Educational Opportunities
Educational Opportunities
ASLAP Foundation Summer Fellowship Program
The Emory University Division of Animal Resources (DAR) is pleased to offer a 10–12-week summer fellowship in laboratory animal medicine through the sponsorship of the American Society of Laboratory Animal Practitioners (ASLAP). This opportunity is open to first- and second-year students enrolled in an AVMA-accredited college of veterinary medicine. A $5,000 stipend is provided for the summer, courtesy of the ASLAP Foundation. Therefore, please note that hosting of a summer fellow at Emory University is dependent upon securing this funding through ASLAP. Annual funding announcements are made in late fall.
Summer fellows are fully immersed into our veterinary care program and participate in all that we do, including:
- Receive mentorship by faculty and resident veterinarians and veterinary services staff
- Gain handling and clinical experience with numerous laboratory animal species
- Train in management and care of surgical patients, including anesthesia and analgesia
- Participate in breeding colony management and colony health monitoring
- Attend regular meetings and clinical rounds
- Join in regulatory activities such as IACUC meetings, protocol reviews, and site inspections
- Attend didactic opportunities such as resident coursework, journal clubs, and seminars
- Conduct and present a small research project
Additionally, summer fellows are provided the opportunity to spend one week at the Emory National Primate Research Center.
Housing is not available, but listings of available options can be viewed at https://housing.emory.edu/off-campus/home.cfm.
For more information, including application instructions and deadlines, please visit https://www.aslap.org/foundation.
For summer 2025, DAR will be supplementing the ASLAP Foundation stipend of $5,000 with an additional $1,800.
Please contact Dr. Wai Hanson at wai.hung.hanson@emory.edu with any questions.
Veterinary Externship Program
The Emory University Division of Animal Resources (DAR) Veterinary Externship Program is designed to provide interested third- and fourth-year veterinary students the opportunity to experience the field of laboratory animal medicine. Laboratory Animal Medicine is an AVMA-recognized specialty that combines clinical medicine, preventive medicine, pathology, recognition and development of animal models, regulatory oversight, and collaborative/independent biomedical research. The Emory University DAR oversees all aspects of laboratory animal care on campus. Species typically maintained include mice, rats, spiny mice, guinea pigs, ferrets, rabbits, finches, fish, and pigs. Students will observe and participate in the many daily responsibilities of a laboratory animal veterinarian primarily by partnering with current residents and interacting with faculty veterinarians. The student will gain knowledge in the following areas:
- Proper handling, restraint, and associated techniques used in working with laboratory animal species
- Diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases in laboratory animals
- Anesthetic management and perioperative care of laboratory animals
- The basic tenets of regulatory oversight, including IACUC function
- Animal models of human disease
Students are requested to spend a minimum of two weeks in order to gain a true sense of the specialty and of the Emory program specifically. Housing is not available, but listings of available options can be viewed at https://housing.emory.edu/off-campus/home.cfm.
Please contact Dr. Wai Hanson at wai.hung.hanson@emory.edu with any questions.
Emory Residency Program
General Information
Emory University is a private institution in the metropolitan Atlanta area. The campus stands on 631 wooded acres 6 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta and is part of a community of institutions committed to education and biomedical research that includes the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, The University of Georgia, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For more information, visit http://www.emory.edu/home/index.html.
Training is provided to residents through experiences in the Division of Animal Resources (DAR) of the Emory University School of Medicine (SOM) and the Yerkes National Primate Research Center (YNPRC). The program has been in existence since 1987 and has been recognized by the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM) since 2007. The ACLAM-recognized program is 2 years in duration (one year at SOM-DAR and one year at YNPRC) followed by an additional required 3rd year fellowship at either the YNPRC or SOM DAR. Two residents are accepted every year.
Training encompasses 3 focus areas: laboratory animal clinical medicine and pathology, comprehensive didactic training, and research experience. Clinical work reinforces didactic study and provides the opportunity for hands on working experience. Participation in the animal resources program provides experiences in preventive medicine, quarantine and stabilization, interpretation of clinical laboratory data, disease diagnosis, and technical manipulation of research animals, therapy for and control of animal diseases, and experimental surgery and post-operative care. In addition to the foregoing, trainees are exposed to the broad spectrum of other activities in the animal resource program; Trainees interact with investigators providing advice on animal selection, experimental design, techniques of animal experimentation, and on health and environmental variables as they may affect research. Trainees are non-voting members of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and participate in review of animal study protocols and the semi-annual review of the animal resources program and facilities. Under the guidance of the YNPRC and University of Georgia veterinary pathologists, trainees participate in the clinical and anatomic pathological evaluations of animals.
The didactic component of training consists of a core of courses supplemented by seminars, and monthly journal clubs and grand rounds. These courses provide a structured mechanism for coverage of information on the biology and medicine of laboratory animals, including management, care, breeding, diseases and experimental techniques. Tuition for all graduate courses is waived. Courses are offered through the Emory Graduate School and coordinated and taught by SOM DAR, YNPRC, and associated faculty members from the Atlanta VA hospital, Georgia State University, Georgia Tech, and the Centers for Disease Control. CDC and UGA trainees also attend the Emory-based courses making for a very enriching learning environment.
Courses
- IBS 570: Essentials of Animal Experimentation, 1 credit. Spring of even-numbered years
- IBS 690: Laboratory Animal Pathology and Problem Based Learning, 1 credit. Every semester.
- IBS 691: Biology and Medicine of Rodents and Rabbits, 3 credits. Fall of even-numbered years
- IBS 692: Biology and Medicine of Nonhuman Primates and Exotic Animals, 3 credits. Fall of odd-numbered years.
- Management Colloquium, 1 contact hour per week (15 hours total). Spring of odd-numbered years.
Residents are provided time and mentorship for a research project that will culminate in a first-author publication that will qualify the trainee to sit for the ACLAM certifying examination. The mentors for these projects can be any Emory faculty member, including veterinarians within DAR-SOM and YNPRC. Typically, study design and data collection occur during the first year and writing the paper occurs during the second year.
Contact information and additional details can be found on the ASLAP website at: https://www.aslap.org/career-development/current-residencies/emory-university.
School of Medicine Division of Animal Resources
The SOM DAR animal facilities are located on the main Emory campus. Species typically housed include mice, rats, spiny mice, voles, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, swine, sheep, songbirds, amphibians and fish. We have seven faculty veterinarians, including the Director and Assistant Director. Our services include treatment/triage (primary clinical case management), large animal anesthesia, quality assurance and diagnostic laboratory, managed breeding and training. Distributed among these services we have 14 Veterinary Technicians, one Senior Training Coordinator, two Training Coordinators, one Colony Manager, one Assistant Colony Manager and two Animal Care Technicians.
Six months of the SOM DAR rotation are dedicated to clinical experience. The clinical experience consists of oversight of veterinary care provided by the veterinary technicians and anesthetic management for large animal surgical models. The remaining six months consists of research project time, IACUC protocol review, pathology experience and working with our training team to provide training to researchers. The residents conduct monthly presentations for the veterinary staff, either on a clinical or necropsy case depending on their current assignment.
Emory National Primate Research Center
Emory National Primate Research Center (ENPRC), formerly Yerkes National Primate Research Center, has NHP colonies of Old and New World monkeys and consists of the Main Station, located on the Emory campus in Atlanta, and the Field Station (breeding colonies) located in Lawrenceville, 30 miles north of Atlanta. ENPRC six species of nonhuman primates, including Great Apes, in the center's colony totaling over 3,000 animals. There are also small colonies of rats, mice and voles maintained at the Main Center totaling approximately 6,000 rodents. Approximately 1,000 of the NHPs are maintained at the Main Station (MS) on the Emory University campus and 2,000 are maintained at the ENPRC Field Station (FS). The Center has ABSL2 and ABSL3 housing facilities for both NHP and rodents. We have Rhesus Macaque, Pigtail Macaque, Squirrel Monkey, Sooty Mangabey, Cynomolgus Macaque, Chimpanzee, Vole, Mice and Rats.
Between the Main Center and Field Station, residents will participate in the clinical aspects of biomedical research and translational studies, including infectious disease, neuroscience, transplant biology, pharmacology, visual science, and reproductive biology. The Yerkes schedule is divided in rotation of 3-6 weeks (Clinical medicine, Surgery, Anesthesia and imaging, Colony management, Behavior management, and pathology). Residents will have interactions with investigators and gain extensive experience in clinical nonhuman primate veterinary medicine, nursery rearing management, a variety of procedures including routinely performed in infectious disease studies and also participate in daily clinical rounds and observations of the animals. The mentors for this experience are 13 clinical veterinarians. Residents will participate in the necropsy of their clinical cases through the year as well as in histological review of pertinent tissues during their Pathology rotation under the supervision of board certified veterinary pathologists.
During the ENPRC segment, the residents are involved in IACUC protocol review through the entire year. They will also take part in (and present at least once, but maybe more) ~ monthly journal club, virtual grand rounds and Clinical an Surgical Techniques meetings (along with the other primate centers), and ENPRC Histopath/Clinical Medicine meetings/presentations.
Applying to the Program
Applications for the laboratory animal/comparative medicine training program will be managed using the Veterinary Internship and Residency Matching Program (VIRMP) administered by the American Association of Veterinary Clinicians (AAVC). All pertinent details regarding the application process and deadlines can be found at http://www.virmp.org/. Please read the VIRMP residency description in detail as the application deadline for laboratory animal residencies is often earlier than for other residencies and the programs are posted individually (one program with the SOM DAR fellowship and one with the ENPRC fellowship). As the deadline is distinct from the deadline used by other residency specialties participating in the VIRMP, you should contact your references and registrar to ensure they submit their letters of support and your transcripts in time for the unique deadline.
Financial Information and Benefits
Salary follows the NRSA Postdoctoral stipend scale https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-17-003.html The pay scales are posted annually by NIH sometime between October 1 and the spring dependent upon passage of the federal budget by Congress. Benefits including health and disability insurance are available; see http://www.hr.emory.edu/eu/benefits/index.html for detail.