Dr Pam Wiener

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Biography

Background

Pam Wiener has an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Virginia (USA) and a PhD in Biological Sciences from Stanford University (USA), where she applied mathematical models to investigate evolutionary processes. Following postdoctoral fellowships at Emory University (USA) and the University of Warwick, she joined the Roslin Institute. She was appointed Career Track Fellow in 2011 and Group Leader in 2015.

Her research involves the application of population and quantitative genetics techniques to the study of domesticated animals, with the aims of improving understanding of the domestication and breed development processes, unravelling the genetic architecture of production and disease-related traits and contributing to the implementation of selection schemes for improved animal health and welfare. She has developed methods for detection of selection signatures and applied them in a range of species, including cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens and dogs. She has also used linkage and association mapping techniques to detect genomic regions associated with animal production, behaviour and disease-related traits.

Research summary

Application of population and quantitative genetic approaches to dissect the genetic basis of phenotypic traits in domesticated animal species and to analyze the processes of domestication and breed development.  

 

Current research interests

Our research focuses on the genetics of domesticated animals. This involves the application of population and quantitative genetic approaches to dissect the genetic basis of phenotypic traits and to improve understanding of domestication and breed development. We also exploit the wealth of historical information on domesticated species to develop and improve methods of analysis, which can be applied to a variety of species.Dissection of the genetic basis of phenotypic traits in domesticated animals: We are concerned with improving our understanding of complex traits, those influenced by multiple genes as well as environmental factors, and then using this understanding to improve strategies for management of livestock and companion animals. Most recently, we have been investigating hip dysplasia in dogs, a common disease with polygenic inheritance. This study is one of the first applications of genomic evaluation (the use of high-density markers for calculating breeding values) in companion animals, where our research suggests this may be an important breeding tool for improvement of health-related traits. We have also been dissecting factors that influence behavioural traits in dogs, using a combination of multivariate statistics, quantitative and population genetics and genomics approaches.Improvement of understanding of domestication, breed development and commercialisation processes: We apply population genetics approaches to the study of domestication and breed development in various domesticated animal species. We also use domesticated animals as test cases with which the performance of different statistical methods can be compared in terms of their characterisation of population structure and assignment of individuals to population origin.

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