A DVM/PhD Student Just Cracked Part of the Genetic Code Behind Equine Pregnancy Loss

More than 500 veterinary students converged on Raleigh for the 2026 Veterinary Scholars Symposium, and two of them walked away with research awards for work that reaches well past the barn and the exam room.

Every year, a version of the same conversation happens in exam rooms and breeding barns across the country. A horse loses a pregnancy early, and nobody can say exactly why. Isha Chauhan wants to change that.

Ishe Chauhan, a DVM/PhD student at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, just received the 2026 Boehringer Ingelheim Research Award for Veterinary Students for a genome-wide association study on early equine pregnancy loss. Working with more than 400 samples, she identified mutations in key developmental genes that may be contributing to early pregnancy failure in horses. The goal is a preimplantation and prenatal screening tool that could give breeders and veterinarians a real answer before a pregnancy fails, not just an explanation after it does. Her findings may also carry weight beyond the barn, adding to the broader scientific understanding of pregnancy loss in human medicine.

Chauhan was one of two researchers recognized at the 2026 Veterinary Scholars Symposium, held August 6 through 8 in Raleigh, North Carolina. More than 500 veterinary students, researchers, and industry leaders from over three dozen veterinary schools showed up for what has become one of the field's biggest gatherings of emerging scientific talent. The symposium is sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health and organized by the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, and it marks the culmination of the Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Program, a research fellowship that has been running for nearly 40 years.

The second award went to Kevin Gustafson, DVM, PhD, who received the 2026 Boehringer Ingelheim Research Award for Graduate Veterinarians for his PhD thesis work at the University of Missouri. Gustafson's research digs into a question that sounds abstract until you sit with it: how does a parent's gut microbiome shape a developing fetus before that fetus has a gut microbiome of its own?

Using behavioral testing, microbiome profiling, and genomic analysis, Gustafson traced how differences in the maternal gut microbiome alter fetal neurodevelopment, through shifts in gut metabolite production, hippocampal DNA methylation, and gene expression. In plain terms, what happens in a mother's gut can leave a molecular signature on how her offspring's brain develops, and how that offspring behaves and processes food for the rest of its life. The implications run in both directions, animal health and human health, since the mechanism he is describing is not species-specific.

Both projects share something worth noticing. Neither one is chasing a flashy headline. They are chasing mechanism, the actual biological why behind conditions veterinarians see constantly and often cannot fully explain. That is exactly the kind of research the Veterinary Scholars Program was built to produce.

"Investing in the next generation of veterinary scientists is essential to advancing innovation in animal health. Their work not only advances our understanding of animal health today, but it also shapes the future of the veterinary profession."
  Dr. Monica Figueiredo, Director, Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Program

NEARLY FOUR DECADES OF BUILDING THE PIPELINE

The program, established in 1989, targets first- and second-year veterinary students specifically, the window when most students are still deciding whether research is something they want in their career at all. Participants get hands-on biomedical research experience and mentorship, and a meaningful number of them go on to careers in academia, industry, and public health rather than general practice. Nearly four decades in, the program has built a genuine talent pipeline for the parts of veterinary medicine that don't get as much attention as clinical practice but shape it just as much.

Boehringer Ingelheim's investment in veterinary education doesn't stop at the symposium. The company donates tens of thousands of doses of vaccines and parasite prevention treatments to veterinary schools every year, supporting community and shelter outreach work and giving students first-hand clinical experience. Company veterinarians regularly volunteer at veterinary schools to teach and mentor. And the Boehringer Ingelheim Cares Foundation's Animal Health Program has committed $2.5 million over three years toward addressing critical challenges facing the profession, including strengthening the pipeline of future veterinarians.

Applications for the 2027 Boehringer Ingelheim Research Awards are due December 30, 2026. Details are available at veterinaryscholars.boehringer-ingelheim.com/ResearchSpotlight.

If Chauhan's and Gustafson's work is any indication of what this year's cohort looks like, the next generation of veterinary researchers is already asking the right questions, and getting real answers.

SOURCE: BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM ANIMAL HEALTH USA INC.  |  PRNEWSWIRE