2022 Havemeyer Horse Genome Symposium

Over 100 attendees traveled to Ithaca, NY in late July 2022 for the 13th International Havemeyer Foundation Horse Genome Symposium. The five-day workshop was spread across the Cornell University campus, specifically the College of Veterinary Medicine, including the McConville Barn and the Baker Institute for Animal Health. Participants represented a wide range from the equine community, including horse genome lab heads, horse industry representatives, members of the biotech industry, Cornell scientists and students.

Dr. Doug Antczak, the Dorothy Havemeyer McConville Professor of Equine Medicine and Don Miller, research support specialist in the Antczak Lab at the Baker Institute served as primary hosts with assistance from students Maya Kulikowski, Josephine Marchand and Brandon Garcia. Antczak, along with the University of Kentucky’s Dr. Ernie Bailey, operated as co-chairs of the symposium.

The event’s keynote presentations covered various equine topics and were delivered by members of the Cornell community as well as visiting experts in the field. Dr. Andrew Clark, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics and Chair of Computational Biology at the Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), kicked off the first lecture session on Inference of selection from genome sequences of Arabian Horses. Dr. Cedric Feschotte, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics also of CALS represented Cornell with discussions on the opening day covering, Transposable elements as catalysts of mammalian genome evolution. Ludovic Orlando (University of Toulouse) and Oliver Ryder (San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance) bookended the keynote presentations. 

Research Interest Group (RIG) sessions conducted at the Baker Institute paired with the presentations to round out the experience and discussions for attendees. Topics included gait, phenotyping, single cell genomics and bioinformatics.

Awards were presented during the final portion of the workshop, honoring several guests in attendance. Baker Institute’s own Dr. Becky Harman, research support specialist in the Van de Walle lab, and Sophie Sage (University of Bern, Switzerland) were awarded first place for the post-graduate and pre-graduate podium presentations, respectively. Dr. Kelly Knickelbein, assistant clinical professor/section of ophthalmology in the Department of Clinical Sciences at the College of Veterinary Medicine, and Navid Yousefi (University of Kentucky) were awarded the top prizes in the post-graduate and pre-graduate poster sessions, respectively.