Virtual PAG XXIX Online Program Opens in a New Window
Professorial Fellow in Animal Genetics, University of Melbourne and Department of Environment and Primary Industries, AUSTRALIA
January 13 - 8:45 AM
Town & Country Ballroom
Talk Title: "The Evolution and Genetic Architecture of Complex Traits"
Mike graduated in veterinary science and then completed a PhD in genetics (A breeding program for guide dogs for the blind). He has worked at James Cook University in Townsville, Victorian Department of Agriculture, as Director of the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit at University of New England. Currently he holds a joint appointment between the University of Melbourne and the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries.
His research has always been on the genetic improvement of livestock including, beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep and pigs. In recent years this has expanded to include the genetics of complex traits in humans. Until its close in 2012, he was Chief Scientist of the Beef Cooperative Research Centre. In 2001, with colleagues, he published the first paper on genomic selection which uses DNA markers covering the whole genomic to predict the breeding value of animals that are candidates for selection. This has now been implemented world wide in dairy cattle and is being developed for other livestock and for crops such as wheat. In 2011 he was elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
