WesternU held Welcome Week Aug. 4-8, 2025 for its eight colleges in Pomona. New students had a busy week filled with orientation, ice breakers, picking up their white coats and equipment, taking official portraits, bonding with classmates, faculty and staff, and celebrating their entry into their respective health professions at white coat ceremonies held Aug. 8-9.

View more photos on Facebook and Instagram, and check WesternU News for more coverage of the white coat ceremonies.

Doctor of Physical Therapy Class of 2028 students in Western University of Health Sciences’ College of Health Sciences-Northwest are training to be health care partners with their patients, working together to maximize movement recovery and problem solve how to help them regain their independence and reduce their pain through healing and movement.

CHS-Northwest held a white coat ceremony for 34 Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students on Aug. 1, 2025, in Lebanon, Oregon. The students began their three-year program in early July, so this ceremony provided an opportunity to pause and reflect on their journey to date.

Read the full story: WesternU CHS-Northwest welcomes Doctor of Physical Therapy students | WesternU News

College of Graduate Nursing Associate Dean and Professor Dr. Rodney Hicks highlights strategies to develop a manuscript successfully in this new publication in the AORN (Association of periOperative Registered Nurses) Journal. 

Hicks, R. W. (2025). Writing for the AORN Journal.  Sharing your voice. AORN Journal, 122(2), 123-127. http://doi.org/10.1002/aorn.14390

College of Veterinary Medicine Assistant Professor Sheema Mir, PhD, and CVM Professor Mohammad Mir, PhD, along with CVM students Mykah Peters, Gloria Penny and Alexis Agsaoa, published an article, “From Challenge to Cure: A Look at Feline Infectious Peritonitis and Emerging Treatment Strategies and Breakthroughs.” 

Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) was once one of the most heartbreaking diagnoses a cat parent could hear. Caused by a rare mutation of the feline coronavirus, it mostly affected young cats—and until recently, it was considered fatal. Our latest review brings together groundbreaking advances in FIP treatment. Medications like GS-441524 and remdesivir are changing lives—offering real, documented recoveries from FIP. We explore how these antivirals work, the challenges in diagnosing FIP, and the exciting possibilities of future vaccines, including mRNA technology (just like the COVID-19 vaccines!).

Read it here: https://www.mdpi.com/2306-7381/12/7/650

College of Dental Medicine Professor Q. Quinn Li, PhD, and collaborators recent published a Nature Communications (impact factor 14.7) paper reveals that pre-mRNA processing factors play distinct and coordinated roles in regulating co-transcriptional cleavage and transcription termination. Using single-molecule nascent RNA sequencing, researchers uncovered that these steps are not only tightly linked but are differentially influenced by specific factors, reshaping our understanding of gene expression regulation.

Paper web link: Pre-mRNA processing factors differentially impact coordination between co-transcriptional cleavage and transcription termination | Nature Communications

Public Affairs and Marketing is holding an open studio portrait day in Pomona:

9 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9

Please sign up for a timeslot that works for your schedule if you would like a new studio portrait.

We will schedule additional portrait days for those who cannot come to the studio on this day.