Genomic Application Partnership Program update

A project is only as good as its team, and the above group has shown not just dedication and expertise, but also a spirit of innovation and discovery. Dr. Ben Wood, a Hendrix Genetics geneticist, is the project leader in collaboration with University of Guelph professor Dr. Christine Baes. 

Dr. Gabriele Marras, Dr. Hakimeh Emamgholi Begli and Dr. Emhimad Abdalla are three postdocs on the project team, all with different focuses. Some of their specialities include bioinformatics, reproduction, egg production, broodiness and the optimisation of single step GBLUP (Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Prediction).

The team is also very fortunate to have renowned poultry behaviour specialist Dr. Alexandra Harlander, a member of the Animal Biological Sciences faculty at the University of Guelph. Within this project she is researching the phenotyping of both feeding and aggressive behaviour. 

No project can run without a dedicated project manager, Dr. Francesca Malchiodi has done an excellent job in this role. The team also includes postgraduate student Ryley Vanderhout, who is pursuing a Masters in Science under the supervision of Dr. Ben Wood.

Hendrix Genetics is excited to be the platinum sponsor at the World Conference on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production (WCGALP) 2018 in Auckland, New Zealand. We look forward to updating the greater scientific community on many exciting subjects, including products of the turkey genomics selection project. An example being Dr. Gabriele Marras, who will explain his research into causal models for feed efficiency. 

This research project is truly off to a great start, with a lot of practical applications appearing. We look forward to keeping all those interested updated, as we work towards unlocking the full potential of the turkey genome. 

To learn about all the exciting topics presented by Hendrix Genetics at WCGALP visit www.hendrix-genetics.com/en/wcgalp-2018/