Published: 28 Jul 2014 | Last Updated: 15 Sep 2014 15:50:45

Two student RP2 projects have resulted in a paper being chosen as the highlighted article of the month in the Journal of Dairy Science . The team, led by Dr Geoff Pollott, Dr Charlotte Lawson and Dr Rob Fowkes, have been taking a novel approach to phenotyping milk production in dairy cows using a range of modern laboratory techniques.

Kim Wilson, a 5th year undergraduate, was given the task of measuring microparticles in milk samples taken from the Bolton’s Park herd as her RP2 project. The paper demonstrated that microparticle density was related to daily milk yield in later lactation, both phenomena suspected to be linked though the apoptosis of milk secretory cells.

Lucy Jerram, also a 5th-year undergraduate, followed up some work that she carried out under a Wellcome Trust Vacation scholarship and investigated the RNA expression levels of key milk production genes extracted from cells found in milk.

This paper is thought to be the first time that an undergraduate research project has resulted in being a ‘highlight paper’ in the Journal of Dairy Science. Congratulations to both students!

Citation:

Pollott, GE; Wilson, K; Jerram, L; Fowkes, RC; Lawson, C.(2014)
A noninvasive method for measuring mammary apoptosis and epithelial cell activation in dairy animals using microparticles extracted from milk.
JOURNAL OF DAIRY SCIENCE 97:5017–5022