Caitlin McIntosh

http://www.myhreequine.com/index.htm

For the first half of the summer, I conducted organic research under the direction of Professor Timo Ovaska here at Connecticut College. The mission of the Ovaska lab is to investigate biologically active and potentially important medicinal compounds which contain the 5-7-6-3 or other similar phorbol type skeletons. Because of the recent developments in green chemistry, this summer, I chose to try and discover the most environmentally friendly way of completing a specific reaction. My six weeks of research with Dr. Ovaska were very productive, and my research mainly focused on the applications of microwave technology to the cyclization/Claisen rearrangement reaction on a particular substrate. The substrate which I am currently researching, prostration, happens to be biologically active showing anti-HIV and AIDS potential.
My research results from this summer will be published in the journal ‘Synlet and Synthesis’ in about a month. The manuscript has already been accepted, and will be published in the next issue of the journal. It was very exciting for me this summer working in Dr. Ovaska’s lab because I was able to get a large amount of research done in a fairly short period of time. I discovered that the cyclization/Claisen reaction I was testing can be done neat (without solvent) in the microwave, providing a promising direction for this reaction in a pharmaceutical setting due to its green applications. The catalytic amount of methyl lithium which is used is easily separated from the product and the product from the neat reaction is quite easy to purify with a reduced amount of waste.
For the second half of my summer, I worked at Rochester Equine Clinic in Rochester, NH. Rochester is a private veterinary medical and surgical hospital for equine medicine. The facilities include a full surgical suite, radiology lab, exercise pool, neonatal unit, radio isotopic scan unit and space for 33 horses at a time with 3 isolation stalls. There are 4 senior staff doctors (2 surgeons, 1 ambulatory, 1 internal medicine) and 4 interns (recent DVM graduates) with whom I worked with closely this summer. The mission of the hospital is to provide exceptional care to referral cases as well as provide an ambulatory practice in the surrounding 50-mile radius.
During my time at Rochester I was directly responsible to the intern on call for the day, and assisted with many procedures and cases. While working as an extern, I dispensed and administered IM, IV, PO, and SQ medications. I performed TPR, colic and visual checks on patients. I held and restrained horses for bandage changes, radiographs, nasogastric intubation and many other procedures. I scrubbed horses for surgery and monitored fluid and suction during surgery. I jogged and lunged horses for lameness evaluations. I was on call for emergencies and also performed midnight treatments. The coolest thing I got to do was place an IV catheter (jugular catheter). I really enjoyed working at Rochester, and I plan to go back next summer and work as a technician. While the work took a lot of time (about 10-12 hrs per day), it was very rewarding and exciting to be part of a hospital where I felt I was truly making a contribution to the quality of care our patients received.
For both of my internships, I feel that my objectives were met quite well. I was able to gain experience in two areas of science that I feel are equally important, and in doing so, gained some further understanding of how I will combine them in my senior integrative project. I plan to research invasive plant species which are poisonous to cattle and horses, specifically to look at the biochemical effects on the animal exposed. I am still planning to complete my project second semester, and I was able to do more research on my topics and narrow my project down to 10 plants. While working at Rochester, I was able to get a hold of a book ‘A guide to plant poisoning of animals in North America’ by Anthony Knight and Richard Walter. This book has proven very valuable, and because of it, I have been able to choose 10 plants which are listed at noxious and invasive in at least 4 states and are also poisonous to cattle and horses. The coolest thing for me was learning that the structures of three of the poisonous amines in one of the toxic plants are very similar to the chemistry I have been studying with Professor Ovaska.
I plan to focus on two of the plants I have identified as noxious and invasive and go into depth researching the bio-chemical effects of their toxic chemicals inside the bodies of both horses and cattle. My research will mostly be literature review and hopefully I will be able to find a few case studies through the veterinary contacts that I have made this past summer. In this way, I can use the knowledge of both the biology (equine) and chemistry (organic) I have gained this past summer to explain how these invasive species can pose a major threat to cattle and horses in the United States. I would like to also investigate the most common allergic reactions / poisonings to plants in New England and perhaps provide a list to the Arboretum staff that they can give out to people creating pasture sites. This would help aid in educating the public on the threats of plants such as foxglove and delphiniums.