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Veterinary graduate student receives training grant

Dr. Shannon Roff

Dr. Shannon Roff,  a Ph.D. student at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, has received a TL1 predoctoral training grant from the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

She is the college’s first graduate student to receive the award.

Roff received her D.V.M. from UF’s veterinary college in 2011 and is the first combined resident/Ph.D student in anatomic pathology in the college’s department of infectious diseases and pathology.

The UF CTSI TL1 predoctoral training program provides junior trainees with the skills required to develop a career in multidisciplinary clinical and translational research. The program uses a team-science approach and provides mentoring and didactic training for predoctoral students performing clinical and/or translational research in health-related fields at UF.

Roff’s research is focused on identifying immunogens using T cells from HIV-positive people to create a vaccine against HIV. Roff’s clinical work is made possible through a collaboration with her clinical science mentor, Dr. Mobeen H. Rathore, director of UF’s Center for HIV/AIDS Research, Education and Service at UF Health Jacksonville.

“This work will also help in identifying immunogens for the second generation feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) vaccine for veterinary medicine,” said Dr. Janet Yamamoto, a professor of immunology at the UF veterinary college and Roff’s basic science mentor.
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TL 1 trainees initially receive one year of funding, via a graduate research assistantship and present their research at the annual National Predoctoral Clinical Research Training Program meeting in Washington, D.C.

Roff plans to take her pathology board examinations in 2015 while completing her graduate work. Upon successful completion of her training, she will receive a Ph.D. from the veterinary college’s graduate program with a concentration in clinical and translational science.