This elective experience will be focused on veterinary pathology in the context of drug discovery and development for human medicines and also pathology of laboratory species. The externship will be hosted by Genentech, Department of Safety Assessment Pathology with direct supervision by me (Melissa Schutten, DVM, PhD, DACVP). There are 14 ACVP-boarded veterinary pathologists within our department. During this externship, the main objectives and responsibilities will be: 1) develop a general understanding of the drug discovery and development process for animal and human health, including regulatory requirements and high level designs for clinical trials; 2) evaluate and interpret clinical pathology data from laboratory animal animals (rodent, dog, and nonhuman primate) exposed to various test articles; 3) correlate these findings to histopathology findings- this will be guided by me through evaluation of digitized slides (we will work through these correlates/case studies together; 4) generate differential diagnoses and possible general pathology hypotheses re: these findings; 5) perform literature searches w/re: to these findings; 6) exposure to advanced image analysis and the application of AI to pathology data (we have a digital pathology and artifical intelligence group within our SA Pathology dept); 7) exposure to ethical animal use in research and drug development through awareness of the 3Rs principles.
Our department has 14 ACVP-board certified pathologists (12 anatomic and 1 clinical, and 1 dual boarded; all except one pathologist has a PhD). One is boarded in Safety Pharmacology. In addition, our digital pathology group has 1 ACVP-boarded veterinary pathologist, 3 PhD biomedical engineers, and 3 master's level scientists working on deep learning algorithms for advanced and/or automated pathology analysis. We have amassed a large amount of continuing education materials (courses on drug development, toxicology and toxicologic pathology, digitized histopathology images). We have hosted veterinary students, veterinary pathology residents, and PhD students in the past for externship/internships ranging from 2-12 weeks long.
5 days/week. ~6-8 hours/day. Monday-Friday. ~50-60% of this time will be spent independently evaluating data and educational materials. ~40-50% of this time spent in project team meetings, pathology rounds, seminars, and discussions with me re: project data and pathology discussions (general and systemic path, lab animal path, and toxicology). At the end of this externship, I would expect the student to deliver a 30 min presentation to the SA Pathology group describing a test article (pharmaceutical agent)-related pathology finding and the potential underlying mechanism of toxicity (this will be guided by me w/re: to possible mechanisms; presentation will be generated by student, but refined/discussed with me prior to group presentation).
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, this externship will be entirely virtual.