I work as professor in genetics at NMBU where my main research interests are into understanding the genetic architecture underlying complex traits in production biology species. My research within this field commenced in livestock species like cattle and swine, but over the last 10 years I have gradually increased my focus towards marine species, in particular Atlantic salmon.
Over the last 15 years I have devoted much of my time to the development of Centre for Integrative Genetics (CIGENE, www.cigene.no), which has grown from a small molecular biology lab to Norway's foremost SNP genotyping facility and an internationally important genomics research lab devoted to understanding mechanisms and genetic architecture underlying phenotypes.
Together with our extensive national and international collaborative network, my lab has pioneered the development of high-throughput genotyping tools for several agriculture and aquaculture species and taken important roles in high-profile genome sequencing projects. I was a National coordinator in the “Bovine Genome Sequencing and Analysis Consortium” and “The Bovine HapMap Consortium”, resulting in two publications in Science (2009). I also played an active role in “The Cod Genome Sequencing Project” (published in Nature 2011) and “The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium” (published in Science in 2014).
Since 2009, I have played a leading role in “The International Collaboration to Sequence the Atlantic Salmon Genome (ICSASG)”, a collaborative effort between Norway, Canada and Chile. This work recently resulted in the publication of a high-quality genome assembly for Atlantic salmon (published in Nature, 2016). Our work on Atlantic salmon has flourished and I am now leading, or co-leading, five large projects on salmon genomics and systems biology (together totalling to more than100 MNOK), and has received international attention with a recent study that reveals the genetic mechanism underlying age of maturity in wild Atlantic salmon (published in Nature, 2015).
In perspective, I strongly believe that our research to understand the genome function and genetics of salmonid traits and evolution will deliver ground-breaking results with high impact on international research, which in turn will engender sustainable salmonid aquaculture and better management of wild populations.