Name: Breanna Gaubatz
From: Syracuse, New York
Degrees and institute where received: BS Animal Health Technology, Murray State University, 2010
MS Veterinary Science, University of Kentucky, 2013

Breanna Gaubatz came to the University of Kentucky to combine her love of horses with continuing her education. With the Gluck Equine Research Center’s reputation for equine research, it seemed like a perfect fit in the heart of horse country, Gaubatz said.

Gaubatz’ research focused on equine protozoal myeloencphalitis (EPM), a progressive neurologic disease of horses caused by the parasite Sarcocystis neurona. More than half of the horses in the United States are seropositive for S. neurona, while only 0.5-1% of horses actually develop the disease.

“My thesis research consisted of two projects that were conducted to identify factors involved in the development of EPM in horses,” she said. “The first project explored a possible genetic susceptibility to EPM by attempting a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using DNA from archived tissue of definitively-positive EPM horses