Summer Students

Issue 21

October 2010

REPORTERROSLIN

Following another clear-out day and a further ‘Town Hall’

meeting to provide an update regarding the move to the new building we are almost ready to go. Learn more about it in this issue of the Roslin Reporter and catch up with the rest of the news from The Roslin Institute.

Over the summer of 2010 Institute laboratories hosted 13 veterinary students as summer

scholars. Many of these students were completing the requirements for SSC2 (Student Selected Components 2), a course in the BVMS programme involving an independent project which must be completed prior to entry into 5th year. Some were from more junior years, with a keen interest in finding out what research is all about. All supervisors report that their students made considerable progress and provided input which will advance the project overall. In many cases the student was able to develop a resource or initiate a study that would otherwise not have been done. Their work has opened new avenues of research and several will even get their names on publications. Some of the projects for this year were: Genotyping a marker associated with body weight in chickens in traditional, commercial and intercross animals; Looking at genes for coat colour in dogs to see whether they were linked to a cardiovascular disease; Deriving primordial germ cells from birds; Examining neuroendocrine control of aggression; Transforming an osteoblast cell line with an expression plasmid and Looking at the impact on mineralisation.

Thanks largely to the skills of Professor Jacqui Matthews in seeking out funding sources, most had some sponsorship, either a stipend or stipend plus bench fees. We are grateful to the funders for their vision in supporting the research experience for these students: BBSRC, Intervet, Wellcome Trust, SRF, Carnegie, RCVS and BSAS/Biosciences KTN. We are currently calling for projects for summer 2011. Damon Querry has designed an easy to use interface which uploads a lot of the information for you – you can modify it if you wish. If you would like to supervise one of these very rewarding students next summer, please go to www.roslin.ed.ac.uk/selfservice, login with your EASE password and click on the Summer Scholar tab.

by Kim Summers

Inside this issue:

Events

Director’s Message

Scientific Highlights

News in Brief

Highland Games

Recent Publications

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Aspen Davidoff who worked with Kim on the genetics of canine cardiac accessory pathway disease and possible linkage to coat colour genes

Chad Maki who worked with Carmen Huesa in Colin Farquharson’s lab, transducing a cell line with a PHOSPHO1 expression construct to look at the impact of overexpression

EventsEB

RC SE

MIN

AR SE

RIES

Many seminars, workshops, conferences and other events are now listed on The Roslin Institute web site (http://www.roslin.ed.ac.uk/events/events.php).

The seminar programme is organised by a committee of volunteers: Helen

Sang (Developmental Biology, chair), Neil Mabbott (Neuropathogenesis), Anne French (Veterinary Clinical Sciences), Vicky MacRae (Developmental Biology), Bob Dalziel (Infection and Immunity), DJ De Koning (Genetics and Genomics), Andreas Lengeling (Infection and Immunity). The speakers are selected by asking everyone in the Institute to send in suggestions of speakers they would like to invite. We are looking for speakers who carry out cutting edge research in an area of close interest to some of the groups within the Institute, but importantly who is also likely to give a good and accessible talk. Speakers are all asked to provide a good introduction

to their subject for non-specialists and to bear in mind the wide range of expertise we have. The committee selects speakers from those suggested, to try and get a broad range of topics covered each session and particularly to give younger scientists the chance to host speakers. We also include opportunities for Institute group leaders to present their research and invite scientists from the Edinburgh area so that we can hear about relevant research that is going on on our doorstep and establish links. The committee has a budget to cover travel, accommodation and a contribution to a dinner for the speaker, host and a few others. Sheelagh Strachan supports this by booking travel and accommodation. Suggestions for speakers are requested approximately twice a year.

Prof Rob Harvey Host: Steve Bishop

Dr Suzanne Duce Hosts: Andy Bain/Bob Fleming

Prof Ketan Patel Host: Helen Sang

Prof Kevin Docherty Host: Wilfred Goldmann

Dr Paul Genever Host: Neil MacKenzie

Prof Michael Wakelam Host: David Hume

Nov 3rd

10th

17th

24th

Dec 1st

8th

Helen

Please check the site for updates and if you would like to have your event posted, please contact Tricia Hart (patricia.hart@roslin.ed.ac.uk).

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School of Pharmacy, London“The genetic basis of startle disorders in livestock and companion animals”

College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee “Micro-magnetic resonance imaging: looking deeper into embryonic development”

Biomedical Sciences, University of Reading“Discovery of a new anatomical source of skeletal muscle in vertebrate embryos”

School of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen“Stem cells, diabetes and adolescent obesity”

Department of Biology, University of York“Regulatory control of mesenchymal stem cell behaviour”

Director, Babraham Institute“Phospholid signalling pathways in normal and diseased cells”

EBRC

WOR

KSHO

PS

The EBRC workshops are held quarterly to focus on the work of early career

EBRC scientists (students, postdocs etc) from The Roslin Institute, SAC, and the Vet School. The aim is to foster communication and understanding of each other’s work, and develop links between young researchers. The next EBRC will be on the 9th December

Edinburgh Mouse Club

and if you would like to volunteer to talk, it is a great opportunity to practice presenting in a friendly and informal environment. Please contact your local representative for more information about the EBRC workshops (Roslin: Katherine Staines and Ross Houston, R(D)SVS: Tina Liu, SAC: Spiridoula Athanasiadou).

Andreas

The Edinburgh Mouse Club meetings take place at George Square. For more information, please contact Andreas Lengeling (andreas.lengeling@ed.ac.uk)

or check for news at www.roslin.ed.ac.uk/emc/

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Directors Message

Is it winter already? News today says that arctic swans have arrived early, another

sign that this winter will be as cold as, or colder than, last year. No distractions from the tasks of grant writing and publishing. I don’t think there was much let up in the level of work being undertaken at The Roslin Institute, but with the next REF (RAE) only a couple of years away, it is essential that we get projects finished and published to present the strongest possible case. The best news is that the building is effectively finished; we are now down to cleaning and commissioning. So far no disasters and the rainbow colour scheme looks great. We’ve had a large amount of recruitment over the summer including the intake of new postgraduate students and key new people, Mark Stevens, Jayne Hope and Albert Tenesa accepting posts as group leaders and Colin Sharpe as a CTF. Paula Brunton is the latest career track fellow to join the Institute and she is bringing her neuroendocrinology research, which studies hormonal stress responses

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Paula Cat

during pregnancy, to the Institute within the Neuropathogenesis Division. I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome everyone to the Institute and to wish them well in their various endeavours. While Hugh Edmiston’s replacement will not be in post until November

(we’ll introduce the new Director of Operations in the next issue of the Roslin Reporter) we do now have our new HR manager, Cat Eastwood, in post. She had already taken on quite a number of projects aimed at stream-lining some of the HR processes so I think she’s going to have us all in check and performing our appraisals more efficiently before we know it! Of-course we have all been slightly on tenterhooks while we wait to see what effects the UK Government’s spending review will have on funding for The Roslin Institute, the University of Edinburgh and science in general. The good news, at least given the portents of doom in advance, is that the government has frozen the overall research council budgets. Much of what I have been doing over the summer has involved lobbying to secure science funding in general while also pointing out the major impact The Roslin Institute has on both the local and UK economy. This will probably mean a drop in funding in real terms, but we have been very conservative over the past two to three years to enable us to deal with whatever comes our way.

The Roslin Institute is one of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funded National Institutes of Bioscience. The eight Institutes have agreed to work together more closely in the future to promote their science. A key part of our future funding comes from Institute Strategic Programme Grants (ISPGs). The Institute’s research leaders will be busy throughout the winter months as we prepare the full proposal and assess the contribution The Roslin Institute will make to the BBSRC’s strategy over the next five years. Through all the scientific preparation for the coming years we also now have a keen eye on the operational preparation. The formal date for the Institute’s move to its new building has been confirmed as being in the beginning of March 2011. I was delighted to see so many bags of rubbish leaving the current building during the recent clear out week as it will really help to streamline the move. I’d like to thank Iris O’Neill and the estates team for taking on the clear out task and doing such a good job. And a very upbeat note to finish on. I’m delighted to say that the Easter Bush Research Consortium’s (EBRC) partnership with Pfizer Animal Health (PAH) has now been formally signed. I will be visiting PAH in Kalamazoo in November. The Roslin Institute, as a member of the EBRC, will benefit from the funding this partnership brings to the consortium, funding that will largely support PhD scholarships and other research through full or leverage funding. This is a major partnership, but is only one of the many commercial relationships that has been developed in the past couple of years. This really reflect both the continued hard work of Sonja Vujovic, and the engagement by a large proportion of the group leaders.

EU provides major funding boost towards an “omics” view of liver cancer

Scientific Highlights

Is the genetic basis for complex disease intractable? In a recent article for The Wall

Street Journal entitled “The Failed Promise of Genomics”, Matt Ridley opined that Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and the somewhat related field of “personal genomics” have thus far fallen well short of expectation. Craig Venter went further in an interview with Der Spiegel and said “we have, in truth, learned nothing from the genome”. Though certainly debatable, there is some truth to the claims of Ridley, Venter and others. Ten years on from publication of the draft human genome, our understanding of its function could reasonably be described as rudimentary. Our ability to interpret data based upon a genome-centric model, a.k.a. a systems biology approach, really does fall short of what we want it to be. In animals, where resources are much more limited, these problems are amplified. Certainly this is not news to the field. A great deal of effort is currently going towards filling the “missing link” between genomics and medicine, especially in terms of improved technology and data interpretation. One such effort, the MODHEP consortium, coordinated by Dr Bruno Amati from the European Institute for Oncology and involving a dozen other EU-based PIs including myself, was recently assigned €17.35M via a five year EU Framework 7 grant to study liver cancer through an integrative omics (genomic-epigenomic-transcriptomic) approach. MODHEP will apply virtually every available

nucleic acid based, high throughput sequencing technology to generate a complete systems biology view of liver cancer. Models will be built using two different mouse transgenic lines, evaluated using human preclinical and clinical samples and further tested with therapeutic compounds. It will be one of the largest EU projects focused on cancer to date, with a staggering quantity of data produced. Aside from coordinating the activities of major research laboratories in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Israel and Japan, one of the largest challenges facing MODHEP will be the integration of the various data created by each group. This, as well as generating new leads through bioinformatic analysis of each data set, is the main task of the Faulkner lab in MODHEP. Despite the scale of the project, the point of MODHEP is not to gather data for a large number of individuals; that path is already being pursued by the International Cancer Genome Consortium. Instead, MODHEP will generate a greater range of data for a smaller set of patients to give us a complete picture of the oncogenic changes in each, based upon thorough annotation of the normal and diseased liver cell genome. In this manner we will hope to close the gap between the promise of a sequenced genome, and the harsh reality that we don’t know nearly enough about how it works. Given that liver cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide and remains a largely incurable disease, this cannot come too soon.

5Geoff

by Geoff Faulkner

The Roslin Institute, in collaboration with industry partners Aviagen and Affymetrix,

are involved in a project to improve feed efficiency in poultry through selective chicken breeding. With interaction with the Biosciences Knowledge Transfer Network, the project is being funded by the industry partners and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) through the Sustainable Livestock Production LINK programme administered by Defra; the total project investment is £1,647,000 over three years. With the world’s population increasing, new, more efficient methods of food production are required for sustainable production of crops and livestock. The Roslin Institute has been one of the key research organisations involved in generating such improvements and it has been at the forefront of developing and utilising new genomic technologies. Aviagen Ltd. is the world’s premier poultry breeding company and it develops pedigree lines of chickens for about half the world’s commercial broiler chicken production industry. Affymetrix Ltd. is a pioneer in creating breakthrough tools to drive the genomic revolution. These three partners together provide an ideal platform on which to develop and apply new genomic technologies that will enable a faster progress in breed development.

Boosting Global Food Security The aim of the project is to utilise Roslin genetics and genomics expertise to develop the dense genetic markers for the Aviagen chicken lines, produce these on a new lower-cost genotyping tool (with Affymetrix) and develop genomic breeding values for feed efficiency and other key traits. In essence, the aim is to develop mechanisms by which poultry breeding can be refined such that reductions can be made in the amount of animal feed required to produce a kilo of chicken meat. Over time, small improvements in breeding can, cumulatively, lead to large economic savings in feed costs, predicted to amount to some £10 million annually by 2025. Professor Dave Burt, a group leader at The Roslin Institute and coordinator of the LINK project, said, “This project represents a major milestone in poultry genetics, bringing together our ability to integrate information on the Genome sequences of multiple lines of modern broiler and layer chickens, with genome predictors of multiple traits measured on these populations. The translation of knowledge on of 10s of millions of genetic markers (SNPs) into practical breeding is possible in this project through the development of new genotyping tools capable of genotyping 500,000-750,000 SNPs per animal in batches of 200 per day - truly an amazing advance.”

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A major problem facing avian genetic resources is that it is not possible to freeze

chicken eggs or embryos without killing them. For this reason, most poultry breeders keep large flocks of their pedigree chickens and turkeys in farms on different continents to protect against outbreaks of bird flu and other viruses. Four years ago, a biotech company in the States showed that you could grow chicken germ cells and freeze them down. Living birds could be produced from these germ cells. This offers the potential to safeguard the kinds of birds that you eat but also endangered species. Mike McGrew, a Career Track Fellow at The Roslin Institute, his technician, Lorna Taylor, and PhD student, Joni Macdonald, set out to repeat this work, putting their own twist on the study. Joni took embryonic blood from some of the florescent green chickens that are kept at The Roslin Institute by Helen Sang’s group. Joni put this blood, which contains a few germ cells, in culture medium with growth factors. As usually happens in science, nothing grew

Not just frozen fast foodin the cultures. She persevered and 15 months later (much to everyone’s relief) she saw large numbers of cells proliferating in her culture. They took these cells and injected them into embryos that were not green. These ‘host’ embryos were hatched, raised for several months, and then the mature cockerels were mated to other non-green chickens. What was exciting was that some of the chicks that hatched were fluorescent green. This means that some of the green cells in culture formed functional spermatozoa in the host cockerel and passed on its genetic material to the green chick. This was the first group in Europe to verify this work which will be published in PLOS ONE in the next few weeks. This research creates a lot of future possibilities such as growing large numbers of germ cells from rare breeds of birds and potentially using chickens as hosts to produce many offspring of that rare breed. Also, these germ cells can be genetically modified to look at genes that are important in making gametes, sperm and eggs, and for producing transgenic chickens with subtle genetic modifications.

Dave

Mike

Kezia

by Dave Burt and Kezia Howes

by Mike McGrew

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News in Brief

Roslin Director Honoured with Wolfson Research Merit Award by Patricia Hart

The Roslin Institute’s Director, Professor David Hume, was one of 13 top UK-

based scientists to have been appointed as Wolfson Research Merit Award holders by The Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science. Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the scheme aims to provide universities with additional support to enable them to attract to this country or to retain respected scientists of outstanding achievement and potential.

The newly appointed award holders are working on a wide variety of projects including the dynamics of virus transfer from African bat populations to humans; research to diagnose, prevent and treat preterm births in humans; and the development of novel mirrors that will enable us to access information from far out in our Universe obtainable in no other way. David Hume’s award will fund his research studying “The biology of the mononuclear phagocyte system”. Following the award

Professor Hume said, “It’s an honour to receive this award from such an esteemed organisation as the Royal Society; it is a real boost to have one’s research recognised in this way.” The Royal Society is celebrating its 350th anniversary this year and one of its three key goals is to be a funding agency supporting science of merit. For further information about the Society’s funding opportunities visit its website: http://royalsociety.org/

During the launch The Roslin Institute’s Director, David Hume, took Dr Wood and a group of his Pfizer colleagues, including Dr. Albert Bourla, President of Pfizer Europe, Africa and Asia, on a tour of the Institute’s new building. After the tour David said, “From the view of Roslin as a BBSRC National Institute of Bioscience, this investment represents a strong vindication of BBSRC Science Strategy directed towards solving the global challenges in Food Security”. The formal partnership agreement was signed in the presence of key members of the Pfizer and EBRC groups after which they were presented to HRH, The Princess Royal. Her Royal Highness also met some of the students benefiting from the project and other staff and students before she was led on a tour of the R(D)SVS’ Hospital for Small Animals. On departure from the Easter Bush campus the Pfizer group travelled to the SAC and Moredun Research Institute for tours of those organisations.

On 18th October 2010 a new venture was officially launched, which involves the

Easter Bush Research Consortium (of which The Roslin Institute is a member) and Pfizer, the world’s leading research-based animal health company. The launch took place as part of a series of events, attended by Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies (R(D)SVS). The Pfizer Partnership Platform (PPP) is believed to be the first of its kind in the animal health sector with industry and research consortium working together to promote excellence in veterinary research and education. The new initiative will be backed by a total funding of approximately $2 million over five years. The partnership will encourage a greater understanding of issues affecting animal health as well as provide studentships for veterinary and science graduates to enhance their future careers. The EBRC -PPP main objectives include:

EBRC/Pfizer Launch

A joint management steering committee with an equal number of members from EBRC and Pfizer Animal Health will provide overall direction and focus for the PPP, and have responsibility for major decisions. The review and recommendation of projects for investment, and of ongoing projects, will be handled by scientific review groups in the form of multi-disciplinary teams with expert representatives from EBRC-PPP members. Project teams will focus on driving approved projects on a day-to-day basis. Paul Wood, head of Global Discovery at Pfizer explained that, “Projects will cover all the major food production and companion animal species and include vaccines, immunology, infectious diseases, parasitology, proteomics, genetics, genomics, antigenomics, target identification, clinical models and comparative translational medicine.”

Support early stage research, technologies and capability platformsPromote multi-disciplinary research teams, with contributions from different participating organisations

Emphasise educational activities and promote veterinarians in postgraduate study and research

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MSc Course by Kim Summers

The Roslin Institute has launched a taught postgraduate programme, the MSc in

Animal Biosciences, under the auspices of the University of Edinburgh. The programme will be taking enrolments from October 2010, for entry in September 2011. The aim of this full time postgraduate programme is to provide scientific knowledge and practical skills relating to applications of basic animal sciences to veterinary and human medicine, the livestock industry and food security. Students will graduate with a wide experience of techniques in animal biosciences, leading to careers in research, industry, government and other areas. The programme offers high calibre candidates the opportunity to develop these skills in a range of fields in animal science. The programme will be delivered using a blend of lectures, guided practical studies and independent research. Full or partial scholarships may be available (on a competitive basis). Staff in the programme will be drawn from the Institute and the wider university. The Programme Director is Kim Summers, ably assisted by a small committee who have been involved in planning the course for more than a year. Students will become part of The Roslin

Institute and will attend seminars, lab meetings and other Roslin activities as well as following the formal taught programme. Students will receive formal practical training in laboratory skills in the first part of the programme, and then carry out a research project over thirty weeks. The programme is open to students with a biological background who are interested in enhancing their skills in the animal biosciences and developing an understanding of animal science research, for example, students with first degrees in biological or biomedical sciences, veterinary science, medicine or pharmacology. These students will receive a comprehensive preparation for futures postgraduate research studies at PhD level and for careers in the animal science industries.

Programme Structure:Full-time over one year (Sept to Aug).

Enquiries about the MSc in Animal Biosciences can be addressed to roslin.mscstudies@roslin.ed.ac.uk.

Subjects covered will include:Anatomy and PathologyEmbryology, Development and ReproductionStem Cells and TransgenesisInfectious DiseasesMolecular BiologyPopulation Genetics, Epidemiology and Statistical AnalysisBioinformaticsAvian model systemsCell Culture TechniquesVisualisation in Biological SystemsDesign and execution of a research project

Recent Viva SuccessesHearty congratulations go to the latest

cohort of new PhDs to complete their studies at The Roslin Institute. Harriet Taylor who was co-supervised by Ivan Morrison had her viva in July and delighted the examiners with her thesis, “Functional Analysis of Zebrafish Innate Immune System Responses to Inflammatory Signals.” Hot on her heals, Nila Roy Choudhury who studied in Bernadette Dutia’s group, successfully defended her thesis, “A functional analysis of the non-coding RNAs of Murine gammaherpesvirus.”

Sofia Roupaka’s thesis was studied for in John Hopkins’ lab and is titled “An expression screening approach to identifying peripheral markers for sheep scrapie.” She had a successful viva in August. Most recently Stephen Meek of Tom Burdon’s group took on the mantle of Dr Meek when he finally handed over his passed thesis titled “Experimental approaches to establish rat embryonic stem cells”. Congratulations to them all in their mighty achievement.

New Professors

Bruce Whitelaw was awarded a BSc degree in Medical Microbiology (Virology elective) from the University of Edinburgh in 1982 and his PhD in 1987 from the University of Glasgow. His thesis title “The regulation of the myc proto-oncogene” focussed on the molecular biology of gene activation; a theme he has maintained throughout his career through the development and application of gene expression systems in transgenic animals. His first appointment was to the AFRC’s Animal Breeding Research Organisation working on the then novel idea of producing human pharmaceutical proteins in animal bioreactors.

Subsequently working at the BBRSC’s Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics Research, then The Roslin Institute where he has been Head of Division of Developmental Biology since 2005, appointed to Personal Chair of Animal Biotechnology in 2010. Bruce has pioneered the use of lentivirus vectors for transgene delivery in livestock and seeks to apply this technology in the field of animal biotechnology, specifically to develop novel ways to combat infectious disease in animals and exploring opportunities to develop new treatments of disease through transgenic animal models

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Colin Farquharson graduated from Strathclyde University before completing his PhD within the Department of Medicine at Aberdeen University in 1989. Professor Farquharson developed a career long interest in skeletal biology whilst completing post-doctoral positions at the Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen and Roslin Institute, Edinburgh. In 1998 he became a Principal Investigator at the Roslin Institute and received Individual Merit Promotion (IMP3) in 2007. This coincided with Professor Farquharson’s transfer to the R(D)SVS within the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. Professor Farquharson’s research programme is focused on the cellular mechanisms underpinning bone and cartilage

development. In particular his research aims to develop a functional understanding of key genes that regulate bone growth and bone cell differentiation and thereby provide a fuller appreciation of specific events essential for skeletal development. This research has relevance to both animals and human medicine. Professor Farquharson has post-graduate responsibilities within both Roslin Institute and R(D)SVS and is a Senior Editor for the Journal of Endocrinology as well as a member of the Editorial Board for Cell Biochemistry and Function. He is a recent past Secretary of the Bone Research Society (2007-2010) and a past member of the BBSRC Training and Awards Committee (2007-2009).

Kim Summers was educated in Canberra, Australia where she was awarded a BSc (with Honours) in 1974 and a PhD in 1979, both in the area of Biochemical Genetics. She also completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Biology at the University of Oxford in 1976 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education at The University of Queensland in 1992. Following the completion of her PhD she returned to Oxford as a postdoctoral fellow in Biological Anthropology and subsequently Genetics. She then took up a research fellowship at the Australian National University in Human Genetics and followed this with further appointments at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, Texas, USA) and The University of Queensland, Australia, using the developing technologies of molecular

medicine to understand the genetic basis of disease in humans. Professor Summers spent six years as Director of Genetic Education with the Queensland Clinical Genetics Service, an experience which provided a strong understanding of the issues facing families with an inherited disease. She is still a regular contributor to newsletters of support groups for genetic conditions and committed to public engagement with science. Following her appointment at The Roslin Institute she has continued to study the molecular basis of diseases affecting the development of the heart, eyes and bones, using animal conditions with similar symptoms.

Chair in Skeletal Biology

Chair in Comparative Genetics

Chair in Animal Biotechnology

Three leading scientists at The Roslin Institute have been honoured by the University of Edinburgh, which has awarded them personal chairs in recognition of their strong internationally recognised research programmes.

Ross Houston FellowshipRoss Houston, a postdoctoral research

fellow in the Division of Genetics and Genomics, is about to take the next step in his scientific career. He was recently awarded a prestigious Career Path Fellowship by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). These fellowships are aimed at early-career researchers wishing to be based at a BBSRC Institute and work in areas of high strategic importance to BBSRC. They provide funding for five years, and include personal salary and a significant research support grant. Ross studied at Loughborough University then the University of Aberdeen where he undertook his PhD titled “The molecular genetic basis of feeding, growth and lean efficiency traits in pigs”. He has worked as a post doc at The Roslin Institute in Professor Steve Bishop’s group since 2004. As part of a BBSRC funded project, his research has focussed on determining the genetic basis of viral disease resistance in Atlantic salmon and has involved the application of quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping to detect a major locus affecting host resistance to Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis (IPN) under field-challenge seawater conditions. Working

in collaboration with commercial partner Landcatch Natural Selection Ltd. and a KTN associate (Almas Gheyas), Ross’ results were implemented as the first documented application of marker-assisted selection in a salmon breeding program. Ross has continued the IPN work as part of a second BBSRC grant and currently has a particular focus on a single genomic region that he has identified as having a key role in the salmon’s genetic resistance. Additionally, he is investigating the effects that this locus has on and the host-pathogen interaction. Ross has been invited to give several talks at international conferences and has represented The Roslin Institute on the fish pathogen work package of the European Animal Disease Genomics Network of Excellence (EADGENE), the Scottish Government’s International Aquaculture Science and Research Day and the European Union Aquagenome Roadmap Workshop. Steve Bishop said of Ross’ fellowship award, “Ross has made great strides in his time so far at The Roslin Institute. He has real potential to be an outstanding Career Track fellow and develop an excellent research portfolio.” Of-course Ross is not only known for

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Mairead Bermingham Wins Douglas Falconer Prize For Best Dissertation

Mairead Bermingham has been awarded the Douglas Falconer Prize for best MSc

dissertation in the Quantitative Genetics and Genome Analysis class of 2010. Douglas Falconer was an internationally reputed quantitative geneticist who worked in Edinburgh and wrote the classic text ‘Introduction to Quantitative Genetics’ still used in the MSc course. The prize was instituted after his death in 2004 to reflect the importance he had had in training generations of scientists in this field. Mairead is a post-doc working with Steve Bishop, John Woolliams and Liz Glass on genetics of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle. The aim of this research is to identify host and pathogen factors that may impact the incidence of bTB using both quantitative genetic analysis and also a case-control association study with the new 750K SNP chip for cattle. During her first post-doc Mairead’s group in Ireland and John’s group in the UK independently demonstrated that susceptibility to bTB is heritable in cattle. In the current project Mairead aims to expand these findings by conducting a new quantitative study exploiting bTB surveillance data collected in Northern

Ireland. In Northern Ireland all cattle are tested routinely for bTB with the single intradermal comparative tuberculin test (SICTT). Diagnosis of phenotypes such as responsiveness to the SICTT may be imprecise, and in a recent publication Steve and John have described how imperfect diagnostic accuracy may result in the in underestimation of the ‘true’ heritability of SICTT responsiveness, i.e. bTB resistance. The aim of the MSc was to investigate the diagnostic properties of the SICTT and detemine the likely impact on the heritability of bTB resistance. In order to so, utilising Bayesian statistical methods, Mairead implemented and extended the classic Hui-Walter latent class model to estimate diagnostic test parameters from surveillance data. Her results give considerable insight into the control of bTB using SICTT responsiveness and will assist the potential development of strategies to control bTB. Liz Glass said, “I am delighted that Mairead has won this prize. She is an excellent researcher and very dedicated to her work so this prize is appropriate recognition for all she has achieved so far in her career.”

his excellence in science. He is also an outstanding long distance runner who came 24th overall in this year’s London Marathon and most recently wrote himself into the record books by winning the inaugural Kilomathon Scotland road race (26.2 km), beating pre-race favourite and Commonwealth Games athlete Martin Williams into second place. So congratulations to Ross on the BBSRC award and congratulations on the Kilomathon result. This is unlikely to be the last time we see Ross’ name in the Roslin Reporter!

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Institute Relocation Confirmed for Next March

It’s all systems go as far as The Roslin Institute’s move its new building goes. The

first people will relocate to the new building on Monday 7th March and thereafter one ‘module’ of office and laboratory per day will be relocated until the building is fully occupied at the end of March. The move planners have adopted a “top down” approach with occupation beginning on the second floor and working downwards. The Institute staff currently based at the vet school’s Summerhall and Easter Bush sites will be the first in, followed by those on the current Roslin site, then SAC colleagues towards the end. Move Project Manager Jane Mitchell and the New Build Project Director David Mann said, “We anticipate that the move will be disruptive for the peak period of up to 2 weeks that it takes to pack, move and unpack a whole wing. In addition there may be minor disruption from the beginning of the ‘pre-moves’ of essential services on 21st February right through to the last Pickfords lorry at the end of March. But we hope to undertake the whole move as efficiently as possible to minimise disruption to our colleagues.” The full move plan was presented to The Roslin Institute’s staff at a recent “Town Hall” meeting. Anna Stamp and Emma Crowther, from the University of Edinburgh’s Estates department, were also on hand to discuss the long term plans for the Easter Bush campus and the new transport policy that will get people there. In briefing the staff David and Jane said that they were aiming to make the move as calm and as organised as possible and said that the biggest contribution everyone could make would be not to leave things to the last minute. To assist the local planning the new building pages on the Institute’s intranet were relaunched. An easy-to-use tool has been created by Damon Querry that allows everyone to zoom in on the floor plans in increasing detail, even down to the pictures of people at each seat or a photo of the view from a particular position. There is helpful information on the campus and amenities in the building, and an extended ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section that will be updated each month.

by David Mann

David

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Highland GamesCongratulations to ”The Jocks” (Iain

Kennedy, Chris Plinston, Dec King & Dave Parnham) who won the Games with 245 points.. Second place goes to “Three Aussies & A Pom” (Kat, Kyle Upton, Geoff Faulkner & Tom Freeman) with 220 points..A big thanks go to Aileen, Tricia, Joni, Ian, Mark and the guys at Dryden Farm who helped out a lot with the organisation and on behalf of the social committe thanks to you all for participating. It was great fun!

by Ronan Kapetanovic

‘The Jocks’- Winners

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If you have any articles you would like to submit for the next Roslin Reporter, please contact:Patricia Hart, Scientific Administrator (email:patricia.hart@roslin.ed.ac.uk or phone: 0131 527 4200)

or require imagery to accompany articles, please contact:Design and Print Department, The Roslin Institute (email:norrie.russell@roslin.ed.ac.uk or phone: 0131 527 4327)

Recent Roslin Institute PublicationsThe International Sheep Genomics Consortium*, Archibald AL, Cockett NE, Dalrymple BP, Faraut T, Kijas JW, Maddox JF, McEwan JC, Hutton Oddy V, Raadsma HW, Wade C, Wang J, Wang W, Xun X. 2010 The sheep genome reference sequence: a work in progress. Anim Genet. Aug 31. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 20809919.

Bangs F, Welten M, Davey MG, Fisher M, Yin Y, Downie H, Paton B, Baldock R, Burt DW, Tickle C. 2010. Identification of genes downstream of the Shh signalling in the developing chick wing and syn-expressed with Hoxd13 using microarray and 3D computational analysis. Mech Dev. Aug 12. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 20708683

Baron EE, Moura AS, Ledur MC, Pinto LF, Boschiero C, Ruy DC, Nones K, Zanella EL, Rosário MF, Burt DW, Coutinho LL. 2010 QTL for percentage of carcass and carcass parts in a broiler x layer cross. Anim Genet. Sep 30. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2052.2010.02105.x. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 20880336.

Barr J, Waddington D, Barron RM. 2010 Differential protein expression profiling in BSE disease. Arch Physiol Biochem. Aug 10. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 20698762.

Dalloul RA, Long JA, Zimin AV, Aslam L, Beal K, Ann Blomberg L, Bouffard P, Burt DW, et al. 2010. Multi-platform next-generation sequencing of the domestic turkey (Meleagris gallopavo): genome assembly and analysis. PLoS Biol. 8(9). pii: e1000475.

Forster R, Ancian P, Fredholm M, Simianer H, Whitelaw B; under the auspices of the Steering Group of the RETHINK Project. 2010. The minipig as a platform for new technologies in toxicology. J Pharmacol Toxicol Methods 62(3):227-35.

Gill AC, Agarwal S, Pinheiro TJ, Graham JF. 2010 Structural requirements for efficient prion protein conversion: Cofactors may promote a conversion-competent structure for PrP(C). Prion. 4(4).

Gill JL, Bishop SC, McCorquodale C, Williams JL, Wiener P. 2010 Associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms in multiple candidate genes and carcass and meat quality traits in a commercial Angus-cross population. Meat Sci. 86(4):985-93.

Hocking PM. Developments in poultry genetic research 1960-2009. 2010 Br Poult Sci. 51 Suppl 1:44-51.

Holmes A, Edwards GF, Girvan EK, Hannant W, Danial J, Fitzgerald JR, Templeton KE. 2010 Comparison of Two Multilocus Variable-Number Tandem-Repeat Methods and Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis for Differentiating Highly Clonal Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Isolates. J Clin Microbiol. 48(10):3600-7.

Jacobson KH, Lee S, Somerville RA, McKenzie D, Benson CH, Pedersen JA. 2010 Transport of the pathogenic prion protein through soils. J Environ Qual. 39(4):1145-52.

LaRose JP, Meredith AL, Everest DJ, Fiegna C, McInnes CJ, Shaw DJ, Milne EM. 2010 Epidemiological and postmortem findings in 262 red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in Scotland, 2005 to 2009. Vet Record 167(8):297-302.

Lillico S, Vasey D, King T, Whitelaw B. 2010. Lentiviral transgenesis in livestock.Transgenic Res. Oct 7. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 20927646

Mabbott NA, Kenneth Baillie J, Hume DA, Freeman TC. 2010 Meta-analysis of lineage-specific gene expression signatures in mouse leukocyte populations. Immunobiology. 215(9-10):724-36.

Macdonald KP, Palmer JS, Cronau S, Seppanen E, Olver S, Raffelt NC, Kuns R, Pettit AR, Clouston A, Wainwright B, Branstetter D, Smith J, Paxton RJ, Cerretti DP, Bonham L, Hill GR, Hume DA. 2010. An antibody against the colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) depletes the resident subset of monocytes and tissue and tumor-associated macrophages but does not inhibit inflammation. Blood. Aug 3. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 20682855

Matika O, Sechi S, Pong-Wong R, Houston RD, Clop A, Woolliams JA, Bishop SC. 2010 Characterization of OAR1 and OAR18 QTL associated with muscle depth in British commercial terminal sire sheep. Anim Genet. Sep 30. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2052.2010.02121.x. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 20880338.

Natividad A, Freeman TC, Jeffries D, Burton MJ, Mabey DC, Bailey RL, Holland MJ. 2010 Human conjunctival transcriptome analysis reveals the prominence of innate defence in Chlamydia trachomatis infection. Infect Immun. Sep 7. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 20823212.

Riggio V, Portolano B, Bovenhuis H, Bishop SC. 2010. Genetic parameters for somatic cell score according to udder infection status in Valle del Belice dairy sheep and impact of imperfect diagnosis of infection. Genet Sel Evol. 42:30.

Rooke JA, Houdijk JG, McIlvaney K, Ashworth pregnancy on ewe and lamb performance and lamb parasitism in hill or lowland breeds. J Anim Sci. Jul 30. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 20675602.

Viana D, Blanco J, Tormo-Más MA, Selva L, Guinane CM, Baselga R, Corpa JM, Lasa I, Novick RP, Fitzgerald JR, Penadés JR. 2010. Adaptation of Staphylococcus aureus to ruminant and equine hosts involves SaPI-carried variants. of von Willebrand factor-binding protein. Mol Microbiol. 77(6):1583-94.

Wacker DW, Tobin VA, Noack J, Bishop VR, Duszkiewicz AJ, Engelmann M, Meddle SL, Ludwig M. 2010 Expression of early growth response protein 1 (Egr-1) in vasopressin neurones of the rat anterior olfactory nucleus following social odour exposure. J Physiol. Oct 4. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 20921194.

Wacker DW, Wingfield JC, Davis JE, Meddle SL. 2010 Seasonal changes in aromatase and androgen receptor, but not estrogen receptor mRNA expression in the brain of the free-living male song sparrow, Melospiza melodia morphna. J Comp Neurol. 15;518(18):3819-35.

Yadav MC, Simão AM, Narisawa S, Huesa C, McKee MD, Farquharson C, Millán JL. 2010. Loss of skeletal mineralization by the simultaneous ablation of PHOSPHO1 and alkaline phosphatase function - A unified model of the mechanisms of initiation of skeletal calcification. J Bone Miner Res. Aug 3. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 20684022

Young R, Wolf CR, Brown K, Hayes JD, Whitelaw CBA. 2010 Spatial monitoring of toxicity in HMOX-LacZ transgenic mice. Transgenic Res 19(5):897-902.

Zhang Z, Liu JF, Ding XD, Bijma P, de Koning DJ, Zhang Q. 2010 Best Linear Unbiased Prediction of Genomic Breeding Values Using a Trait-Specific Marker-Derived Relationship Matrix. Plos One 5(9)8pp