Pictured Left to Right: Professors Gregor Gorjanc, James Prendergast, Mizeck Chagunda, Liam Morrison
It was a real honour and tribute to the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health to celebrate this milestone and to hear from four of the professors whose work contributes immensely and closely to the Centre.
The professors each shared their career and research journeys with a packed auditorium attended by colleagues, students and the general public, highlighting personal and professional achievements, as well as landmark points in their careers so far.
- Professor Mizeck Chagunda – Chair of Tropical Livestock Genetics
- Professor Liam Morrison – Chair of Veterinary Parasitology
- Professor James Prendergast – Chair of Bioinformatics
- Professor Gregor Gorjanc – Chair of Selective Breeding
Professor Mizeck Chagunda, Director of CTLGH, opened the series of inaugural lectures with passion, warmth, and forward-looking enthusiasm.
The insightful talks celebrated a decade of scientific discovery and focussed on the contributions of each of the professors. The attendance of their family members made the occasion particularly touching and all the more special.
The event was followed by an audience Q&A, which led to some engaging discussions, before ending the evening with a drinks reception.
Thank you to the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine and our Comms and Engagement colleagues for organising the event.
Professor Biographies
Professor Mizeck Chagunda, Professor in Tropical Livestock Genetics and Director of the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health – a quantitative genetics and animal breeding expert who has pioneered research on developing innovative techniques for quantifying, measuring, and defining phenotypes for difficult-to-measure traits related to disease resistance, adaptation, resilience and enteric methane emissions, and explored the role of these phenotypes and dynamic phenomics in genetic improvement of livestock. He also has experience in areas such as mathematical modelling for predicting individual animal health, and reproduction status, and genomics in livestock improvement.
Professor Liam Morrison, Professor of Veterinary Parasitology at the Roslin Institute – research interests n the infection biology of protozoan parasites of livestock. Liam is particularly attracted to integrated approaches where we can learn about both host and parasite processes that are key to infection/disease progression – especially in the clinically relevant host, the cow. His work aims to identify key host-parasite interactions that determine disease outcome, further our understanding of bovine immunobiology, and identify targets for interventions e.g. drug and vaccine development.
Professor James Prendergast, Professor of Bioinformatics at the Roslin Institute and the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies – career focus in developing computational approaches that help link DNA variation to human and livestock phenotypes. James now leads a research group working on graph genomes, machine-learning methods and high-throughput functional screens.
Professor Gregor Gorjanc, Professor in Selective Breeding at the Roslin Institute – leads the HighlanderLab which focuses on managing and improving populations using data science, genetics, and breeding. The lab focuses on populations used for food, feed, and fibre production with some spillover into other populations. Particular interests are: (i) methods for genetics and breeding, (ii) design and optimisation of breeding programmes, and (iii) analysis of data to unravel biology and to find new ways of improving populations.