumor DNA were also detected in matched blood DNA, though these represented only a small fraction of all changes found in blood samples. Additionally, the Blood samples also revealed mutations related to canine B-cell lymphoma in genes like MYC, POT1, and TRAF3. In conclusion, our study supports the use of liquid biopsy as a feasible and less invasive method to diagnose lymphoma in dogs. However, they might not show all genetic variations of the tumor due to limited tumor DNA content.

Presentations

1. Sai Navya Vadlamudi, Priscila Serpa, Andrea P. Santos, Santiago Diab. Development of artificial intelligence-assisted macrophage identification in canine diffuse large B cell lymphoma: A pilot study to investigate prognostic implications, 2024, 33^rd Annual BMVS symposium.

2. Sai Navya Vadlamudi, Priscila Serpa, Detection of Cell-free Tumor DNA in Liquid Biopsies of Dogs with Lymphoma, 2024, Biomedical Veterinary sciences Research in Progress Seminar.

3. Sai Navya Vadlamudi, Priscila Serpa, Andrea P. Santos, Santiago Diab. Development of artificial intelligence-assisted macrophage identification in canine diffuse large B cell lymphoma: A pilot study to investigate prognostic implications, 2023 ACVP annual conference.

Examination Graduate Committee

Major Advisor/Chair:

Priscila Serpa, DVM, DACVP, DSc
Research Assistant Professor
Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology

Graduate Advising Committee Members:

Hehuang David Xie, PhD
Professor
Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology

Shawna Klahn, DVM, DACVIM
Associate Professor
Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences