Under the supervision of board-certified specialists, externs will gain experience in laboratory animal medicine and comparative pathology in a premier research institution. Externs will receive informal one-on-one training with the faculty and staff in a variety of veterinary specialty areas, including comparative pathology, surgery and anesthesia, disease surveillance, animal behavior, internal medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics. Externs will be expected to attend seminars sponsored by the DCM and other relevant seminars at the University. Evaluations will be provided to the extern by their Faculty Mentor, if required by their home institution.
The Department of Comparative Medicine (DCM) oversees all animal facilities at Stanford. The Veterinary Service Center (VSC) at Stanford University School of Medicine is managed by faculty veterinarians with primary appointments in the DCM. The VSC complies with federal, state, and local guidelines for laboratory animal care and is accredited by AAALAC International. The VSC houses fully equipped and staffed veterinary hospital and clinical service areas, clinical pathology, diagnostic laboratories, animal necropsy, and histology laboratory. These facilities support campus-wide research programs.
40 hours/week will be the expected.
The goals for the student are as follows:
- To develop an experiential perspective of biomedical research
- To understand basic biology of laboratory rodents
- To develop an appreciation of medicine, anesthesia, surgery and post-operative analgesia for laboratory animals
- To develop an appreciation of the control of infectious diseases
- To understand the goals and applications of quarantine procedures
- To develop a perspective on basic animal facility management: barrier and containment corridor concepts, cost issues, etc.
- To become familiar with basic laboratory tests utilized for laboratory animals: serology, microbiology, hematology, serum biochemistry, blood gas analysis, etc.