Featured Trainees are students, postdoctoral fellows, practicing physicians and faculty, and others who work under the tutelage of Levy CIMAR Core Faculty members and who stand out for their efforts in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Trainees might be graduate students, antimicrobial stewards, educators, scientific researchers, medical doctors, veterinarians, pharmacists, or a combination of any of these and other professions. If you are a Levy CIMAR Core Faculty member and would like to nominate someone for “Featured Trainee” distinction, please email us any time at cimar@tufts.edu.
Summer 2022 Featured Trainee:
Emma Price, VMD
- 2nd year master’s candidate in Clinical and Translational Science at Tufts University’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
- Student researcher working with the Levy CIMAR’s Claire Fellman DVM, PhD, and Shira Doron MD, to identify factors driving antimicrobial prescription in hospitalized dogs and cats
Emma Price is a second-year master’s student in Tufts University’s Clinical and Translational Science program, which is designed for trainees who seek to affect the translation of research into improved clinical care and public health. Under the guidance of the Levy CIMAR’s Claire Fellman, DVM, PhD (Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine) and Shira Doron, MD (Tufts Medeical Center), Emma is working with an interdisciplinary team to improve antimicrobial stewardship in small animal veterinary medicine. Her research focuses on the first steps of building a benchmark, similar to the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network standardized antimicrobial administration ratio, in small animal medicine to incentivize improved prescribing practices. As a first step, Emma is identifying patient factors associated with antimicrobial prescription in hospitalized dogs and cats at the Foster Hospital for Small Animals at Tufts University. These patient factors will next be used to inform facility-level drivers of antimicrobial prescription which will be adjusted for in the benchmark.
As part of her research, Emma is working to help validate a common data model adapted from human healthcare for use in veterinary medicine. The observational medical outcomes partnership common data model, OMOPv5+ CDM, normalizes data from disparate sources into a common language. This model, developed at Tufts, is an exciting step for veterinary medical research as it facilitates comparative and translational studies in veterinary medicine and aids in the analysis of big data.
Emma’s passion for her research stems from her veterinary training. Following her interest in varied biological mechanisms among species, Emma earned her B.S. in Animal Science at the University of Connecticut and then obtained her veterinary degree at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. There, her interest in One Health—or the interconnectedness of animal, human, and environmental health—grew, and she realized the potential to use veterinary medicine to advance animal and human health.
Upon graduating, Emma completed a small animal rotating internship in Washington, D.C., to cement her clinical experience. She then came to Tufts to learn how to design and conduct research studies to address health issues facing animals and humans. The collaborative community at Tufts, Emma says, has offered her the mentorship and resources to do just that. Given that bacteria can be transmitted between and among humans and pets and the similar antimicrobials used in veterinary and human medicine, antimicrobial stewardship efforts in animals benefit all of public health. Emma will formalize her career in public health as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the CDC starting this summer.
Outside of research, Emma still enjoys practicing clinical veterinary medicine at general practices for cats and dogs. She relaxes by spending time with family and friends, and getting outside, going cycling, skiing, hiking, and sailing depending on the time of year.
Meet all of the Levy CIMAR's Featured Trainees:
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Emma Price, VMD, master’s candidate in Clinical and Translational Science at Tufts University’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
2nd year master’s candidate in Clinical and Translational Science at Tufts University’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences working with the Levy CIMAR’s Claire Fellman DVM, PhD, and Shira Doron MD, to identify factors driving antimicrobial prescription in hospitalized dogs and cats
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Joshua Khuvis, MD Candidate at Tufts University School of Medicine and Levy CIMAR Student Researcher
MD Candidate at Tufts University School of Medicine and Levy CIMAR Student Researcher working with Dr. Shira Doron on exploring the impact of diagnostic stewardship interventions on Clostridioides difficile test ordering practices and results
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Efrat Hamami, Molecular Microbiology PhD Candidate Working to Identify Vulnerabilities in Drug Resistant A. baumannii Isolates
Molecular Microbiology PhD Candidate Working in the Ralph Isberg Lab to Identify Vulnerabilities in Drug Resistant A. baumannii Isolates
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Kathleen Davis, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar Working on Adapting Drug Combination Testing of Clinical Isolates
Postdoctoral Scholar working to identify antibiotic and small molecule combinations that function against problematic community and hospital-acquired pathogens; Working on adapting drug combination testing of clinical isolates
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Shailab Shrestha, MERGE-ID Ph.D. Candidate and Recipient of the Tufts GSBS Fellowship For International Students
PhD Candidate in Molecular Microbiology, MERGE-ID (Medically-oriented Research in Graduate Education – Infectious Disease) track at Tufts University’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; Inaugural Recipient, Tufts University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Fellowship Supporting International Student Education, 2018
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Courtney Chan, Infection Prevention Coordinator, Medical Scribe, and Researcher
Infection Prevention Coordinator and Infectious Diseases Clinic Medical Scribe at Tufts Medical Center; Research contributor and co-author with the Levy CIMAR’s Drs. Maya Nadimpalli and Shira Doron: “Antibiotic Resistance: A Call to Action to Prevent the Next Epidemic of Inequality,” in Nature Medicine (2021)
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Eve Abraha, Undergraduate Researcher and Co-Teacher
Undergraduate Researcher at Tufts Medical Center working with the Levy CIMAR’s Dr. Shira Doron; Co-teacher in the PARE (Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance in the Environment) program’s short course, PARE-Seq, under the guidance of the Levy CIMAR’s Drs. Carol Bascom-Slack and Amy Pickering
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Aubrey Specht, DVM Candidate and Award Winner, 2020 Tufts Vet Summer Research Training Program
Second-Year Graduate Student pursuing a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) at the Cummings School; Winner, Basic Science Award at the 2020 Tufts Vet Summer Research Training Program
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Iyob Gebremariam, Levy CIMAR Software Developer
Software Developer working with the Levy CIMAR on our Cutter and DiaMOND research and analytics tools; Masters student studying International Business at the Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
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Juan A. Hernández-Bird, MERGE-ID PhD Student
2019 American Society of Microbiology (ASM) Capstone Fellowship awardee and PhD Candidate in Molecular Microbiology – MERGE-ID (Medically-oriented Research in Graduate Education - Infectious Disease) track at Tufts University’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
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Scarlet Bliss, Undergraduate Laidlaw Fellow
Laidlaw Scholar working with CIMAR’s Drs. Amy Pickering and Carol Bascom-Slack to incorporate molecular methods into the PARE (Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance in the Environment) project
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Erica Fuhrmeister, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar and National Science Foundation Fellow
Postdoctoral Fellow, Pickering Lab, Tufts University School of Engineering; Recipient: National Science Foundation Fellowship titled, “Transfer of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes betwee
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Gabriela Andujar Vazquez, MD, Inaugural LEAP Fellow
Attending physician, Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Tufts Medical Center; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine; Inaugural LEAP Fellow for 2018-2019