Multi-omics approach to predict economically important health and production traits in livestock

OVERVIEW

Sheep production plays an important role in the UK agri-food sector employing around 35,000 people on farm with a further 120,000 allied jobs. The number of sheep in the UK is estimated at 22 million heads in 2019 (DEFRA), including a reported 2 million in Northern Ireland (DAERA). Due to small commercial herd size, UK farmers have to rely on using breeding programmes from breed societies and pedigree breeders to improve efficiency, sustainability and profitability of sheep production to address the challenge of producing enough food in a sustainable system to feed the growing global population.

Within animal breeding, recording health, efficiency, and quality of production traits can be expensive and “hard to measure”, requiring specialised equipment and is often time consuming. Therefore utilizing proxy traits which are easy to record, trait-specific and highly correlated with the target traits, will help accelerate genetic progress in breeding programmes. Progress in bioanalysis demonstrates that metabolites which reflect complex phenotypes at the molecular level can be used as the proxies for “hard to measure” phenotypes and diseases.

The main hypothesis of this project is to identify metabolites as the targeted proxies for “hard to measure” phenotypes and to develop novel statistical models that can predict economically important traits in sheep, namely health records (e.g. liver fluke and other parasite burdens), and carcass characteristics (e.g. weight gain and meat quality) in lambs. The ultimate aim is to develop multi-omics predictive tools that can be applied at a commercial farm level. The project will apply multi-disciplinary approaches including genomics, bioinformatics, metabolomics, big data analysis, statistical modelling, and functional biology to enhance sustainability in animal production.

Research Information

PhD Supervisors
Information on the research interests and activities of academics in Biological Sciences can be accessed via the School website and the Find a Supervisor facility.

Career Prospects

Introduction
Queen’s postgraduates reap exceptional benefits. Unique initiatives, such as the DegreePlus/Future Ready Award, bolster our commitment to employability, while innovative leadership and executive programmes alongside sterling integration with business experts helps our students gain key leadership positions both nationally and internationally. Career prospects in the biological sciences are exceptionally good. To some extent it depends on the specific topic, of course, but laboratory-based and especially quantitative skills and the proven innovation of a PhD or MPhil are highly sought after. Degrees are very much in demand, both in commercial science and public sector research and development (e.g. drug discovery and development, crop and animal improvements and welfare, sustainable agriculture and resource use, human nutrition and health, animal health, ecological management, food safety and technology, scientific communications, regulation, and many more fields).

Employment after the Course
Graduates have gone on to be professional research scientists, consultants, or hold technical and junior executive positions in commerce and government.

ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS

Graduate
The minimum academic requirement for admission to a research degree programme is normally an Upper Second Class Honours degree in a relevant subject from a UK or ROI HE provider, or an equivalent qualification acceptable to the University. Further information can be obtained by contacting the School.

International Students

For information on international qualification equivalents, please check the specific information for your country.

English Language Requirements

Evidence of an IELTS* score of 6.5, with not less than 5.5 in any component, or an equivalent qualification acceptable to the University is required (*taken within the last 2 years).

International students wishing to apply to Queen’s University Belfast (and for whom English is not their first language), must be able to demonstrate their proficiency in English in order to benefit fully from their course of study or research. Non-EEA nationals must also satisfy UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) immigration requirements for English language for visa purposes.

For more information on English Language requirements for EEA and non-EEA nationals see: www.qub.ac.uk/EnglishLanguageReqs.

If you need to improve your English language skills before you enter this degree programme, INTO Queen’s University Belfast offers a range of English language courses. These intensive and flexible courses are designed to improve your English ability for admission to this degree.

HOW TO APPLY

Apply using our online Postgraduate Applications Portal and follow the step-by-step instructions on how to apply.

Find a supervisor

If you’re interested in a particular project, we suggest you contact the relevant academic before you apply, to introduce yourself and ask questions.

To find a potential supervisor aligned with your area of interest, or if you are unsure of who to contact, look through the staff profiles linked here.

You might be asked to provide a short outline of your proposal to help us identify potential supervisors.