Journal Award Winner Minisode: Misoprostol and The Equine Microbiome

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The gastrointestinal microbiome represents the new frontier in veterinary medicine, with implications reaching far beyond digestive health. Dr. Rachel Pfeifle joins us to discuss her 2024 AJVR Resident Award-winning research examining how misoprostol affects the equine fecal microbiome—a study that elegantly bridges pharmacology with microbial ecology.

Rachel's research journey reflects the perfect blend of personal interest and mentor guidance, as she explains how her desire for clinically applicable research merged with her advisors' ongoing pharmacokinetic studies. The collaboration that followed involved specialists from multiple institutions, demonstrating how contemporary veterinary research increasingly requires diverse expertise to tackle complex questions.

What stands out most in our conversation is Rachel's emphasis on persistence through research challenges. Now a faculty member at the University of Georgia, she offers valuable advice to veterinary residents hoping to publish: develop the grit to weather inevitable setbacks and see projects through to completion. Her journey from resident to award winner to faculty researcher illustrates how recognition can fuel continued scientific curiosity and commitment.

We're proud to showcase exceptional early-career researchers like Rachel through our AVMA Journal Awards program, which recognizes outstanding student, intern, and resident authors. Want to support the next generation of veterinary researchers? Consider nominating a promising author for next year's awards by March 15th, 2025. You can read Rachel's groundbreaking manuscript in AJVR today and discover how microbiome research is transforming equine medicine.

2024 Journal Awards Nominee Research: 2024 Journal Awards Collection

Journal Award nomination instructions: Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association | AVMA

AJVR Article: https://doi.org/10.2460/ajvr.22.09.0161

INTERESTED IN SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT TO JAVMA ® OR AJVR ® ?

JAVMA ® : https://avma.org/JAVMAAuthors

AJVR ® : https://avma.org/AJVRAuthors

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Episode Transcript

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Sarah Wright (00:30):
You're listening to Veterinary Vertex, a podcast
of the AVMA Journals.
In this episode we chat withAJVR Resident Award winner,
Rachel Pfeifle.

Lisa Fortier (00:45):
Welcome to Veterinary Vertex.
I'm Editor-in-Chief LisaFortier, and I'm joined by
Associate Editor Sarah Wright.
Today we have Rachel joining us.
Rachel, thank you so much fortaking time out of your new
faculty position to be with ushere today.

Rachel Pfeifle (00:58):
Absolutely, it's my pleasure.
Thank you so much for having me.

Sarah Wright (01:03):
All right, let's dive right in.
Rachel, you are a residentaward winner for your AJVR
article Multidose MesoprostolPharmacokinetics and its effect
on the fecal microbiome inhealthy adult horses.
What was your reaction when youfound out that you were
nominated?
And then when you found out youhad won?

Rachel Pfeifle (01:21):
So, the fun story here is really that my
advisors and my mentors duringmy residency nominated me
unbeknownst to me, so I actuallydidn't know that I was
nominated for the award until Ilater found out that I had won
the award.

(01:42):
So, I guess I don't really havea reaction to being nominated
alone because I didn't know.
But I was extremely honored tobe awarded this journal award.
I think you know it speaks torecognition of my work and it
feels good to always berecognized

Lisa Fortier (02:06):
Yeah, fantastic, your manuscript's in a very
contemporary topic of microbiomeand especially fecal microbiome
.
I'm sure you've seen the recentarticle about in foals.
Fecal microbiome is related totheir athletic ability, so yours
is a little bit different, butstill very interesting.
What sparked your researchinterest in the microbiome?

Rachel Pfeifle (02:27):
Yeah, just as you said, I think this is a
really hot topic in veterinaryresearch and in human medicine
research right now.
I think that thegastrointestinal microbiome as
well as other microbiomes so wenow know that there's a
microbiome that exists in therespiratory tract and that sort

(02:50):
of thing and all of those areasof research are really being
expanded upon pretty quicklyright now.
And so I knew, coming into myresearch project, when it came
time for me to pick a researchproject, I already knew that I
wanted to pick a topic that wasvery clinically applicable while

(03:25):
I was in vet school and thatsort of thing, and knew that I
was really drawn to those moreclinical types of studies as
opposed to more benchtop typestudies.
And so the more I read aboutthe microbiome, the more
interested I was in the topic,and my residency advisors and
research advisor had alreadydone some previous research on

(03:48):
pharmacokinetics of mesoprostolUm and we're planning to do this
multi-dose mesoprostolpharmacokinetic study, and so we
sort of decided at the sametime, if we're already giving
this medication, to look at itspharmacokinetics in horses, why

(04:11):
don't we also look at its effecton the microbiome?

Lisa Fortier (04:12):
in horses, so that's sort of how we ended up
there.
Excellent Sounds likementorship is alive and well,
Rachel, which is great to hear.
Give you an opportunity now togive a shout out to any of your
mentors that you'd like to.

Rachel Pfeifle (04:20):
Yes absolutely.
I have so many to thank.
So.
Kara Leskola at Auburn was myresearch advisor for this
project and really helped me alot throughout the entire sample
collection process, as well asthe data analysis and manuscript
preparation.
And then all of my othermentors at Auburn as well Erin

(04:46):
Groover, Ann Boldridge andMariana Mora.
I could not have made itthrough my residency without
them.
They really supported methroughout clinics and my
research project and everythingelse that is going on in the
midst of crazy residency times.
And then, finally, Dr AaronErickson at the University of

(05:08):
Missouri also played a huge rolein helping me with this project
, especially the microbiomeportion of the study.

Lisa Fortier (05:16):
Yeah, great, we're so excited to have these awards
.
You might know that we gave outtwice as many this year because
we had an unbelievablenomination pool.
So, this year, for each of thejournals JAVMA and, AJVR that we
gave out twice as many thisyear because we had an
unbelievable nomination pool, sothis year, for each of the
journals JAVMA and AJVR, we gaveout four student, four intern
and four resident awards.
It was really very cool.
The AVMA and the journals arejust really excited to be able

(05:36):
to support intern residents andstudents in this manner.
How has winning this awardchanged your outlook on a career
path?
I think this award is reallyencouraging for one thing, and
so you know, it makes you wantto go on and move forward and do
other clinical researchprojects, and I think, as a

(06:01):
newly boarded internist, I thinkthat's what we really need at
this point in our career is thatencouragement and recognition,
and I think it helps us continueto move forward.
So I'm now a new faculty memberat the University of Georgia,
and so I have plans, you know,to continue on a clinical

(06:24):
research track and continue tolook at projects that can
hopefully easily be applied toour cases that we see in the
hospital day to day.

Sarah Wright (06:35):
Actually shout out to Karen Laskola.
She was my respiratoryphysiology professor when I was
in vet school at IllinoisUniversity of Auburn.

Rachel Pfeifle (06:42):
Oh yeah.

Sarah Wright (06:43):
Small world for sure.
Always, and now that you're anew faculty too, if you ever
have a student or house officerthat you're working with on a
project, definitely considersubmitting their work to the
journal awards if it's publishedin JAVMA or AJVR.

Rachel Pfeifle (06:58):
Absolutely yes, definitely will.

Sarah Wright (07:01):
So you touched already a bit on your advanced
training.
So how did your trainingprepare you?

Rachel Pfeifle (07:08):
So in my residency at Auburn we do all of
the residents go through amaster's degree program as well,
and so we had training andresearch through our master's
degree program, also wentthrough an experimental design

(07:30):
course that included both kindof the aspects of designing a
study but also went overstatistics and that sort of
thing as well.
So all of those coursescertainly helped me prepare for
the project and allowed me to beable to help assess the data

(07:52):
and everything like that.
And then I think, of course,coming back to the mentors again
, so Dr Laskola helped a lotwith the pharmacokinetics side
of the study.
Dr Don Booth at Auburn alsohelped a lot with our
pharmacokinetics, lot with ourpharmacokinetics, and they

(08:18):
provided, you know, more study,specific training for the
pharmacokinetic aspect of theproject Sounds like there's
great collaboration for thisproject.
Yeah yeah, absolutely, it wasdefinitely a lot of people
coming together.

Sarah Wright (08:29):
Also, I see that you have that didactic training
and creating a research projectand having the biostatistics
background too.
That's always very helpful,yeah, so what advice would you
share with veterinary residentsthat are hoping to publish
manuscripts?

Rachel Pfeifle (08:45):
so I was thinking about this question a
little bit ahead of time and, um, I think the biggest piece of
advice I would have is to justremain persistent, if you will,
throughout the project.
You know it's all good and wellto plan ahead as much as you

(09:06):
can while you're collectingsamples and while you're working
through the data analysis andmanuscript preparation process,
but there's always going to bechallenges with research,
especially with clinicalresearch, and so I think it's

(09:26):
really it comes down to beingpersistent and kind of having
that grit to continue on.
So if something doesn't quitego right during sample
collection and you have to startover or something like that,
just kind of having thatpersistence and patience to
really keep up with the projectand follow through.

Lisa Fortier (09:50):
Yeah, got to be a finisher.
Yes, yeah, gotta be a finisher.
Yes, uh, rachel, you alreadyhave some superpowers, but if
you could actually have a crazysuperpower, what would it be and
why?

Rachel Pfeifle (10:02):
so I think this is probably an easy answer for a
lot of veterinarians.
I would want to talk withanimals.
I think it would help both inthe job, of course, because you
could actually talk to yourpatient and get some more
information on how they'refeeling and that sort of thing.

(10:24):
But I also just think that itwould be really fun to talk to
my own personal pets and animalsand you know the horses that I
ride and that sort of thing.

Sarah Wright (10:35):
You've had that answer before and definitely be
careful what you wish for.
I think Lisa heard my veryvocal cat several times
yesterday.
She went to her internistappointment in the morning and
was very upset for the rest ofthe day.
Oh no, yeah, not sure I want toknow what she's thinking after
that, but which is cute andcuddly?
I definitely would want to hearit.
Yeah, I'm sure I want to knowwhat she's thinking after that,
but which is cute and cuddly?
I definitely would want to hearit.
Yeah, thank you so much again,rachel.

(10:56):
I really appreciate you beinghere and submitting your
manuscript to AJVR, andcongratulations again on winning
the Resident Journal Award.

Rachel Pfeifle (11:04):
Thank you so much.
It's an honor.

Sarah Wright (11:07):
Congratulations again to all of our Journal
Award winners.
Do you have a student, internor resident author that you'd
like to nominate?
Nominate them today.
Please see our website forfurther instructions.
You can read Rachel'smanuscript in AJVR.
I'm Sarah Wright, joined byLisa Fortier.
We want to thank each of youfor joining us on this episode
of the Veterinary Vertex podcast.

(11:28):
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