Our goals
- Conservation
- identifying distinct populations for management
- building new knowledge about the species
- detecting species and populations of conservation concern
- Evolutionary and demographic history
- detecting changes in the genomes that have occurred in time, so we can better understand how species adapt to changing environments
- Domestication
- studying impacts of human selection on domesticated species, including those related to changes in the environment, with practical implications for breeders
- Genetic diseases of domestic animals
- Equine metabolic syndrome
- Insect bite hypersensitivity in horses
- Dealing with the forensic cases
- E.g., upon requests from the Police
- Involving people in science (i.e., citizen science)
- collection of samples (goose, horse, environmental DNA for monitoring species)
Facilities and equipment
- Molecular ecology lab
- Basic laboratory equipment for molecular genetics
- Clean lab
- Used for low quality samples or for historical samples (<100 years old)
- Used for environmental DNA (eDNA)
- Ancient DNA lab
- Used for ancient and sensitive samples, e.g., from archaeological excavations
- The oldest sample extracted – a 7000 years old horse sample!
- Other ancient and historical samples: reindeer, moose, geese, chicken, wolverine, tiger, and Saima seal
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