Head over to the Brangus website to read my article, " Gene Editing: What Beef Producers Need to Know. " For more information, see Alison Van Eenennaam's blog post titled " FDA seeks public comments on regulation of genetically altered animals ." Importantly, the open period for commenting on the draft regulations has been extended until June 19th. Draft guidance:  https://www.fda.gov/downloads/AnimalVeterinary/GuidanceComplianceEnforcement/GuidanceforIndustry/UCM113903.pdf Commenting Website: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FDA-2008-D-0394-0279 ). Loading...

Hat tip to Dr. John Cole, USDA, and Jesse Hoff for bringing this to my attention on Twitter . I need to make an important point: I am not a patent lawyer. I do not have a deep understanding of patent law and nothing in this post should be considered legal advice or council. On November 8, 2016 Canada issued a patent to Ben Hayes and Michael Goddard for genomic prediction. Genomic prediction is estimating an animal's breeding value (i.e. genetic merit) using DNA variants. See the Canadian Intellectual Property Office website for more detailed information about the patent. Meuwissen, Hayes and Goddard first published their work on genomic prediction in 2001. Hayes and Goddard filed for a patent of the method on December 21, 2007 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. About 23 days later, the Illumina BovineSNP50 Beadchip, a DNA test that can test 54,000 DNA variants quickly and cheaply for cattle, was released at the Plant and Animal Genome Conference. This 50K ...

My group is currently recruiting people to fill two graduate student positions. We will also be recruiting a researcher to fill a postdoctoral position in the coming year. We are looking for candidates who are passionate about genetics, genomics, and research. Ideal candidates are creative, hard working (while maintaining a work/life balance), and self starters. Our group is strictly computational, so candidates should enjoy working on computers and analyzing data. Candidates should be willing to learn programming (typically in R or Python), or already have some programming experience. We will soon have access to over 200,000 genotyped beef cattle with phenotypes and breeding values. We also have access to whole genome sequencing data from over 2,000 cattle. So, if you like working with lots of data, come join us! Our group uses population genomics to better understand the  history of cattle breeds and to inform future selection decisions. We are interested in local genetic ada...

Angus Convention 2015 Richard Resnick CEO of GenomeQuest One can not impede scientific progress. - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad   Resnick gave a series of examples of how genomics is changing society. Resnick put a nice spin on the typical sequencing cost figure . He overlays Illumina's ( $ILMN ) stock price on top of the figure. He went on to explain that the only real differences between humans, cattle, corn, and other species is the proteins they make. The amino acids, the building block of proteins, are actually the same between species. Resnick used cystic fibrosis as an example of a disease in which genetics has been very important. One DNA variant that causes the disease is called ΔF508. When a person has this variant, the gene produces the protein, but a check and balance in the cell recognizes the protein as not correct and destroys it. A different variant, G551D, is not so severe that the protein is destroyed, but the protein does not function properly. A drug call...

And where are we going next? Data via  http://www.genome.gov/sequencingcosts/ . Code for generating the plot at  https://missouri.box.com/SequencingCost . This graph never ceases to amaze me. On the horizontal axis we have dates from September 2001 to July 2015. On the vertical axis we have the cost to sequence a million base pairs of DNA, with the axis having a logarithmic scale  (each tick mark is multiplied by 10, e.g. change from 10 to 100 to 1000). The blue line describes what is called Moore's Law  which describes the increase in purchasing power as computer costs come down. The rate of improvement in DNA sequencing easily outpaces the improvement in computing. Since September 2001, the price of DNA sequencing has dropped 6 orders of magnitude  from $5,292.39 to $0.015. From more than $5,000 to less than 2 cents!!! Same data as above by with the vertical cost axis  on a normal scale, not logarithmic. What caused the drop in sequencing f...

Reprinted with permission of the Missouri Angus Trails In the summer of 2014 we held a Cattlemen’s Boot Camp at the University of Missouri with support from the Angus Foundation and the American Angus Association. Why did we hold this boot camp? First of all, we take every opportunity to work with good people, and when we were approached by the folks at the Angus Association, we jumped at the opportunity to host the event. But, more importantly we wanted to host this event to encourage cattle producers from across the region to embrace recent and emerging advancements in science and technology. In the United States it has become popular to distrust or outright dismiss a scientific perspective. We see this trend on the nightly news, in print articles, and on social media. People from all walks of life, from all political parties, and all levels of economic achievement choose not to accept as fact certain topics for which science has reached a consensus. This attitude of rejecting...

For a little over a year, the Smithsonian has housed the Genome: Unlocking Life's Code exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History. This fall, that will change as the exhibit makes a cross country tour visiting several U.S. cities. The exhibit will be housed at The Saint Louis Science Center from May 15 to September 10, 2015. The exhibit was designed to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Watson and Cricks discovery of the structure of DNA. The exhibit allows visitors to learn about the human genome and genomics, and how DNA codes for the diversity of life on Earth. I wonder if the exhibit discusses cattle... ☺

Today on the Angus Report, Jena Thompson and I discuss using genomics to distinguish differences between full siblings and identify the superior animals at an earlier age. Jena also mentions a new project at the University of Missouri in which we will sequence the genomes of approximately 150 bulls from 9 different breeds. From this research we will identify variants that reduce fertility and lead to cows not getting bred earlier in the breeding season.

Happy DNA Day ! Today we celebrate the publishing of the double helix structure of DNA by Watson and Crick, but we also celebrate the genomic revolution which is upon us. The genome is the collection of all the DNA in your body , or in your livestock's body , or any other living organism for that matter. Richard Resnick gave a great TED talk about the genomic revolution. While the decline in the cost of sequencing has slowed , scientists, including those in agriculture, continue to push the genomic revolution forward. For those of you who worry this video is all about humans, steak is mentioned at 6:30 into the video and food production is mentioned at 7:00. The genomic revolution will continue to impact the way we produce and consume our food. Astute livestock producers will put their "typewriters" in the closet and embrace the "computers and Ethernet" of genomic technologies.