CAHNRS > Animal Sciences > Graduate Student Spotlight > Amy Zinski

Amy Zinski

Amy Zinski

Amy Zinski
PhD Student
Advisor: Dr. Zhihua Jiang

Animal Icons
Where are you from?

I’m from the west side of Washington State.

What inspired you to pursue graduate studies in Animal Sciences at Washington State University?

I completed my undergraduate degree in Animal Sciences, here at Washington State University, with the intention of becoming a veterinarian, but fell in love with research and decided to pursue higher degrees in the field.

What is your primary area of study or research focus?

As a proud member of Dr. Jiang’s lab, my primary focus is in genetics and genomics of multiple livestock species as well as rat strains specially bred for biomedical research applications.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of being part of the Animal Sciences community?

The animal science community is a wonderful space filled with friendly and supportive colleagues and scientists. The best part of being a member of this wonderful community would be the genuine connections made possible through the department.

Were you nominated and or awarded any special awards or recognition?

In 2021, I was given the award of Outstanding Graduate Student for my master’s work, but that was a while before my current work as a Ph.D. candidate.

Have you published any peer-reviewed manuscripts or key research findings?

We used our own experiments to demonstrate how alternative transcriptome analysis can lead to enrichment of phenome-related causal pathways in rats.

Publication: Zinski AL, Carrion S, Michal JJ, Gartstein MA, Quock RM, Davis JF, Jiang Z. Genome-to-phenome research in rats: progress and perspectives. Int J Biol Sci 2021; 17(1):119-133. doi:10.7150/ijbs.51628.