College of Veterinary Medicine to Honor First-Ever Graduate

Colton Nelson thought he wanted to study dirt. Utah State University’s Veterinary Clinical and Life Sciences Department had a different plan.

Nelson came to USU with an interest in research and a bachelor’s degree from St. Michael’s College in Vermont, in Environmental Sciences with a minor in Chemistry.

He’d been emailing professors with lab research projects in environmental toxicology when his mother slipped him some information on USU.

Nelson wound up in a Zoom meeting with Mirella Meyer-Ficca, associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and liked what she had to say.

Next came a visit to campus during spring break 2022. It was 55 degrees and sunny in Logan. He met Meyer-Ficca in person.

“Some of it flew right over my head, but she talked about her research aims and everything,” Nelson says, “and it was all very interesting.”

Then he met the other researchers in the lab and could see himself there.

“To be honest, it seemed like I could do a lot worse, working-environment-wise,” he says. The vibe seemed constructive and collaborative and genuine.

That was three years ago. Now, Colton is the first-ever graduate of the Master of Biomedical Sciences program in the Veterinary Clinical and Life Sciences Department, under mentor Ralph G. Meyer, professor and department head in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

“Colton earned his MS degree through a plan A thesis based on his research in reproductive aging,” Meyer says. “His hard work, dedication and passion for science resulted in new insights into the consequences of metabolic changes that occur when the body ages, and how the metabolic decline impacts the genetic and genomic integrity of male gametes in mammals, including humans.”

The ramifications of Nelson’s research, and of Meyer-Ficca’s lab, relate to people waiting until they are older to have children, and how that delay may have impacts on reproductive health and child development.

One effect of aging in men is a decrease in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), the coenzyme Nelson is studying which is key to DNA’s ability to repair itself. Nelson has been able to observe, through his research, that a decrease in NAD corresponds with an increase in DNA damage in sperm cells — or, as his thesis puts it, a “decline in sperm DNA integrity.”

Damaged sperm can cause pregnancy loss and is associated with diseases like skeletal dysplasia, Apert syndrome, achondroplasia (dwarfism), autism and schizophrenia in offspring.

In the lab, Nelson’s research is almost always done using mice, but he got the rare opportunity to study human subjects, albeit with a very small sample size.

“We got human samples from a clinician at the University of Washington in Seattle, and we tested DNA damage, and we also looked at blood NAD levels and did a little comparison,” Nelson says. “And while it was only 10 — it’s really hard to control for anything, 10 is a really small population — we did see really cool trends with DNA damage and blood NAD levels. We saw that blood NAD levels declined with age, which confirms a lot of the literature. So that made me feel really good about the project, it kind of showed that we were on the right track.”

To see where else that track might lead, Nelson opted to pursue a Ph.D. and to continue in Meyer-Ficca’s lab. Studying NAD has proven to be fertile ground.

“There’s lots of different functions of cellular activity and sperm functions that could be affected by the lack of NAD, and so it’s really getting down to the nitty gritty of functions and how they’re impacted,” Nelson says. “We’re looking at kind of a holistic approach to the experiment. What’s being impacted, what’s not. And then really drilling down on that to figure out why.”

In his free time, Nelson is making the most of living in Utah. He just finished a mini triathlon, enjoys running and loves soccer. And he’s into cooking Middle Eastern cuisine, lately. The challenge of tracking down the different spices and ingredients has been part of the fun.

Nelson says he decided to stick around because he felt his work wasn’t done yet.

“My work is built on the work of lots and lots of others before me,” he says. “I think that’s a thing about science that is cool but also kind of daunting at times, because you never get quite as far as you think you’re going to get. You still discover really cool stuff.”

He isn’t putting much thought into what comes after a doctorate, for now. He’s drilling down. Too much, at times.

“I forget sometimes, when I get really focused on my research, and then I get asked, ‘Well, why are you doing this?’” he says. “And I take a step back and think about why I’m doing this, and what impacts this can have for human health.”

He pauses, thinking pragmatically, as scientists do. “We’re not quite there, but maybe one day we will be there.”

According to Meyer, there are currently seven graduate students in the Biomedical Sciences program.

“The College of Veterinary Medicine is looking forward to graduating many more masters, and hopefully also its first Doctor of Biomedical Science, in the future,” Meyer says.