HOST–PATHOGEN ADAPTATION
How livestock genomes respond to the pathogens they live with: coccidiosis resistance in Portuguese Merino sheep, trypanosomosis resistance in Angolan sheep, goats and cattle, gastrointestinal parasites in extensive systems, and African Swine Fever in African pig populations.
GENOMICS OF LOCAL AND NEGLECTED BREEDS
Whole-genome characterisation of autochthonous populations in Portugal and Angola — diversity, population structure, signatures of selection, and what adaptation to low-input environments actually looks like in a genome.
GENOME FUNCTION AND EPIGENETICS
Mapping the epigenetic landscape of European pig populations: how epigenetic variation is distributed across breeds, and what it tells us about domestication, selection and revolution potencial. Understand differences of epigenetic regulation between different breeds and how these contribute to traits.
PRECISION BREEDING AND AI
Understand how can we develop AI algorithms to develop breeding for sustainability, animal health and welfare and production efficiency.
REPRODUCIBLE BIOINFORMATICS & TRAINING
Contribute to the scientific community in the development of reproducable analysis workflows of free access and contributing to better transparency and ethics in science as well as to knowledge transfer.
"In Europe, the largest reservoir of genetic diversity of Sus scrofa is not in the wild boar but in the pig breeds."
— Amaral, A.J. (2010). Nucleotide variation and footprints of selection in the porcine and chicken genomes. PhD thesis, Wageningen University.