INVITED LECTURERS PROFILE

Paolo AJMONE MARSAN – (GLOBALDIV Summer Schoool Coordinator)

Prof. Paolo Ajmone Marsan, Assistant Professor in animal breeding and biotechnology, senior scientist and head of the Animal Genetics Laboratory of the Faculty of Agriculture at the Università Cattolica del S. Cuore (Catholic University of Sacred Hearth) of Piacenza, Italy.

Fifteen years experience in plant and animal molecular genetics, particularly applied to the investigation of genetic diversity and to the identification of genes and QTL controlling traits of economic interest.

Coordinator of ECONOGENE (FW5-2002-2004) "Sustainable conservation of animal genetic resources in marginal rural areas: integrating molecular genetics, socio-economic and geostatistical approaches".

Partner in a number of other EU projects: TRACE (FW6-2005-2009) "Tracing food commodities in Europe"; INTRABIODIV (FW6-2004-2006) "Tracking surrogates for intraspecific biodiversity: towards efficient selection strategies for the conservation of natural genetic resources using comparative mapping and modelling approaches"; BOVGEN (FW5-2003-2005) "Structural and functional genomics tools for cattle research"; RESGEN (FW5-2000-2002) "Towards a strategy for the conservation of the genetic diversity of European cattle".

Author and co-author of more that 90 peer-reviewed papers. Ad-hoc referee of 11 international journals.
Coordinator of the “DNA Analysis Working Group” of ICAR (International Committee for Animal Recording) on the use of molecular information in animal breeding (since 2004).

Scientific advisor of FAO/IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) for the project "Gene Based Technologies in Livestock Breeding: Phase 1 - Characterisation of Small Ruminant Genetic Resources in Asia" (2004-2008).

Member of "ISAG/FAO advisory group on animal genetic distance work".
 

Paul BOETTCHER

Paul Boettcher is currently working as an Animal Production Officer, Animal Genetic Resources for the FAO in Rome, Italy. The primary activity of his work is to assist countries to implement the recently adopted Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources, with a particular emphasis on conservation. Mr. Boettcher has held this post since March of 2008.

In the three years prior, he served as a Technical Officer, specializing in Animal Breeding and Reproduction, for the Animal Production and Health Section of the Joint FAO-IAEA Division for Nuclear Applications in Food and Agriculture in Vienna, Austria. His main responsibility was managing projects in transfer of technology for research and development to IAEA Member States. In addition, Mr. Boettcher is currently on leave from a post as a researcher for the Institute of Biology and Biotechnology for Agriculture of the National Research Council of Italy, which he has held since 2002.

Mr. Boettcher also worked for 5 years as a Senior Research Associate and Adjunct Professor for the Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock at the University of Guelph, in Canada and for a year as a geneticist for the Italian Holstein-Friesian Breeders’ Association. He holds a Ph. D. from the Iowa State University (1995), M. Sc. Degree from the University of Minnesota (1991) and Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Wisconsin (1988). Mr. Boettcher has co-authored approximately 70 articles in international peer-reviewed journals and serves as an editor for the Journal of Dairy Science.

 

Michèle TIXIER-BOICHARD

She finished her veterinary studies in 1981 and entered the department of Animal Genetics of INRA in 1981. She defended her Ph-D thesis in 1984 on genetic trends in pigs. She joined the Laboratory of Génétique factorielle on chicken genetics, which merged in 2003 with the animal genetics group of AgroParisTech, a higher education institute in the field of agriculture, life sciences and environment.

She became head of the new research unit ‘Animal Genetics and Biodiversity’, dedicated to the assessment and management of genetic resources in farm animals. She is involved in several collaborative projects on chicken genetic resources in Taiwan, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Cameroun, including both phenotypic and molecular tools. She has published more than 65 papers in international journals. She is a vice-president of the World Poultry Science Association since 2004.

Since 2006, she is seconded at the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, at the head of the ‘Biotechnologies-Resources-Agronomy’ department.finished her veterinary studies in 1981 and entered the department of Animal Genetics of INRA in 1981. She defended her Ph-D thesis in 1984 on genetic trends in pigs. She joined the Laboratory of Génétique factorielle on chicken genetics, which merged in 2003 with the animal genetics group of AgroParisTech, a higher education institute in the field of agriculture, life sciences and environment.

She became head of the new research unit ‘Animal Genetics and Biodiversity’, dedicated to the assessment and management of genetic resources in farm animals. She is involved in several collaborative projects on chicken genetic resources in Taiwan, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Cameroun, including both phenotypic and molecular tools. She has published more than 65 papers in international journals. She is a vice-president of the World Poultry Science Association since 2004. Since 2006, she is seconded at the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, at the head of the ‘Biotechnologies-Resources-Agronomy’ department.

 

Licia COLLI

Licia Colli studied zoology and biological sciences at the University of Parma (Italy) from 1994 to 2000. In 2004 she obtained a Ph.D. in animal biology from the University of Bologna (Italy) with a doctoral thesis on the phylogeny, biogeography and systematics of the hypogaean cyprinid fish Phreatichthys andruzzii.

Since 2005 she holds a postdoctoral position at the Laboratory of Animal Genetics of the University of Piacenza where she is currently working on several research projects related to the study of molecular phylogeny and biodiversity in wildlife (arctic charr), livestock (cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys) and Alpine plants.

Invited lecturer at the University of Turin and at the University of Parma. Author and co-author of several scientific papers on national and peer-reviewed journals. Ad hoc referee for international and national journals.

Her main research interests focus on the use of molecular techniques to study the phylogenetic relationships between individuals, populations and species, the spatial distribution of genetic diversity for the identification of biogeographic patterns or for conservation purposes; she also works on the taxonomy and identification of animal species by means of molecular markers (mitogenomics, microsatellites, AFLPs, DNA barcoding) and traditional tools (morphometrics).

 

Josè Fernando GARCIA

DVM at University of São Paulo, MSc in Parasitic Diseases (focus on biotechnology) at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, PhD in Animal Reproduction (focus on molecular biology) at University of São Paulo.

Professor at Animal Reproduction Department at University of São Paulo (1995-1997) and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology to veterinary medicine students at Universidade Estadual Paulista – UNESP – Brazil (1997 – up to now).

Scientific Officer at the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Agriculture and Biotechnology Laboratory, Vienna, Austria, from 2003 to 2005, developing methodologies for genetic characterization and breeding in livestock.

Several research projects on the discovery and application of molecular markers in livestock, funded by national and international organizations.

Author and co-author of more than 25 peer-reviewed papers in international journals. Ad-hoc referee of 3 international journals.

Technical Contract holder for the FAO/IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in the project "Gene Based Technologies in Livestock Breeding: Phase 1 - Characterisation of Small Ruminant Genetic Resources in Asia". 2004-2008.

Technical Expert for the IAEA Technical Cooperation Department in the project “Use of Nuclear Techniques to Improve Alpacas Productive and Reproductive Methods” 2005-2006.

Member of the Viral Genetic Diversity Network (VGDN) initiative which join 17 laboratories working in conjunction for viral genetic diversity analysis. Funded by São Paulo State Research Foundation (Fapesp), 2002-2008.

 

Linn Fenna GROENEVELD

Linn Fenna Groeneveld studied biology at the University and Veterinary School of Hannover from 1996 to 2003. Her diploma work was focussed on molecular approaches to systematics, speciation, and population genetics of African damselflies. She then continued her studies at the University of Göttingen/German Primate Center, where she enrolled in the PhD program "Biological Diversity and Ecology”. In 2008 she received her PhD after having completed her doctoral thesis on "Species delimitation, phylogeography and population genetics of the endemic Malagasy dwarf lemurs (genus Cheirogaleus)"

Currently she is working as a research associate within the EU-project “GLOBALDIV – A global view of livestock biodiversity and conservation” at the Institute of Farm Animal Genetics, Breeding and Genetic Resources, Friedrich Loeffler Institut, Germany.

Her main research interests focus on the use of molecular data to answer questions in the fields of speciation, species delimitation, phylogenetics and bio- and phylogeography.

 

Juha Tapio KANTANEN

Juha Kantanen Ph.D. is working as a principal research scientist at MTT Agrifood Research, Unit of Biotechnology and Food Research in Jokioinen (Finland). He is a docent of Animal Genetics and coordinates the Finnish National Conservation Strategy of Animal Genetic Resources.

His research interests include molecular and population genetics of domesticated farm animal species, especially cattle and sheep, their genetic diversity and domestication history unfolded using molecular genetic markers.

Currently he is coordinating e.g. a multidisciplinary study focusing on genetic, socio-economic and cultural values of the last East Siberian native cattle, the Yakutian Cattle in Sakha.

 

Johannes Arjen LENSTRA

Doctoral and postdoctoral work on protein structure, molecular evolution, oncogenic transformation, gene mapping, epitope mapping. Associate professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University
Organizer of yearly post-academic workshops on DNA technology. Adviser for related workshops in Bucharest and Thailand.

17 years experience with research on veterinary genetics: cattle and sheep genome mapping, genetic mapping of intestinal parasite, identification of DNA repeats and probes for species identification and evolution, genetic diversity and molecular evolution of ruminants and molecular genetics of horse

Referee of various international journals. External examiner of PhD theses of cattle genetic diversity in Gent, Dublin and Oulu (Finland), respectively. Coordinator of European Community Project Towards a strategy for the conservation of the genetic diversity of European cattle (CT-98-118)

 

Riccardo NEGRINI

Riccardo Negrini, researcher. After his graduation, in 1999 He got his Ph.D. in Animal Health and Production from the University of Pisa, working in collaboration with the Institute of Animal Health (Compton-UK) on the use of molecular marker for the assessment of genetic variability in farm animals.

He has a broad background in animal husbandry, population genetics, and evaluation of genetic diversity using molecular marker information. He joined the group in 2000 and is permanent staff since 2005.

His research activity encompasses population genetics, phylogeography and conservation genetics. His personal focus has been the use of high resolution molecular markers to test hypotheses of relatedness within animal population, to examine how genetic diversity is distributed within and among domestic breeds, to infer the demographic history of populations, changes in effective population size and patterns of gene-flow and admixture, to measure the effect of genetic bottlenecks and inbreeding.

He was involved in different EU projects and he is author or co-author of a number of scientific papers. He is also referee of various international journals.

 

Anna OLIVIERI

Anna Olivieri graduated in Biological Sciences at the University of Pavia and, since 2005, she is working as a young researcher at the laboratory of Human Genetics directed by professor Antonio Torroni at the Department of Genetics and Microbiology of the University of Pavia, where she is analysing nature and extent of mitochondrial DNA variation in humans (in normal and/or pathological conditions) and animals (i.e. cattle).

In 2007 she got a “Short Term Fellowship” from EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) for a collaborative project at the Estonian Biocentre of the University of Tartu (Estonia) (director: professor Richard Villems).

Despite her young age, she already authored and co-authored numerous papers on high impact-factor journals.

 

Marco PELLECCHIA

Marco Pellecchia, biologist, graduated at the University of Parma in 1996, and got a Ph.D. in Animal Biology four years later (University of Bologna), studying the chemoreception in insects. As Postdoctoral fellow, he held a position at the University of Bologna and, since 2003, at the Catholic University of Piacenza.

His field of study spans from the entomology to zoology, with a special interest for the history of livestock domestication.

In 2000-2001 he was invited lecturer at the University of Parma, and in 2008 he has been visiting fellow at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

He authored and co-authored several publications in national and international peer reviewed journals.

 

Pierre TABERLET

Pierre Taberlet studied biology and geology at the University Joseph Fourier of Grenoble (France) from 1972 to 1976. He was biology teacher in high school from 1978 to 1989. He obtained a PhD in 1992 from the University Joseph Fourier, and the Habilitation in 1993. He joined the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in 1994. He is working in the “Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine” (Grenoble), first as junior scientist (1994-1998), and then as senior scientist (1999-2008). He is currently the head of this laboratory. For the past 10 years, his research team has been working if the field of molecular ecology, with emphasize on the phylogeography of wild animals and plants, on conservation genetics (development of non-invasive sampling), and on domestication of goats and sheep. More recently, he is involved in the study of the genetic basis of local adaptation, and on biodiversity assessment using environmental samples and new sequencing technologies. He is author or co-author of about 120 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals. He is currently senior editor of Molecular Ecology, and member of the editorial board of Conservation Genetics and of Plant Ecology & Diversity. He received the Molecular Ecology Prize in 2007.

Miika TAPIO

Miika Tapio has 10 years experience in livestock genetic resources characterization. He graduated as Genetics Major from the orientation of Biology in University of Oulu (Finland) in 2000, and defended thesis ("Origin and maintenance of genetic diversity in northern European sheep") in the same University in 2006. Until this, he did his research in MTT Agrifood Research Finland focusing on population genetics of Eurasian sheep using molecular marker information.

He is author, co-author or ad hoc reviewer to 9 international journals.

From 2007 he has been a researcher in ILRI (Nairobi, Kenya) carrying responsibilities in analyzing data sets consisting of genomewide SNP information and in supervising and planning livestock genetic resources characterization studies.

 

Ercole ZERBINI

My most consistent job has been milking cows starting when I was four at the famiI farm near Parma until I had my last cow in Africa in 1996 at the age of 41. I graduated in Agriculture from the Catholic University of Piacenza in 1978. After managing for about three years a large dairy in the River Po Valley in Italy, I completed graduate studies in animal and dairy science in USA and was employed by Ralston Purina International in Italy to coordinate their R&D work.

Pulled by an irresistible need to do something for those who really could use some more milk and meat, in 1989 I moved to Ethiopia with the International Livestock Research Institute leading diverse dairy projects in collaboration with local research, development and extension groups establishing collaborations also with other countries in sub-Sahara Africa. Still with ILRI in 1996 I moved to India at ICRISAT, where with local and international geneticists we developed projects on the genetic improvement of crop residues for livestock. These projects established a network of knowledge sharing not only within India but in the whole South Asia region. F

amily reasons brought us back to Europe in 2000. Again with Purina, this time in Spain managing the European ruminant R&D efforts and the labs. After the acquisition of the Purina Feed business from Cargill I was based in Italy at the Regional lab in Spessa where I manage the ruminant and lab technology deployment. More recently I am responsible for the establishment of a European Animal Science Research Group in Vilvoorde, Belgium, bringing together resources needed to serve animal science technology needs of Cargill in the region.

 

Milan ZJALIC

Milan Zjalic, DVM, PhD, is currently engaged as a technical advisor of the European Association for Animal Production (EAAP) and the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR). He provides support to EAAP working groups covering cattle production in Europe, CAP reform and East European countries. He also works as a FAO international expert in development of livestock breeding strategy and policy in Armenia.

In his professional career he performed a number of duties related to animal production, animal science and research and conservation of AnGR. He had previously been FAO Regional Representative for Europe, FAO expert in livestock development projects in Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia, the director of the Breeders’ Association of Croatia and of an AI centre. He was actively involved in the preparation of the report on the State of the Global Farm Animal genetic resources (co-author of chapters on conservation and biotechnology, regional facilitators for Eastern Europe and the central Asia, organizer of several workshops and training courses).

His experience includes technical support to dairy farmers, animal recording, processing of animal products and agricultural policy. He is the author of a number of scientific publications (animal health, conservation of genetic resources, cattle production) and editor and co-author of various publications.


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