DaVetta Pulley, a Research Support Technician in the National Gnotobiotic Rodent Resource Center, has been named the recipient of the Fall/Winter 2025 Core Staff Recognition Award in the Technical Achievement category. Over eight years in the Division of Comparative Medicine, she’s become a technical expert whose work has directly enabled millions of dollars in funded research and contributed to publications advancing our understanding of Crohn’s disease and colorectal cancer.
Technical Excellence That Makes the Impossible Look Effortless
Working with gnotobiotic mice—animals maintained in a completely germ-free state—requires serious precision. “These animals must be kept microbially germ-free, which raises the bar for precision, consistency, and accountability,” DaVetta explains.
Despite these challenges, she’s mastered complex procedures that would test even experienced researchers. In the 2024–2025 preliminary data collection period alone, she completed 582 intraperitoneal injections and numerous oral and rectal swabs—all performed inside isolators where multiple glove layers severely limit dexterity. One nominator put it simply: “DaVetta performs these tasks with a level of proficiency that makes them look effortless.”
Her technical skills include sterile transfers, microbial colonization via oral gavage, pharmaceutical injections, genotyping, and managing breeding colonies that produce up to 450 germ-free mice annually. She recently optimized a complicated chronic DSS colitis/fibrosis protocol under multiple colonization conditions—work her collaborators say makes their research group uniquely capable of performing these studies.
Research Impact
DaVetta’s work has directly supported an impressive portfolio of funded research. Her contributions provided critical preliminary data for multiple NIH R01 grants totaling over $6 million, including one that was “fully funded on first submission—a testament to the precision and reliability of her work.” She’s also contributed to publications in Cell Host and Microbe, Digestive Diseases and Sciences, and Microbiome.
“My favorite job responsibility in Gnotobiotics has been collaborating with research labs on experimental work and contributing behind the scenes to studies that lead to published papers and advancements in our understanding of disease,” DaVetta says. “Knowing that my work supports high-quality research outcomes is rewarding.”
Service, Reliability, and Leadership
Nominators emphasized not just DaVetta’s technical skill, but her service and reliability. One researcher noted her work “especially during ongoing experiments that required daily monitoring of mice—including over weekends,” managing animals on behalf of researchers who cannot directly access the gnotobiotic core.
Her direct manager of six years described “a strong work ethic, a genuine eagerness to learn, and a relentlessly positive attitude that uplifts those around her—even in the most challenging of times.” That energy has helped DaVetta grow into a mentor for less experienced technicians.
Through meticulous recordkeeping and weekly updates, she’s enabled researchers to use or donate to collaborators nearly 100% of animals within the optimal age range—maximizing the value of every animal and experiment. In 2023, she won the Envigo Research Technician Award.
From Farm to Lab
DaVetta’s path to gnotobiotics began at North Carolina A&T State University, where she majored in Animal Science. After graduating in 2014, she spent two and a half years at NC State handling various research animals before joining UNC in 2017.
Her typical day involves health checks, environmental monitoring, technical procedures like injections and swabs, and coordinating with principal investigators. Asked what she’s really good at, she says: “I’m really good at being detail-oriented and staying organized, even when juggling multiple tasks.” One area she’s working on? “Not over-checking everything so I can work more efficiently.”
Inspiration and Balance
DaVetta credits her parents as her greatest inspiration: “Watching them show up consistently and take pride in their work shaped how I approach my own responsibilities.”
Outside work, she enjoys exploring the Triangle’s restaurant scene and traveling.
“Everyone has the same common goal of contributing to animal research in a different way,” she says of working in a core facility. As DaVetta enters her ninth year at UNC, her work continues to enable research into inflammatory diseases that affect millions of people worldwide.
Congratulations, DaVetta, on this well-deserved recognition!