John Flynn
Scientific Director with Weatherbys Ireland Bloodtyping Laboratory
at the Irish Equine Centre, Johnstown, Naas, County Kildare, Ireland.
 
The laboratory is attached to the Faculty of Science at the University College Dublin and has collaborated with the international equine genome mapping program from the outset. John has also a keen interest in breeding thoroughbreds and has bred some very successful horses on the racetrack.
jflynn@weatherbys-group.com

Emmeline Hill
Scientist, University College Dublin, Ireland

Emmeline's family has been breeding racehorses for generations – her grandmother was the first female jockey to ride against men (and win!) under the rules of racing in Ireland and the UK. Her academic training in molecular genetics and interest in  thoroughbreds has led to research investigating genes associated with athletic performance in racehorses.
http://animalgenomics.ucd.ie/index.php

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Matthew Binns
Professor, Royal Veterinary College, London

Matthew Binns is a horse racing fan with an interest in the breeding and history of the Thoroughbred horse. He contributed to the development of genetic maps for the horse and is currently working to identify genes that predispose Thoroughbreds to fracture and tendon injuries.

http://www.rvc.ac.uk/AboutUs/Staff/mbinns/Index.cfm

June Swinburne
Post-doctoral equine research, Animal Health Trust, Newmarket, UK

I have always been involved with horses right from childhood gymkhanas with ponies to adulthood passions with Thoroughbreds. My career as a geneticist turned to horses 12 years ago and I'm now involved in wide-ranging projects examining a number of inherited defects in both horse and pony breeds.

http://www.aht.org.uk/  

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Knut H. Røed
Professor, Norwegian School of Veterinary Science

Knut's background in animal biology, especially genetics, led him to investigate the amazing genetic diversity among the many horse breeds. He works in the area of parentage testing and has research interests including genomics, population genetics, evolution and conservation.

The department link is: http://www.veths.no/

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Gabriella Lindgren
Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

On my free time I train dressage with this lovely Swedish Warmblood. Professionally I work on the genetics of skin allergy (Icelandic horses) and trotting performance (North Swedish Trotters). I also have an interest in coat color genetics.

The department link is: http://www.hgen.slu.se/

Sofia Mikko
Laboratory Director, Animal Genetics Laboratory, Dept. of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

I'm a molecular geneticist and the main focus of my work is parentage and identity control of horses. I am also involved in some research projects, mainly in coat color genetics and breed diversity. Most of my free time I spend with my Swedish Warmblood breeding mare. I do both dressage and show jumping and have been riding since I was a kid.

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Gerard Guerin
Scientist, INRA, Jouy-en-Josas, France

The national agricultural research laboratory (INRA) of France is better known for its research on other livestock species but Gerard has been a long time advocate and contributor to genetic studies of the horse. During the past decade, he and his students have discovered and published many key discoveries on horse genetics.

http://www.international.inra.fr/

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Ottmar Distl
Professor, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany

Ottmar got his practical experience in horse breeding on the stud farm of his parents. His group has identified quantitative trait loci for osteochondrosis and signs of navicular disease. Main research areas are reproduction and disease traits, performance and genetic diversity. Ottmar is leading the Lower Saxony Horse Genome Project funded by the Volkswagen Stiftung in Germany.

http://www.tiho-hannover.de/einricht/zucht/index.htm

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Artur Machado
Director, The Biotechnology Centre of Azores, Portugal

The Biotechnology Centre of Azores has been dedicating its equine research activities in studying the Lusitano breed, mainly its origin and influence in other breeds; it is now focusing on performance and therefore
conformation and muscle-skeleton traits are being investigated. Additionally
genetic studies were conducted with a local endangered equine breed, and an assisted reproduction unit was created for its rescue.

Maria do Mar Oom
Assistant Professor, University of Lisbon, Faculty of Sciences,Centre for  Environmental Biology /Department of Animal Biology, Portugal

I have always had a passion for horses.   I had my first riding lesson when I was 6 years old. At the university, most biology projects focused on animals in the wild, but I was determined to study horses. So I began studying behavior of the feral Garrano horses at the National Park and have continued studying genetics of the Portuguese native horse breeds since 1982. Since finishing at the University, I have done parentage testing of horses and  my main interests are population genetics, evolution and domestication, genetic conservation of endangered breeds (especially for the Sorraia Horse) inbreeding and reproductive fitness.

http://cba.fc.ul.pt/

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Elena Giulotto
Professor, University of Pavia, Italy

Elena is a show-jumping fanatic: she owns two horses and rides them in competitions. She recently decided to apply her expertise in molecular biology and cytogenetics to the horse. She is investigating the organization and evolution of the horse chromosomes.

http://ipvgen.unipv.it/index.php?page=utedet&username=giulotto

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Tosso Leeb
Professor, University of Berne, Switzerland

Tosso's family has managed for more than 100 years the horse-drawn carriages that bring visitors to the castle Neuschwanstein in Germany. His research interests concern the genetics of recurrent airway obstruction (RAO), Mendelian hereditary defects and coat color genetics.
link to my horse projects' homepage at the University of Berne:
http://www.genetics.unibe.ch/content/rubrik/horse/index_eng.html
link to the physical map project:
http://www.tiho-hannover.de/einricht/zucht/hgp/index.htm

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