summer 2016 roslin - university of edinburgh · roslin reporter summer 2016 this year marks the...

Exciting new launches and preparations for the next Institute Strategic Programme

grants have been keeping us busy the past 6 months. In December, the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH) was launched at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Nairobi Campus in Kenya. CTLGH partners from The Roslin Institute, Scotland’s Rural College and ILRI gathered to kick start the Centre’s research programmes funded by the Bill &

Message from the DirectorGetting ready to grow

(continued overleaf)

ROSLINREPORTER

Summer 2016

Coffee break at Group Leader’s retreat

in livestock, further increases our collective commitment to address global challenges and establish international partnerships.

The Centre for Dementia Prevention also had its academic launch in December. Prof. Jean Manson, Head of the Neurobiology Division at Roslin, is co-Director of this unique centre which aims to advance our understanding of the risk factors that contribute to dementia.

Earlier this year we also saw the launch of Roslin Technologies Ltd., a joint venture between the University of Edinburgh and a private equity funder to translate research arising from The Roslin Institute and R(D)SVS through the provision of funds for pump-priming and proof-of-concept research, as well as expertise in the formation of spin-out companies.

The Roslin Institute is the largest recipient of funding in the Centre for Innovation in Livestock (CIEL), which was announced in March. This UK Government funded initiative brings together academic institutions and industry partners from across the UK and will help create state-of-the-art facilities, including a Large Animal Research and Imaging Facility (LARIF) on the Easter Bush

Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). These programmes will focus on the identification of optimal genotypes for dairy cattle and poultry production in Africa, establishing precision breeding technologies to improve livestock productivity and tolerance to tropical diseases and pests, and on creating open data and biological sample resources. A second BMGF award to Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies (R(D)SVS) of £5.5M to support evidence-based interventions

ROSLIN Reporter Summer 20162

Campus, that will provide the livestock industry with access to world-leading research. Roslin will also host CIEL’s Informatics Hub, which will support livestock genomics and informatics, and provide training to breeders, farmers, and recording and breeding companies in the delivery of genomic improvement.

Genomics research at Roslin was enhanced by the installation of the Illumina HiSeqX sequencing platform at the Roslin node of Edinburgh Genomics. With a grant from BBSRC, the facility has just completed sequencing of more than 1000 human genomes from the Lothian Birth Cohort. The release of this platform for non-human genomes is revolutionizing our research on livestock genetic variation and attracting many new partnerships with major breeding companies, as well as underpinning the CTLGH.

Finally, we continue to develop our National Capabilities, with the newly

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Important developments have been taking place on the edges of the

Campus as the construction for the new Combined Heat and Power system that will provide electricity for The Roslin Institute and the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies commences. The Easter Bush Energy Centre will contribute to reduce the University of Edinburgh’s CO2 emissions by 2,000 tonnes annually and is scheduled for completion in spring 2017.

A public consultation on the Large Animal Research and Imaging Facility has also taken place and building of this state-of-the-art facility will start in late 2016, alongside new Campus roads as part of Phase 2 of the Infrastructure Project.

Work on the Roslin Innovation Centre and Campus Hub is also powering ahead and on target for 2017 opening. We are already engaging with Midlothian Council and local schools to start planning activities that will make best use of the new Outreach Centre and the expertise of staff on Campus.

Our work with young people and local communities has been recognised by two recent awards:

In March we received the Investors in Young People Silver award which acknowledges our commitment to providing opportunities and experience to young people in Midlothian, and in February the Easter Bush Campus was awarded the 2015 Community Engagement prize by Scottish Enterprise.

Val White runs through some of the latest developments and initiatives on Campus.

Easter Bush Campus update

Roslin Technologies launch

appointed co-Directors of NARF, Prof. Nick Sparks and Dr Kellie Watson, consolidating poultry research facilities in the UK at Easter Bush to create a world leading centre for poultry genetics, health and welfare.

All these initiatives are contributing to fulfil our ambition to become “the world capital for livestock health and genetics” and to maximize the benefits

of our research to both UK livestock industries and the developing world. It was therefore very pleasing to see our submission to the BBSRC Excellence with Impact competition, in partnership with the School of Biological Sciences, amongst the 10 shortlisted in the UK and commended for our openness in animal research.

This award recognises the extensive and varied programme of public engagement and outreach events that are delivered by staff and students across the Campus.

During the summer we will be hosting University of Edinburgh interns and Career Ready interns as well as a group of high school students who will be attending our work placement programme “Science Insights”. I would encourage you all to participate in these exciting schemes and make the students feel welcome.

Finally, I would urge you to take a look at the recently re-launched Easter Bush Campus website that highlights the benefits of the Campus for staff and students and provides up-to-date details of developments at Easter Bush:

www.ed.ac.uk/easter-bush-campus


This year marks the 20th anniversary of the birth of our very own Dolly the

Sheep, the first animal to be cloned from an adult cell. Along with colleagues at the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, we have been busy planning and delivering a series of Dolly@20 celebrations to run throughout 2016.

Our first three Dolly@20 events formed part of the programme for the Edinburgh International Science Festival. The festivities kicked off with ‘Dolly and Me… 20 Years with the World’s Most Famous Sheep’ at the National Museum of Scotland. Vivienne Parry OBE joined Professor Sir Ian Wilmut, who led the research which produced Dolly, Clare Button, archivist on the University of Edinburgh’s ‘Towards Dolly’ project,

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Emily Clark delivering a ‘DNA, Dolly and You!’ workshop at the Edinburgh International Science Festival

Dr Andrew Kitchener, a principal curator at National Museums Scotland and Professor Bruce Whitelaw, to share their stories and discuss Dolly’s past, present and future.

Over 200 people came to our ‘DNA, Dolly and You!’ family workshops and learnt about inheritance, DNA and of course, Dolly the Sheep. We were also at Summerhall for the Mini Maker Faire, where our researchers and members of the public had a go at some science-inspired needle felting!

Thanks to everyone who has helped with our Dolly@20 celebrations so far. To find out about our future events, go to www.dolly.roslin.ed.ac.uk and follow us on twitter @dollyat20.

An update on the celebratory events so far from our Public Engagement Assistant Rachel Huddart.

Happy 20th birthday Dolly!

Dr Muwonge at WHO’s headquarters

Representatives from both human and animal health sectors, including key

international organizations for animal health such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) met in Geneva at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters on the 14-15 April to formulate key actions to combat zoonotic tuberculosis (TB). These actions will be developed into a comprehensive Roadmap for Zoonotic TB, which will be launched in early 2017 as part of the WHO’s ‘End TB by 2035’ strategy.

The Union’s Zoonotic TB subsection, chaired by Adrian Muwonge, instigated this global stakeholder’s meeting to develop a common road map for controlling zoonotic TB. “The meeting in Geneva was the starting point as we move forward with formulating effective global policy” said Dr Muwonge.

In 2014, around 120,000 people fell ill with zoonotic TB. Zoonotic TB is mainly caused by bovine TB which is transmitted to humans through the consumption of unpasteurized milk and dairy products. In many developed countries, eradication programmes have reduced or eliminated TB in cattle, and human disease is now rare. Bovine TB is still common in both developed and developing countries and causes major economic losses from livestock deaths, chronic disease and trade restrictions.

Taking global measures against zoonotic tuberculosis

Dr Adrian Muwonge is part of a landmark consultation organised by the World Health Organisation and The Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.


In 2013 BBSRC launched a competition for universities and BBSRC-funded

Institutes, to develop a strategy to maximise the impacts from research and ways of recognising and rewarding these impacts. The Roslin Institute (RI) and the School of Biological Sciences (SBS) are the major beneficiaries of BBSRC funding at the University of Edinburgh. A committee co-chaired by Prof. Malcolm Walkinshaw (SBS) and myself (RI) was set up to run the University’s competition entry.

Committee members included business development staff from Edinburgh Research and Innovation, public engagement professionals, science administrators, academics, postdocs and PhD students. The committee

developed and supported a range of activities, within the broadest definition of research impact: public engagement and dialogue, informing and driving policy, knowledge exchange and commercialisation. Our major aims were: to bridge the gap between the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine (home of RI) and the College of Science and Engineering (SBS) by sharing best practice, to increase collaborations and quality of impact, to support early career researchers and to ensure awareness and involvement with impact of all staff and postgraduate students.

Following submission of a report and a presentation to an assessment panel, the University of Edinburgh was shortlisted as one of ten finalists in the

Prof. Helen Sang summarises the successful outcomes of this three-year endeavour.

BBSRC Excellence with Impact competition

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Congratulations to Brendan Duggan for coming 2nd in the College of

Medicine and Veterinary Medicine’s 3-Minute Thesis competition and being awarded the President’s Prize for the best oral presentation at the World’s Poultry Science Association (WPSA) UK Branch annual meeting in April. Angus Reid was runner up at the same event, securing a clean sweep for the Roslin contingent! Brendan’s research compares the architecture of the leg bones of poultry as a means to better define objectives for genetic selection to improve gait. Angus studies the control of appetite and body weight in chickens by the cholecystokinin A receptor.

Paul Hocking

competition. On the 21st April we hosted a small panel of final assessors that heard first-hand from many RI and SBS students and staff, as well as from some of our industry collaborators, about the impacts of the University of Edinburgh’s bioscience research.

Participation in the competition has resulted in many new activities across the spectrum of ‘impact’ and improved links between the two Colleges. Our work on openness in animal research received a Commendation Award at the Fostering Innovation 2016 event in London on the 18th May.

The Excellence with Impact Final Report and many useful links can be found:

www.excellence-impact.bio.ed.ac.uk

Double success for Brendan

Duggan

ROSLIN Reporter Summer 2016 5

Vicky Macrae reports from Roslin’s Career Development Committee.

Dr Sara Clohisey describes her recent experience as a comedian, playwright and podcaster at The Genetics Society workshop in the luxurious surroundings of Chichley Hall.

Full house for ‘Careers in Science’ event

Communicate Your Science

(Lecturer in Veterinary Anaesthesia and PhD student, R(D)SVS) and Deborah Hoyle (Wellcome Trust Career Re-Entry Fellow, RI).

Following a networking lunch, we heard candid and honest presentations from the speakers, culminating with an informal discussion on the challenges and opportunities for women in science. The committee were delighted that the

the Christmas Lectures for the Royal Institution in 2013 and more recently the 2015 JBS Haldane Lecture; participated in a Stand Up Science Workshop with comedian Helen Keane; and took part in mock radio interviews with The Naked Scientists. This was great practice in breaking through the jargon we tend to

event sold out, with staff and students travelling out to Roslin from a number of different University campuses. We plan to build on the success of this event and host further Careers in Science workshops later in the year.

For updates on the committee’s activities, as well as news and views on equality, diversity and Athena SWAN activities follow @EandDEasterBush.

rely on when talking about our work. The workshop finished with a dizzying rush as we scrambled to record a 15-minute podcast that included interviews, vox pops and twitter polls. Overall, it was a wonderful experience and I would highly recommend it to both PhD students and early career postdocs.

The Career Development Committee recently hosted a ‘Careers in Science’

event at The Roslin Institute (RI) featuring speakers from a range of career stages. These included: Margaret Frame (Science Director, Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre), Eileen Wall (Professor of Integrative Livestock Genetics, SRUC), Jo Stevens (Career Track Fellow, RI), Wendy Nicholson (Head of Business Development, ERI), Juliet Duncan

Prof. Enrico Coen from the John Innes Centre kicked off the workshop with

an introduction to the ‘Art of Storytelling’ explaining how we might use it to liven up our scientific presentations to colleagues or the public. Over the course of 3-days we had lively discussions with Prof. Alison Woollard, who delivered

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Cute Egg delivery!

Researchers in Ian Dunn’s group have been busy putting together 50 activity

kits for farmers as part of BBSRC’s ‘Science on the Farm’ project. One of three successful bids for funding in a UK-wide call, the Cute Egg activity kits provide equipment and instructions for two hands-on, family-friendly activities about the cuticle on hen eggs, an invisible protein layer that protects eggs from bacteria and other pathogens.

Farmers will receive the free kits for use at Open Farm Sunday on the 5th June, an event held annually across the UK to give members of the public a behind-the-scenes look at British farms. Cute egg activity kit

Katherine Bassil, a final year biology undergraduate with the American

Lebanese University, made contact with Edinburgh University through Jane Haley at Edinburgh Neuroscience to set up a lab placement at The Roslin Institute in Rona Barron’s lab with final year PhD student Kirsty Ireland. During her visit in January, Katherine gained a wealth of lab experience in techniques including western blotting, immunohistochemistry, whole brain organotypic slice culture, confocal and light microscopy. The placement provided Kirsty with student supervision experience and helped Katherine secure a research masters project in cognitive and clinical neuroscience at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

Kirsty Ireland

Win-win neurobiology placement

Katherine and Kirsty exchanging tips


Buzz about the bees

This May, the Easter Bush Campus welcomed members of Edinburgh

and Midlothian Beekeepers’ Association (EMBA) to host beginners’ classes in beekeeping. The 18 strong class was comprised of veterinary students, PhD students, researchers and staff from across the Campus. The course was led by Alan Riach (Education convenor for the Scottish Beekeepers Association/

EMBA), Mark Barnett (Roslin/EMBA), David Wright (EMBA) and Matthew Richardson (University of Edinburgh apiary project/EMBA). Many aspects of beekeeping were covered and put into practice at the recently established apiaries at Easter Bush and at King’s Buildings. The apiary on Campus is being developed as part of a honeybee research initiative led by Prof. Tom

Freeman, to enable staff and students to engage in beekeeping as a lunchtime or after work activity and contribute to environmental sustainability.

If you are interested in future beekeeping courses on Campus, please contact Mark Barnett:

[email protected]

The construction of the Roslin Innovation Centre and Campus

Hub is well underway with completion scheduled during summer 2017.

The University of Edinburgh’s resident photographer, Norrie Russell, recently donned a hard hat and was elevated by the contractors, McLaughlin & Harvey, in one of the site’s cranes to capture a bird’s eye view of progress and the surrounding landscape.

Tenants at the Innovation Centre will certainly be afforded with magnificent views across the Midlothian countryside to the Pentland Hills from the full height

glazing to be installed in the offices and laboratory space.

Under Construction

Building a site of a different type, the Roslin Innovation Centre team have been assisting in the design and development of a new website: www.roslininnovationcentre.com which will launch in late June.

This will provide a scalable approach to online services for the Roslin Innovation Centre. Phase 1 will focus on the key strands of Industry, Services, Science and Outreach, providing information

on available laboratory and office space, strategic and collaborative funding opportunities and featuring industry news and events.

To keep up to date with the latest developments follow us @Roslinnovation

For further information or to discuss locating your business at the Roslin Innovation Centre, please get in touch with John Mackenzie, Chief Executive Officer, by email [email protected] or call 0131 651 9420.

Room with a view


Research Student Day

The annual Research Student Day took place on 27th April in The Roslin

Institute. 34 final year PhD students from The Roslin Institute, R(D)SVS, the Moredun Institute, SRUC, Marine Scotland and the Institute for Zoology in London gave oral presentations and over 100 posters from students in the earlier years of their PhDs, the MSc by Research students and the Clinical Scholars were exhibited. The high standard of both oral and poster presentations posed a daunting task for the various session judges, all of whom commented on the quality of the students’ work and the difficulty of choosing winners.

The day concluded with the Charnock Bradley Lecture on ‘Controlling cortisol in cardiovascular disease’ given by Prof. Brian Walker, Dean of Research for the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, a reception and the prize giving ceremony. Prof. David Argyle congratulated the students on the high quality of the presentations and Prof. David Hume presented the certificates and prizes to the winners. All in all, it was a very successful day which highlighted the enormous diversity of research in the School and the fantastic contribution the students make.

Bernadette Dutia

Research Student Day PrizesFirst year poster winner: Emily Parr

First year poster runners up: Fiona Allan and Prasun Dutta

Second year poster winner: Tom Marchant

Second year poster runners up: Laura Vezza and Zofia Lisowski

Third year poster winner: Lin Cui Lin

Third year poster runners up: Oluyinka Abejide and Laura Glendinning

MSc: Emily Anderson

Clinical Scholar poster winner: Gemma Pearson

Oral presentation winner: Jolinda Pollock

Oral presentation runners up: Dean Houston and Grace Smith

Edinburgh Genomics Conference

On the 11-12th April The Roslin Institute hosted the first Edinburgh

Genomics Conference “Spreading the news – engaging with science and industry: Exploiting the opportunities in genome sequencing”, which brought together around 300 scientists from all over the UK. The conference was organised around three themes: Genomics of Natural Populations, Animal Breeding and Animal Health, and Human Health and Clinical Genomics using the new Illumina HiSeqX system recently installed at Edinburgh Genomics with funding from the University of Edinburgh.

The conference allowed for lots of discussion around the methods and scientific questions being applied to a wide range of species, including plants, animals and microbes, and sparked many future collaborations to address the Big Data challenge and the application of bioinformatics. Edinburgh Genomics offers a wide range of hands-on workshops and training courses in this area. Keep an eye on our website for more details:

https://genomics.ed.ac.uk/

Meeting participants and sponsors are keen for an annual event, so expect another conference in 2017!

Dave Burt and Mick Watson

Events roundup

David Burt spreading the news


Roslin Retreat

Group leaders gathered in the Vet School on the 14th April to hear more

about the latest initiatives on Easter Bush Campus and some of the research advances in genome editing and genome analysis. They were also able to discuss their plans for the next Institute Strategic Programmes and potential collaborations with our sister NIB Institute The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC). Presentations from TGAC’s Director Neil Hall and the Director of Science Federica Di Palma, and from Phil Jones and Paul Andrews from the National & European Phenotypic Screening Centres highlighted some common goals and new research opportunities.

Events roundup

On the 18th of March, industry representatives and academic

researchers gathered at The Roslin Institute to hear about the exciting opportunities afforded by recent investments and developments on the Easter Bush Campus that are driving innovation in the Agri-Business sector. Roslin speakers updated attendees on the existing and forthcoming facilities on Campus such as the Roslin Innovation Centre, Edinburgh Genomics and the Large Animal Critical Care Unit. They also highlighted opportunities for industry in the newly set up Agri-Tech centres: CIEL and Agri-Epi. Evidence of the benefits for companies of engaging with Roslin’s expertise in livestock genomics and animal health was presented by Alan Mileham from Genus and Ian Nanjiani from Westpoint

Veterinary Group. The one-day meeting allowed plenty of time for networking and all industry attendees who filled in a feedback form said that they would envisage future collaborations as a result of this event.

Industry Day 2016: From Sequences to Consequences

To learn more about how Roslin advances innovation by collaborating with industry visit www.roslin.ed.ac.uk/industry or contact our dedicated business development executives [email protected]

Alice Barrier

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Neil Hall (TGAC), Tim Connelly, Federica Di Palma (TGAC) and Ivan Morrison at the Roslin Retreat

Mick Watson, Claudia Trummer, Geoff Scopes, Loic Flatres-Grall and Luise Seeker at Roslin’s Industry Day


Liver disease is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in dogs,

treatments are typically palliative and prognosis is difficult to determine. There is accumulating data in human patients with liver disease that links the presence of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) to the development of complications such as hepatic encephalopathy and poor clinical outcome.

To shed light on the relationship between inflammation and treatment outcome in dogs, a team led by Richard Mellanby determined the prevalence of systemic inflammation in a cohort of seventy dogs with primary hepatitis. They found that SIRS was an independent predictor of a poor clinical outcome. Further studies examining the effect of modulating inflammation on treatment outcomes in dogs with a primary hepatitis may lead to novel and improved therapeutic approaches.

One medicine approach to liver disease

Optimising the rumen microbiome

Research highlights

Advances in veterinary stem cell therapies

Interest in the use of adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in human and

equine regenerative medicine has increased dramatically in the last decade, as evidenced by the number of NIH approved trials. Working with collaborators from the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine and UCL, Cristina Esteves in the Donadeu group has successfully established a method to isolate and culture equine pericytes and has shown that these cells are the origin of therapeutic MSCs within equine tissues.

Cristina has been awarded a grant from the Horse Betting Levy Board (HBLB) to investigate with Ross Fitzgerald and Xavier Donadeu the antibacterial and immunomodulatory properties of adult equine stem cells and their potential for veterinary stem cell therapies. Nick Goody, a summer veterinary student working on the project won the best poster award at Vet Choice 2015.

Methane production by cattle has a major impact on global warming

and as global meat production increases to meet the demand of a growing world population, there is a clear need to understand how cows produce this greenhouse gas and devise ways to reduce it.

Two recently published studies by Mick Watson, Director of ARK-Genomics, and colleagues at the University of Aberdeen and SRUC, show that it is possible to

genetically select for cattle that emit lower levels of methane based on the relative abundance of microbial genes in their guts. The work published in PLoS Genetics and BMC Genomics provides a proof of principle that the host’s genes influence its microbiome. The prospect of selecting for cattle with desirable traits on the basis of their microbiome opens up interesting new avenues of research to improve the sustainable production of livestock.


A study in mice led by Barry McColl shows that microglia from different

brain regions have different gene expression patterns and that these differences become more obvious with age. For example, in young adult mice, microglia were more ready to respond to infection, particularly in the

cerebellum, a region of the brain which coordinates movements like riding a bike or driving a car. This immune-alert state of cerebellar microglia was augmented in the brains of older mice. By contrast, in microglia in the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in memory encoding and storage, genes involved

in microglia sensing and monitoring of their environment became less active with age. The diversity of these changes could underlie region-specific vulnerabilities to microglial dysregulation and age-related neurodegeneration, which often affects the brain in region-specific patterns.

Uncovering the multiple identities of the brain’s immune cells

Bruce Whitelaw and colleagues have used a gene-editing technique

to produce pigs that are potentially resilient to African Swine Fever – a highly contagious disease that kills up to two-thirds of infected animals. The new pigs carry a version of the RELA gene that is usually found in warthogs and bush pigs, and may stop them from becoming ill.

African Swine Fever is spread by ticks and when standard farmed pigs are infected, they quickly become ill and die.

In the presence of African Swine Fever Virus, the RELA gene causes the immune system to overreact with devastating effects. However, warthogs and bush pigs carry a different version of the RELA gene that may dampen their immune response to the virus and explain why they show no disease symptoms when infected. Whitelaw’s team will now conduct controlled trials to test whether the genetic changes have improved the pigs’ resilience to the disease.

Vicky MacRae and colleagues have found that testosterone may be linked to

the hardening of blood vessels associated with heart disease. The study, funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and BBSRC, could explain why men have a greater risk of heart attacks than women of similar age and lead to new therapies to reduce heart attack risk.

MacRae’s team found that in mice, testosterone triggers cells from the blood vessels to produce bone-like deposits – a process called calcification that has been linked to increased risk of heart attack and stroke. When the testosterone receptor was removed from mouse cells, so they could no longer respond to testosterone, they produced far fewer calcium deposits. Similar deposits were observed in blood vessel and valve tissue from humans with heart disease who had undergone surgery for their condition. Cells from these tissues carry the testosterone receptor on their surface suggesting that testosterone may trigger calcification in humans.

Research Highlights

Pig’s genetic code altered in bid to tackle deadly virus

Research links heart disease with testosterone

If you have any articles you would like to submit for the next Roslin Reporter or have any questions or feedback on this issue please contact us: [email protected] University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.Photography by Norrie Russell.Designed by Graphic Design Services, LTW, ISG, The University of Edinburgh www.ed.ac.uk/is/graphic-design

Distance equine PhD programme on track

PhD student Dominique Lefebvre is based in Montréal, Canada,

yet makes scheduled study visits to Edinburgh to complement her research activities towards a PhD at The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. The programme designed and led by Neil Hudson and Scott Pirie is one of the first Distance PhDs to be offered at the University of Edinburgh.

Dominique’s project is focusing on equine colic (abdominal pain), a significant killer of horses, and the problem of disrupted gut motility which frequently occurs following colic surgery.

Professor Colin Farquharson, Thesis Committee Chair for Dominique’s PhD, said: “the Thesis Committee unanimously congratulate Dominique on her achievements so far and had no concerns with this Distance Learning PhD, the success of which is due to the right mix of student, supervisors and project.”

In the first episode of the new BBC2 series Food Detectives, Dr Alice

Roberts explored the leading cause of bacterial food poisoning in people: Campylobacter, and spoke with Prof. Mark Stevens about his research in poultry that aims of reduce the incidence of human infection.

Researchers at Roslin have recently identified regions of the chicken genome that are associated with differential resistance of chicken lines to Campylobacter colonisation. The study,

funded by BBSRC and Aviagen Ltd., will inform the design of breeding strategies to select for chickens with improved resistance. The team led by Prof. Stevens has also found a number of constituents of the bacterium that can induce protective immune responses in chickens. With newly awarded grants from the Scottish Government and the BBSRC, they will continue to design and test novel vaccines to control Campylobacter in chickens.

Mark Stevens stars in BBC2 programme Food Detectives

Genome Editing and the Future of Farming












‘Dolly the Sheep: Major Discovery or Minor Distraction?’ at The Cabaret of Dangerous IdeasThe Stand in the Square, St Andrew Square, Edinburgh

For more information, please visit:

25AUG

2016

The Roslin InstituteFor further information see nib.ac.uk6

SEP

2016 dolly.roslin.ed.ac.ukComing of Age: The Legacy of Dolly at 207pm, Surgeons’ Hall, Edinburgh1

SEP

2016




The Roslin InstituteFor further information see nib.ac.uk6

SEP

2016

summer 2016 roslin - university of edinburgh · roslin reporter summer 2016 this year marks the...

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