By Josh Rhoten
Principal investigator
Ryan Layer
Funding
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council; National Institutes of Health (NIH); National Human Genome Research Institute; Research Council of Norway
Collaboration + support
Department of Computer Science; BioFrontiers Institute; Norwegian University of Life Sciences; University of Aberdeen; University of Edinburgh
Assistant Professor Ryan Layer is working to discover听structural variants in salmon鈥檚 genetic code. Structural听variants are a major source of genetic and phenotypic听variation, but they remain challenging to accurately type听and are poorly characterized in salmon.
Layer鈥檚 lab in the Department of Computer Science听and the BioFrontiers Institute is trying to address that听problem through the creation of open-source tools and听strategies that can be used by anyone鈥攆rom computer听scientist to field biologist. That includes creating听and working with algorithms to decipher important听information from within large genomic datasets.
For example, his lab is working to understand how听changes in structural variants between wild and听farmed salmon relate to behavioral traits needed for听domestication of the species. Determining that could听have implications for conservation and sustainable听harvesting of the fish in the future. And any lessons听learned with the newly developed tools could be applied听to other species to the same end.
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