Irene van den Berg is a Senior Research Scientist at Agriculture Victoria Research in Australia, working in the Applied Genomics and Predictive Breeding team. Her research interests include genomic prediction and genome wide association studies, with a particular focus the use of whole genome sequence data for GWAS and genomic prediction, improving the accuracy of genomic prediction in breeds with a small population size, combining data across populations and countries through multi population analyses and meta-analyses, genomic prediction for novel traits, and gene expression analysis
Xiangdong Ding is a Professor at the China Agricultural University in the Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics. He has conducted cooperative research and visiting studies at the University of Göttingen in Germany, Aarhus University in Denmark, and University of California, Berkeley in the USA. His research interests include statistical genetics, animal molecular design and breeding, GWAS, genomic prediction, and analysis of the genetic basis of complex traits in pigs and cattle.
Christian Maltecca is a Professor of quantitative genetics and breeding in the Department of Animal Science at North Carolina State University, United States. His research program focuses on the genetic improvement in livestock, the optimization of statistical methods and breeding schemes under genomic selection , and the effective utilization of intermediate omics in selection programs with the use of non-parametric methods and machine learning methods.
Jesús Fernández MartÃn is a geneticist at the National Institute of Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA), Madrid, Spain. He is involved in the implementation of breeding programs in animal domestic species (especially aquatic species), the design of germplasm banks and the management of ex situ conservation programs. His research interests include: combining classical tools with molecular information in the design and management of breeding and conservation programs; control of inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity in breeding and conservation programs; incorporation of new traits (fertility, feed efficiency and disease resistance) to breeding programs; development of statistical methodologies for genomic evaluation. Currently, he is actively involved in the development of different measures of genetic diversity from molecular information, the determination of their utility for different tasks and the consequences arising from their use in the management of genetic resources.
