Dr. Heather Huson
It is with great excitement that we introduce our next webcast: Population Structure & Genetic Improvement in Livestock, presented by Dr. Heather J. Huson of Cornell University. Huson was one of the first place winners in this year’s research abstract competition. As part of the competition Huson has the opportunity to present her research in a webcast on Tuesday July 22nd.
Heather received a Bachelor’s in Animal Science from Cornell University in 1997 and went on to complete her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2011.
While in Fairbanks, Huson performed research within the National Human Genome Research Institute, identifying associations between breed, ancestry, and performance. In her dissertation, “Genetic Ancestry Modeling and Performance Association in Alaskan Sled Dogs,” she proposed the MYH9 gene as influencing heart-tolerance during racing.
Huson has since worked for the USDA, heading up the African Goat Improvement Project, a USAID Feed the Future initiative. Recently moving back to New York, she has joined Cornell University as a Robert & Ann Everett Endowed Position in Dairy Cattle Genetics. Her research program in the department of Animal Science will utilize genomic tools that identify population structure and relatedness to production, adaption, and disease.
In Dr. Huson’s upcoming webcast she will be showing examples of her lab’s investigation into population structure in both goats and cattle in hopes of identifying distinct groups and study traits such as thermo-tolerance.
Please join us Tuesday July 22nd for Dr. Heather J. Huson’s webcast: “Population Structure & Genetic Improvement in Livestock.”
Hope to “see” you there!