Tad Sonstegard talks about New Breeding Techniques

On November 30, 17:00, Dr. Tad Sonstegard gives a presentation “Beyond genome selection: breeding for genetic improvement with increased speed and precision” at a meeting of the Gregor Mendel Gesellschaft Wien. The presentation takes place in the Festsaal of the Gregor Mendel Building, visitors are welcome, no registration needed.

Dr. Tad Sonstegard is the Chief Scientific Officer of Acceligen at Recombinetics Inc., a company producing gene edited livestock, including polled (horn-less) cattle.

He is at BOKU as a visiting professor, teaching in the courses of Prof. Johann Sölkner (Quantitative Animal Genetics) and Dr. Gabor Meszaros (Molecular Animal Genetics). He also gives a lecture at the Division of Livestock Sciences (NUWI) on his discovery of a variant of a gene called SLICK, with big effect on thermo-regulation of cattle (November 28, 9:00, Seminarraum NUWI).

Prof. Sölkner and Dr. Sonstegard have been collaborating since many years, from times when Dr. Sonstegard was still a key scientific officer at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Their collaboration is in the framework of the African Goat Improvement Network (AGIN), implementing simple community based breeding programs with local goat breeds in Uganda and Malawi.

23.11.2017