Prof Androniki Psifidi’s Integrative Veterinary Genetics group at the RVC aims to dissect the genomic architecture of important animal infectious and non-infectious diseases and zoonoses, as well as improve important production traits to feed the world and increase the sustainability of the agricultural sector. The group's research implement and merge classical quantitative genetics with different omics (genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, metagenomics) and wet lab approaches to gain better insights into the underlying mechanisms of the traits under investigation.
We are interested in an One Health approach to holistically study key zoonoses and reduce the risk of disease outbreaks. We collaborate with several research groups within the UK and overseas performing multidisciplinary research where we jointly analyse and integrate clinical, production and reproduction data with immunology, microbiology, quantitative and molecular genetics, computational and systems biology approaches. Our key research interests are in the discovery of novel biomarkers, the development of decision-making tools such as breeding and diagnostic tools, the identification of novel drug discovery and vaccine targets and the use of companion animals as models of human disease.
We are working across different traits and species. Specifically, we have projects investigating the genetics of zoonoses (campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, colibacillosis, Avian Influenza), important infectious diseases in poultry (coccidiosis, enterococcus, NDV, fowl typhoid, fowl cholera, Marek’s disease, IBDV), gut health, mastitis, pneumonia and gastrointestinal parasitism in sheep, lameness, bovine respiratory disease, and telomere dynamics in relation to health and longevity in cattle, hypertrophic and other cardiomyopathies in cats, B-cell lymphoma in dogs, recurrent exertional rhabdomyolysis, recurrent laryngeal neuropathy and tendinopathies in horses. Furthermore, our group is working on the role of microRNA discovery and microbiome in animal health and productivity, as well as in the development of balanced breeding programmes for livestock aiming to simultaneously improve health, production and reproduction.