Finding the sweet spot for safer, longer-lasting lithium metal batteries

Researchers have discovered an optimal lithium concentration in lithium metal batteries, overcoming a long-standing barrier to widespread adoption

Tohoku University

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Cooperative ion transport balances ion transport kinetics and interfacial stability, enabling dense and flat lithium deposition with high reversibility. 

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Credit: Hongyi Li

Lithium metal has long been considered the ideal material for next-generation rechargeable batteries because it can store far more energy than the graphite anodes used in today's batteries. However, bringing lithium metal batteries into widespread use has proven difficult because lithium tends to grow into needle-like structures called dendrites during charging, reducing battery life and creating potential safety hazards.

Now, researchers from Tohoku University's Institute for Materials Research (IMR) have identified a key factor that could help overcome this challenge. Rather than simply increasing the amount of lithium salt in the electrolyte, the team discovered that there is an optimal concentration that allows lithium to deposit evenly while forming a stronger protective layer on the battery's surface.

Details of their discovery was published in ACS Electrochemistry on June 29, 2026.

Electrolytes carry lithium ions between a battery's electrodes during charging and discharging. Scientists have often focused on highly concentrated electrolytes because they can suppress dendrite formation. However, why some electrolytes perform better than others has remained unclear.

To investigate this, the researchers systematically examined electrolytes containing different concentrations of lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) dissolved in a mixture of ethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate. By combining multiple analytical techniques--including pulsed-field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG-NMR), electrochemical measurements, electron microscopy, impedance spectroscopy, and nanoindentation--they linked ion transport in the electrolyte with the mechanical properties of the protective solid electrolyte interphase (SEI).

The team found that electrolytes containing 1-2 molar (M) LiTFSI produced the best results. At these concentrations, lithium ions and negatively charged TFSI ions moved together through the electrolyte at nearly the same rate. This cooperative transport created a more uniform flow of ions to the electrode surface, allowing lithium to deposit as smooth, dense layers instead of uneven, dendritic structures.

The researchers also found that this balanced ion transport produced a harder, more mechanically stable SEI layer. In comparison, dilute electrolytes formed weaker protective layers that allowed porous lithium deposits to develop, while highly concentrated electrolytes reduced ion mobility and hindered electron transport, ultimately leading to non-uniform lithium growth.

"Our results show that achieving stable lithium metal deposition is not simply a matter of increasing the salt concentration," said Hongyi Li, an assistant professor at Tohoku University's Institute for Materials Research. "Instead, the key is creating a balance where lithium ions and anions move cooperatively while maintaining a mechanically robust interfacial layer. This provides a new design principle for developing practical lithium metal batteries."

The findings offer a new way of designing electrolytes by optimizing both ion transport and the stability of the interface between the electrolyte and the electrode. Rather than relying solely on highly concentrated electrolytes, researchers can target this intermediate concentration regime to improve battery performance, safety, and lifespan.

Additionally, the study provides important insights for the development of next-generation lithium metal batteries for electric vehicles, portable electronics, and large-scale renewable energy storage. By identifying the fundamental relationship between ion transport and interfacial stability, the researchers have established practical guidelines for designing safer, longer-lasting, high-energy-density rechargeable batteries.

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Journal

ACS Electrochemistry

DOI

10.1021/acselectrochem.6c00140 

Article Title

Correlated Ion-Pair Diffusion Enables Balanced Transport Kinetics and Interfacial Stability for Lithium Metal Anodes

 

New study defines conditions for successful long-term biodiversity net gain

Researchers say biodiversity compensation works best with long-term recovery, the right landscape setting, and enough land for restoration

Swansea University

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Researchers say biodiversity compensation works best with long-term recovery, the right landscape setting, and enough land for restoration.

A new study identifying the ecological conditions needed for biodiversity offsetting to achieve conservation goals could provide important guidance for governments and industries as they expand biodiversity net gain (BNG) and nature restoration policies.

Biodiversity offsetting is increasingly used to compensate for environmental damage caused by development. It sees habitat loss in one location compensated through habitat restoration or protection elsewhere, with the aim of achieving no net loss of biodiversity.

The latest research, led by Swansea University in collaboration with the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and Forest Research, shows that biodiversity offsets are far more likely to succeed when restoration areas are larger than impacted habitats, are protected over long timescales, and designed around how ecosystems recover over time.

The findings address one of the central challenges in modern conservation policy - how to compensate for biodiversity losses caused by development while societies continue to demand land for housing, infrastructure, food production, and economic growth.

However, the study shows that biodiversity outcomes depend on repeated cycles of habitat loss, restoration, and ecological recovery unfolding over decades. When mature ecosystems are replaced with newly restored habitats, biodiversity can decline for extended periods before ecological functions recover. In some cases, recovery may never fully occur if habitat conversion continues too rapidly.

Using large-scale ecological simulations, the researchers examined how forests and habitat-dependent species responded to repeated cycles of development and restoration over centuries. The model incorporated forest succession, landscape change, species recolonisation, and constraints on land availability.

The results show offsetting outcomes depends on:

• the scale of compensation;
• the duration of conservation protection;
• the rate of habitat conversion; and,
• whether sufficient land remained available for restoration.

The study also found that high rates of ongoing habitat loss sharply reduced the likelihood that offsets could maintain biodiversity, particularly for species dependent on mature ecosystems.

Lead author Dr Konstans Wells, from Swansea University’s Biosciences department, said: “Biodiversity offsets are often evaluated using short-term habitat gains, but ecosystems recover over much longer timescales. If mature habitats are removed and replaced with newly restored sites, there is an unavoidable ecological deficit while those ecosystems recover.”

The researchers explain that this creates a fundamental challenge for biodiversity policy. In practice, development typically removes habitats with relatively high ecological integrity, while compensation usually occurs on more degraded land because these are the areas available for restoration. As a result, biodiversity compensation is rarely a simple exchange of equal ecological value.

Co-authors Professor Luca Börger and Dr Miguel Lurgi compared the challenge to “trading a full bottle of your favourite beverage for several empty bottles - if those bottles never refill, the exchange ultimately fails”.

The study shows that whether those bottles refill depends on ecological recovery rates, landscape context, and whether species populations can persist long enough for restored habitats to become suitable again.

The researchers emphasise their findings are not an argument against biodiversity offsetting but instead identify the conditions under which offsetting is more likely to succeed.

According to the researchers, the findings highlight the importance of integrating biodiversity offsets within broader strategies that prioritise avoiding habitat loss.

The authors conclude that successful biodiversity compensation requires policies aligned with ecological reality - ecosystems recover gradually, species depend on long-term habitat continuity, and restoration outcomes are shaped by processes unfolding over decades.

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Journal

Conservation Biology

DOI

10.1111/cobi.70362 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Optimizing biodiversity offsetting for habitat succession and colonization dynamics

Article Publication Date

17-Jul-2026

 

Mount Sinai study links early-life exposure to PFAS ("forever chemicals") with childhood intestinal inflammation

First-of-its-kind study finds prenatal and early-life exposure is associated with higher levels of a biomarker of intestinal inflammation measured years later in childhood

The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine

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NEW YORK, NY (July 16, 2026) — Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly known as "forever chemicals," during pregnancy and early life is associated with increased intestinal inflammation during childhood.

The findings, published July 10, 2026, in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, provide new evidence that environmental exposures during critical stages of development may influence long-term intestinal health and future inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) risk.

The study is the first to demonstrate that prenatal and early-life PFAS exposure is consistently associated with elevated levels of fecal calprotectin—a biomarker of intestinal inflammation commonly used to monitor IBD—across three birth cohorts in the United States and Mexico.

Researchers measured PFAS concentrations in maternal blood collected during pregnancy, umbilical cord blood, and newborn dried blood spots before following children for up to 11 years. Across all three birth cohorts, higher PFAS mixture levels were associated with higher fecal calprotectin levels later in childhood.

"While genetics play an important role in inflammatory bowel disease, they do not fully explain why the disease develops," said Manasi Agrawal, MD, MS, corresponding author of the study and Assistant Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology), and Environmental Medicine and Public Health, at the Icahn School of Medicine. "Our findings suggest that prenatal and early-life PFAS exposure may contribute to intestinal inflammation during an important stage of development. Understanding these environmental influences may ultimately help us identify opportunities to reduce future disease risk before symptoms develop."

PFAS are a large family of synthetic chemicals used in products including nonstick cookware, food packaging, stain-resistant fabrics, and firefighting foams. Because these chemicals do not readily break down, they persist in the environment and can accumulate in the human body over time, leading to widespread human exposure.

Using advanced untargeted chemical analysis, the investigators detected PFAS across all early-life biological samples. They found that both legacy PFAS compounds and newer replacement PFAS were associated with intestinal inflammation, suggesting that a broad range of these chemicals may influence children's gut health.

"By studying PFAS as mixtures rather than individual chemicals, we were able to better reflect how people are exposed in everyday life," said Vishal Midya, PhD, MStat, first author of the study and Assistant Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine. "The consistency of our findings across multiple biological samples and three independent birth cohorts strengthens the evidence that early-life PFAS exposure may have lasting effects on intestinal health."

The researchers emphasize that elevated fecal calprotectin does not mean a child will develop IBD. Rather, it is a sensitive biomarker of intestinal inflammation that has been associated with an increased future risk of IBD. Because the study was observational, it cannot determine whether PFAS directly cause intestinal inflammation or IBD.

The research team plans to continue following participants to determine whether children with higher early-life PFAS exposure and intestinal inflammation are more likely to develop inflammatory bowel disease later in life. The findings also underscore the importance of public health strategies aimed at reducing PFAS exposure during pregnancy and early childhood.

The study included collaborators from the University of Iowa College of Public Health; the National Institute of Public Health in Cuernavaca, Mexico; Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal; Sheba Medical Center in Israel; and Aalborg University in Denmark.

The research was supported by the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

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About the Mount Sinai Health System 

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with approximately 48,000 employees working across seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and leading schools of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it. 

Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care from conception through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes more than 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 10 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals,” “Best in State Hospitals,” “World’s Best Hospitals,” and  “Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2025-2026.  

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube. To listen to news and stories from Mount Sinai, visit the Mount Sinai Podcast Network.

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Journal

Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology

DOI

10.1016/j.cgh.2026.07.001 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in early life is associated with childhood intestinal inflammation: analyses of three birth cohorts

Article Publication Date

10-Jul-2026

New solutions to the PFAS problem

HZDR research team develops methods for breaking down “forever chemicals”

Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

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Plasma plus cavitation: Cold atmospheric plasma destroys toxic pollutants at the interface between gas bubbles and water.

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Credit: B. Schröder/HZDR

Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have developed two new processes: Using hydrodynamic cavitation and cold atmospheric plasma combined with gas dispersion, they are looking to break down per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), industrial chemicals that are extremely resistant to chemical degradation. To support this effort, experts from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) ran analyses that confirmed the degradation of PFAS and the release of fluoride. Once they reach market maturity, these processes could be used in industry, significantly reducing the release of PFAS into bodies of water (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-57490-6; DOI: 10.1016/j.ceja.2026.101046).

While some PFAS are suspected of altering genetic material and increasing the risk of cancer, the biological effects of many others remain unknown. This group of substances comprises more than 10,000 short- and long-chain industrial chemicals which owe their exceptional chemical resistance to their highly stable carbon-fluorine bonds. PFAS enter rivers and oceans via wastewater and are spreading worldwide. High concentrations of PFAS have also recently been detected in the Elbe River – a potential health hazard to plants, animals and humans alike.

In the context of the “National Water Strategy” to secure Germany’s drinking water supply and protect its bodies of water, researchers at HZDR are investigating how to reduce the burden on water bodies and specifically, how to systematically break down these “forever chemicals”. In a preliminary study, launched in 2022, a research team led by postdoctoral researcher Dr. Ysabel Huaccallo-Aguilar used a process known as hydrodynamic cavitation to degrade PFAS.

Cavitation breaks down stable bonds

“In hydrodynamic cavitation, we pass PFAS-enriched water through a constriction, generating small vapor bubbles,” explains Dr. Sebastian Reinecke, head of the Department of Water and Environmental Technologies at HZDR. Since long-chain PFAS are surface-active, they attach to the bubbles. “When the bubbles burst under the rising ambient pressure in the water downstream of the constriction, the PFAS that are attached to the bubbles are exposed to local temperature spikes of several thousand degrees Celsius,” Reinecke explains. At the same time, cavitation produces highly reactive hydroxyl radicals that react non-specifically with nearby substances. “Our hypothesis is that they attack the intermediate products, significantly boosting PFAS degradation.”

Ysabel Huaccallo-Aguilar and her colleagues were able to demonstrate that the process did break down PFAS in tap water while mineralizing organically bound fluorine. The longer the duration of the treatment, the higher the continuous increase in fluoride concentration in the solution. For their experiments, the researchers used perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), a particularly persistent and well-studied compound from the PFAS group. By the end of the experiment, they were able to break down approximately 37 percent of the dissolved PFOS molecules at a stable degradation rate. “We are now conducting follow-up experiments to increase the degradation rate,” Reinecke explains. “Our goal is to improve the process to a degradation rate of more than 80 percent of the PFAS in the solution and mineralizing more than 50 percent of the fluorine that is bound in the chemicals – that means, breaking down the carbon-fluorine bonds that are typical of PFAS.”

Efficient PFAS degradation with highly reactive plasma species

In another series of experiments, environmental engineer Dr. Amit Kumar used cold atmospheric plasma in combination with gas dispersion to degrade PFAS. The advantage of this process is that it operates under ambient conditions and requires neither catalysts nor additional chemicals. In his PhD research, Kumar had already investigated ways of degrading micropollutants using the reactive chemical species that are generated in the plasma. He now applied his findings to this experiment. “We generated plasma at the water surface while simultaneously introducing gas into the PFAS-contaminated water,” says Sebastian Reinecke, explaining the experimental setup. “The PFAS attach to the surface of the gas bubbles. As they rise, the water is constantly circulated. This brings the PFAS to the surface, where they are broken down in the plasma.”

This method made it possible to almost completely degrade both long- and short-chain PFAS. About 35 percent of the fluorine atoms bound in these “forever chemicals” were released as fluoride salts. “While this method has significantly faster reaction kinetics than cavitation, it also consumes far more energy per volume unit,” Reinecke notes. “In addition, the process generates numerous transformation products that we have not yet been able to investigate in detail – for instance, gaseous compounds that form during the reaction.” The researchers are currently conducting further test series to find out whether the process produces any substances that may pose a health hazard, and if so, how to avoid it.

Synergies from combining plasma and cavitation

The researchers are currently working to scale up the process for larger volumes of contaminated water. Using multiple electrodes and a technical gas injector, they are gradually increasing the reaction volume from about 50 milliliters to five liters. The plan is to combine plasma technology with cavitation. “I believe we’ll achieve high degradation rates by combining the highly reactive species from the plasma with the effects of cavitation,” says Reinecke. If they succeed in merging the benefits of both methods into a single approach, they might create a whole new, efficient PFAS removal technology for contaminated water.

Publications:
Amit Kumar, Ysabel Huaccallo-Aguilar, Holger Kryk, Uwe Hampel, Sebastian Felix Reinecke: Enhanced degradation and defluorination of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in tap water using gas-dispersed cold atmospheric plasma, in Scientific Reports, 2026 (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-57490-6).

Amit Kumar, Anett Georgi, Ysabel Huaccallo-Aguilar, Markus Meier, Holger Kryk, Sebastian Felix Reinecke, Uwe Hampel: Degradation and defluorination of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) forever chemical in water using hydrodynamic cavitation treatment, in Chemical Engineering Journal Advances, 2026 (DOI: 10.1016/j.ceja.2026.101046 ).

Funding:
This research was funded by the Helmholtz Association’s Impulse and Networking Fund via the Clean Water Technology Lab (CLEWATEC), a Helmholtz Innovation Lab, under reference number HIL-A02. The projects “HyKaPro SAB-EFRE” and “Plasma4PFAS SAB-EFRE” are co-financed by the European Union and tax revenue as approved by the Saxon Parliament in its state budget.

Further information:
Dr. Sebastian Reinecke | Head
Department of Water and Environmental Technologies
Institute of Fluid Dynamics at HZDR
Phone: +49 351 260 2320 | Email: s.reinecke@hzdr.de

Susann Riedel | Project Manager
Institute of Fluid Dynamics at HZDR
Phone: +49 351 260 3766 | Email: s.riedel@hzdr.de

Media Contact:
Simon Schmitt | Head
Communications and Media Relations at HZDR
Phone: +49 351 260-3400 | Email: s.schmitt@hzdr.de

The Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) performs – as an independent German research center – research in the fields of energy, health, and matter. We focus on answering the following questions:

• How can energy and resources be utilized in an efficient, safe, and sustainable way?
• How can malignant tumors be more precisely visualized, characterized, and more effectively treated?
• How do matter and materials behave under the influence of strong fields and in smallest dimensions?

To help answer these research questions, HZDR operates large-scale facilities, which are also used by visiting researchers: the Ion Beam Center, the Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory and the ELBE Center for High-Power Radiation Sources. HZDR is a member of the Helmholtz Association and has seven sites (Dresden, Freiberg, Görlitz, Grenoble, Leipzig, Rostock, Schenefeld near Hamburg) with almost 1,500 members of staff, of whom about 700 are scientists, including 200 Ph.D. candidates.

 

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Journal

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-026-57490-6 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Enhanced degradation and defluorination of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in tap water using gas-dispersed cold atmospheric plasma

 

AI could help identify which environmental chemicals pose the greatest health risks

New perspective calls for artificial intelligence to move beyond chemical detection and predict biological effects

Shenyang Agricultural University Collaborative Journals

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Advancing AI/ML-driven chemical exposomics to identify biologically relevant environmental exposures

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Credit: Hemi Luan, Tiangang Luan

Artificial intelligence is rapidly improving scientists’ ability to detect chemicals in the environment and human body. A new perspective article argues that the next major step is not simply identifying more chemicals, but determining which exposures are most likely to disrupt biological systems and contribute to disease.

Published in Artificial Intelligence & Environment, the article describes a shift toward functional chemical exposomics, an emerging approach that combines high-resolution mass spectrometry, artificial intelligence, toxicology databases and biological response data.

Exposomics examines the total range of environmental exposures experienced throughout a person’s lifetime. Modern analytical instruments can detect thousands of chemical signals in blood, urine, tissues and environmental samples. However, many detected compounds remain unidentified, while the biological significance of others is poorly understood.

“The future of exposomics is not only about discovering what chemicals are present, but also predicting what those chemicals may do inside biological systems,” said corresponding author Hemi Luan of Guangdong University of Technology. “AI can help researchers focus limited experimental resources on the exposures most relevant to human health.”

The authors propose transforming AI from a chemical “discovery engine” into a functional prediction engine. Such systems could integrate chemical structures, toxicity predictions, molecular interactions and changes in genes, proteins and metabolites. Each chemical could then receive a biological activity risk score, helping researchers prioritize candidates for laboratory testing and health risk assessment.

The framework also incorporates machine-learning approaches for causal inference, which may help distinguish meaningful exposure effects from simple statistical correlations.

Important challenges remain, including limited high-quality training data, chemical mixtures, unknown confounding factors and the need for transparent, interpretable models. Experimental validation using cells, organoids or animal models will also remain essential.

The authors conclude that closer collaboration among chemists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, bioinformaticians and computer scientists could turn exposomics from a chemical inventory into a predictive and preventive tool for public health action.

 

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Journal reference: Luan H; Luan T. Advancing AI/ML-driven chemical exposomics to identify biologically relevant environmental exposures. AI Environ. 2026, 1(2): 77-82. DOI: 10.66178/aie-0026-0008  

https://www.the-newpress.com/aie/article/doi/10.66178/aie-0026-0008  

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About the Journal: 

Artificial Intelligence & Environment is an international multidisciplinary platform for communicating advances in fundamental and applied research on the intersection of environmental science and artificial intelligence (AI). It is dedicated to serving as an innovative, efficient and professional platform for researchers in the cross-discipline fields of earth and environmental sciences, big data science and AI around the world to deliver findings from this rapidly expanding field of science. It is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that publishes critical review, original research, rapid communication, view-point, commentary and perspective papers.

Follow us on Facebook, X, and Bluesky. 

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DOI

10.66178/aie-0026-0008 

Method of Research

News article

Article Title

Advancing AI/ML-driven chemical exposomics to identify biologically relevant environmental exposures

 

Texas Tech vet school students’ papers published in international journals

The fourth-year students were unfamiliar with laboratory research but received mentorship – newfound experience that strengthens their future in veterinary medicine

Texas Tech University

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Texas Tech University’s School of Veterinary Medicine fourth-year students Kayden Tanner and Marshall Mays are both published in international journals after putting hundreds of hours into their research papers.

Tanner’s work he authored about a rare equine disorder – “Genomics in Equine MEED: Whole-Genome Sequencing and Target Mutation Identification” – was shared in Animals and selected as the feature article. This is evidence of the contribution he has made to the field of veterinary science, as he was able to sequence the whole genome of the chronic wasting disease in horses and make that information public. 

Those findings provided insight into the potential underlying cellular mechanisms of multisystem eosinophilic epitheliotropic disease (MEED), which is so severe and progressive that horses are usually euthanized within one year of diagnosis. The data can be used to further understand the disease and even develop therapeutic strategies.

May’s paper, “Evaluating the synergistic effects of cisplatin and tamoxifen in canine osteosarcoma cells,” was published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science. This research has One Health implications, as it offers a potential treatment for the form of bone cancer in dogs.

The opportunity for these research projects came from the laboratory of Thu Annelise Nguyen, the associate dean for research and a professor of toxicology, and mentorship from her postdoctoral fellow, Tomas Lugo.

Lugo not only answered questions and provided coaching to the pair but also created the modeling and computational approach that earned him a star next to his name as the corresponding author of both papers. This is an honor no student has achieved before at the School of Veterinary Medicine.

Nguyen is proud of Lugo’s commitment to the students as he helped them transition from quiet observers to inquisitive minds who were conducting experiments. She also applauds the dedication displayed by Tanner and Mays: showing up to school at 6 a.m. and even working through a week of Christmas break. 

“This is a big deal for veterinary scholars because they had never worked in science before,” she said. “For Tomas and me, it’s our job to do this. But for trainees to get this done in the time span they did is huge.” 

These research projects don’t just further the understanding of diseases that affect horses and dogs, but bolster applications that will help Tanner and Mays earn the internships they need to one day become surgeons.

Tanner is thankful his research has led to connections that will not waver moving forward.

“Tomas has helped us through this whole process and been there for us when we needed him, and he’s been a really good friend,” Tanner said. “He will always be somebody I depend on and lean on in the research aspect.”

“Then Annelise, the same thing. She threw us a bone when nobody else would, was there for us, wanted to see us succeed and gave us every opportunity to do so. For that, I’ll forever be grateful to her.”

As for Lugo, being able to guide two inexperienced researchers to publication confirms he can push a project through to completion as he applies for grants from federal and private institutions. He feels reassured that he’s chosen the right career path – to become a professor leading his own lab one day.

“It was really good seeing them mature over time, just like me,” Lugo said. “I was more focused on one task, but after I gained more confidence, I was thinking about the bigger picture. So, it was a great learning experience for everyone, and that’s my main goal – to make great opportunities not just for myself, but for the students.”

Learn more about the unique research happening at the School of Veterinary Medicine by exploring the doctoral program in One Health Sciences.