Erica Lachenauer, DVM, Ph.D.

Erica Lachenauer

Faculty Mentor:  Patrick Stover
Current Position: Resident Veterinarian, Rutgers University

Brief Biography:

Erica grew up in Nutley, NJ and obtained her B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley with a major in molecular toxicology and minor in chemistry. From a young age, she was attracted to the pharmaceutical industry and plans to combine her comparative veterinary interests with research to become a successful laboratory animal veterinarian and research scientist. In her spare time Erica enjoys spending time exploring Ithaca and hiking the gorges. During the summer she loves to spend time with her family, friends, and labradoodle swimming and boating around the Jersey Shore.

Education:
DVM, Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, 2021
Ph.D., Biomedical and Biological Sciences, Cornell University, 2019
B.S. Molecular Toxicology, University of California, Berkeley, 2012

Research Interests:
Erica’s research experience began while working in Dr. Chris Vulpe’s laboratory at UC Berkeley. For two years she worked on genotoxicity of flame retardants using the indicator species, Daphnia magna. In her senior year she completed her honors thesis investigating hair loss in mouse pups born to mothers deficient in an iron transport gene. During this project, Erica developed research interests involving the understanding of major developmental pathways and how toxicity, nutrition, and gene expression can interact to alter them and contribute to birth defects. Erica is now a member of Dr. Patrick Stover’s laboratory in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, where her research focuses on folate-dependent one-carbon metabolism and it’s interaction with the P53 apoptosis pathway in the development of neural tube defects.

 Publication:
Scanlan LD, Loguinov AV, Teng Q, Antczak P, Dailey KP, Nowinski DT, Kornbluh J, Lin XX, Lachenauer E, Arai A, Douglas NK, Falciani F, Stapleton HM, Vulpe CD. (2015) Gene Expression, Metabolite and Lipid Profiling in Eco-Indicator Daphnia manga Indicate Diverse Mechanisms of Toxicity by Legacy and Emerging Flame-Retardants. Environmental Science & Technology. Vol 49 (12) p 7400 – 7410

 Published Abstracts:
J. McKone, A. N. Van, E. Lachenauer and D. Johnson (2013) Developing a Gene-Gene Interaction Network for Nonsyndromic Orofacial Clefts Using Computational Analysis. "The Toxicologist" Vol 132 (1) p 25  

Page K, Lachenauer E, Luong J, Han C, Irimagawa H, He Y, Killilea D, Frazer D, Anderson G, Fuqua B, Vulpe CD (2014) Iron deficient toxic milk leads to the mask phenotype in hephaestin knockout mice. “The Journal for American Societies for Experimental Biology” Vol 28 (1)

 Presentations:
Lachenauer E, DiRisio A, Kamynina E, Stover PJ (2015) The Effect of Arsenic Trioxide and Dimethyl Arsenic on Thymidylate Biosynthesis and Genomic Stability. (Poster) Merial-NIH National Veterinary Scholars Symposium, University of California, Davis and Biological and Biomedical Sciences Recruitment, Cornell University

 Lachenauer E, Welsh, I., Thomsen, M., Werner, M., Kurpios, N. (2014) The Localization of Gpc3 in the Gut Dorsal Mesentery of Pcsk5 Null Mice. (Poster) Merial-NIH National Veterinary Scholars Symposium, Cornell University

J. McKone, A. N. Van, E. Lachenauer and D. Johnson (2013) Developing a Gene-Gene Interaction Network for Nonsyndromic Orofacial Clefts Using Computational Analysis. (Poster) Society of Toxicology Conference 2013, San Antonio, Texas

Lachenauer E, Luong J, Page KE, Fuqua BK, and Vulpe CD. (2012) Investigating Hair Loss in Hephaestin Knockout Mice.  University of California, Berkeley, College of Natural Resources Honors Symposium

Lachenauer E, Scanlan LD, Lin XX, Arai A, and Vulpe CD. (2011) Gene Expression in Daphnia Magna with Flame Retardants Tetrabromo Phthalate and Firemaster BZ54.  (Poster) Northern California Society of Toxicology and Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Conferences