Dr Jessica Lawson is a Research Fellow at the Royal Veterinary College, where she is exploring causes of thoroughbred abortion, including umbilical cord torsion. This work is generously funded by the Alborada Trust, with collaborations with Rossdales Laboratories, Professor Mandi de Mestre’s Equine Pregnancy Lab at Cornell University, and supporting vets in both the UK and Kentucky.
Dr Lawson graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 2013 and spent much of her clinical career working in Thoroughbred breeding practice in the USA. Jess returned to the UK to undertake a PhD at the Royal Veterinary College, investigating the incidence, causes and diagnostic features of abortion attributed to an umbilical cord torsion in Thoroughbreds. Following completion of her Doctorate in 2022, Jess has stayed on at the RVC as a Research Fellow and is continuing her work exploring umbilical cord torsion, and causes of Thoroughbred abortion more widely, using epidemiological and genetic methodologies. This work is generously funded by the Alborada Trust with collaborations with Rossdales Laboratories, Prof. de Mestre’s Equine Pregnancy Lab at Cornell University and veterinarians in both the UK and Kentucky.
You may also be interested in
Want to know what's new in upper airway diagnostics and wind surgery? Or get an update on tendon injury: therapy and management?
The 2025 Gerald Leigh Lectures focussed on these two important topics, organised and delivered once again by the Beaufort Cottage Educational Trust (BCET).
