Nick Hudson

Mitochondria and livestock feed efficiency

Some production animals utilise feed more efficiently for production than others, while some are able to maintain muscle mass, liveweight and productivity under periods of nutritional and environmental stress.

Why is this? The successful applicant will focus their research on the biology of the mitochondria and its role in determining metabolic efficiency in cattle.

Frog and butterfly ecology

Projects regarding the fundamental biology and ecology of both frogs and butterflies are available.

Fieldwork will be based at Hiddenvale Research Station (https://hiddenvalewildlife.uq.edu.au/). There is a lot of scope for flexibility in project development so if you have any ideas - or even just a passion for - these two groups of animals please get in touch.

Metabolism across species

Are you interested in growth, development and metabolism? Students are encouraged to get in touch with any of their own ideas in the broad area of animal biology. Projects can be developed collaboratively with other academics within and beyond AGFS so there is lots of scope for diversity and inter-disciplinary research.

We encourage students to develope their own ideas and projects. In our lab we use a range of metabolic and molecular tools such as gene expression, metabolic flux analysis and SNP genotyping that can be readily applied across species and biological circumstances.

You can learn how to handle and quantitate DNA and RNA, run an agarose gel, estimate gene expression by quantitative PCR and phenotype animal and plant cells in the state of the art XFe24 Flux analyser.

Remember, a new discovery is just round the corner!

The interface between genomes and diet in ruminant farm animals

Livestock products provide a nutritious source of protein (and a range of other molecules including bioavailable iron and vitamin B12). More efficient production may be required to meet not only increasing demand but also greater awareness over welfare issues and environmental footprint.

Breeds and individual cattle and sheep can show substantial differences in how they respond to diets, with some animals more productive than others. The proposed research will investigate which parts of the genome underpin productivity in cattle and sheep.

Biochemical pathways relevant to the new science of nutrigenomics will be uncovered primarily through investigation of genome-wide gene expression data sets available for metabolically important tissues such as muscle, fat and liver.

Cutting edge bioinformatics tools including the latest approaches from network science will be deployed. This knowledge may help us understand why some animals fare better than others under given nutritional circumstances and perhaps inform decisions regarding diet formulation.