Message from the DirectorEmbracing change as opportunity

Secretary of State Greg Clark visits The Roslin Institute(continued overleaf)

ROSLINSummer 2017

We are ideally positioned to benefit from the two leading UK government funding initiatives – the Global Challenges Research Fund and the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund – while our ‘very own’ local equity fund provided by Roslin Technologies will accelerate the commercialisation of our research. We are also ideally placed to deliver the UK’s Agri-Tech strategy, with Easter Bush co-hosting three of the four new centres for agricultural innovation: Agricultural Engineering Precision Innovation Centre (Agri-EPI), Centre of Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL) and Agrimetrics. The list of partners from across the entire food chain that are contributing to these centres is truly impressive.

Further, under the leadership of Appolinaire Djikeng, I am confident that the Centre for

On Monday the 9th January, David Hume stood down and I became Interim

Director. I want to thank David for his inspirational leadership of The Roslin Institute over the last decade. As an Institute we have more than doubled in size and the Easter Bush Campus is bristling with new buildings.

Our challenge now is to consolidate and deliver the world-leading, strategic research on farm animal genetics, development, welfare and infectious diseases that we are uniquely set up for. All three of our proposed Institute Strategic Programmes have been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council following a rigorous Institute Assessment Exercise. I wish to thank Mark Stevens, the ISP Convenors and all who contributed to putting these programmes together.

Despite these successes, we are facing a significant shortfall in core funding and as a result, we are having to rebalance our research portfolio. Although this will have significant impact on the Institute, my overriding priority is to move to a sustainable position which is primed for future growth. We will emerge stronger.

ROSLIN Reporter Summer 20172

Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health will grow from strength to strength. I am also looking forward to exploring the opportunities arising from the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security, led by Geoff Simm. Both will further bolster our science on the world stage.

As we engage with the latest sequencing, genomic and genome editing technologies to address the pressing challenges in farmed animal production it is clear why we are recognised as the ‘partner of choice’. I will work hard to grow our many partnerships – both locally and at the international level – to aid our pursuit of new opportunities in data-driven innovation and biotechnology.

Given all the above activity it is not surprising that we play an invaluable role in training the next generation of scientists. The annual Research Student Day showcases the strength of our many young scientists and their contribution to the Institute.

We are proud holders of a Silver Athena Swan award and have just submitted our application for Gold status, reinforcing our commitment to promote gender equality throughout the Institute. I’d like to thank Helen Sang and Cat Eastwood in particular for driving this forward.

It is a great honour to lead The Roslin Institute, albeit through a phase of great change. I look forward to welcoming our new Director Eleanor Riley in September and her guiding of the Institute to continued success. I encourage you all to embrace the many opportunities in front of us and contribute to the exciting environment that is The Roslin Institute.

(continued)

On the 16th April, the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics

and Health (CTLGH) partners at the University of Edinburgh/Roslin Institute, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) welcomed Professor Appolinaire Djikeng as its new Director. Professor Djikeng has also been appointed to a Chair in Tropical Agriculture and Sustainable Development at the University of Edinburgh.

He takes up the post in succession to Professor David Hume, who has been Director since the CTLGH partners launched their first joint research effort “Genomic tools to improve the productivity of tropical livestock and increase climatic resilience, adaptation, and mitigation for the benefit of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa”, supported by a US$16M grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in December 2015.

The five programmes and 15 projects enabled by this grant are focused on identifying optimal genotypes for dairy cattle and poultry production in Africa, utilising precision breeding

technologies to improve tropical livestock productivity and health, and securing open data and biological sample resources. Other awards within the Centre will gradually expand its remit to other livestock systems and tropical regions of the world.

The Centre currently has two geographic ‘nodes’, jointly hosted and managed by The Roslin Institute and SRUC in Edinburgh, and by ILRI in Nairobi. The Edinburgh and Nairobi nodes provide collaborative space, research facilities and a CTLGH ‘home’ for scientists working together on joint projects.

Under Professor Djikeng’s leadership, the Centre is supporting a growing international network of projects and partnerships, connecting the world-class research and innovative capacity of its partner institutions to sustainable development in the field of tropical livestock genetics and health.

Peter Freeman, CTLGH Coordinator

www.ctlgh.org @ctlgh_info info@ctlgh.org

Professor Appolinaire Djikeng starts as Director of CTLGH.

Appolinaire Djikeng (centre) with L-R Alistair Stott (SRUC), David Hume, Bruce Whitelaw (both Roslin Institute) and Steve Kemp (ILRI)

Prof. Bruce Whitelaw, Interim Director, The Roslin Institute

Roslin Technologies Ltd secure £10M to boost animal science innovations

ROSLIN Reporter Summer 2017 3

Andy Peters provides an update on this £5.5M project to improve livestock health in Africa.

Since its inception meeting in Rome in January 2017, the Supporting

Evidence-Based Interventions (SEBI) team has been working at a pace to set up three programmes of work that meet the project’s two core objectives. The first is to reduce cattle and small ruminant mortality, disease and reproductive losses in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania. The second is to strengthen and integrate data systems to prioritise and track outcomes of livestock investments in Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation focus countries.

Under Programme One, SEBI will commission and manage a series of sub-grants that will investigate livestock mortality and production losses in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania. To date, SEBI has signed a contract with

the University of Glasgow to build a surveillance platform in Tanzania that will allow for the development and long-term evaluation of animal health interventions in a sustainable way.

Programme Two will develop and implement a harmonized system of data processing by building an open international modelling community of practice. This programme has led to the establishment of the Livestock Data for Decisions (LD4D) community of practice, which will gather for its first meeting in Edinburgh in June.

Programme Three is focused on the assessment of innovative technology interventions in livestock production for development and transfer to developing

countries. In March, SEBI awarded the University of Guelph US$125,000 to carry out field trials to test a portable hand-held diagnostic device for cattle disease. The portable sensor allows dairy farmers to rapidly diagnose ketosis and other metabolic diseases in cows by analysing a small volume of blood or milk, and will be adapted for applications that are more suited to developing countries.

SEBI is a 3-year pilot project. If it succeeds, the expectation is that SEBI will expand to become the ‘go to’ organisation for veterinary technology and livestock improvement evaluation in Africa.

Andy Peters, Director of SEBI

www.ed.ac.uk/vet/research/sebihttps://ld4d.org/

There are fewer bigger challenges facing humanity than feeding

the growing human population well, while protecting the natural systems on which we all depend. The new Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security – based in the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and The Roslin Institute – will help tackle this challenge. It is one of five Global Academies in the University of Edinburgh, which stimulate interdisciplinary teaching, research and partnership across the University’s schools and colleges, and beyond, to help address major global challenges.

A key research area for the new Academy will be the effectiveness and sustainability of agri-food systems. This is vital to tackle the challenges of global population growth, rapid urbanization,

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Prof. Geoff Simm, Director of the new Global Academy

New Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Securityfood and environmental security, and diet and health – challenges that affect both affluent and low-income countries. Addressing them is key to moving hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and central to many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The University is investing around £35M in the new Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security to enhance our provision of targeted education, training, research, innovation and consulting. Professor Geoff Simm was appointed as Director of the new Academy in October last year and has since been joined by Professor Liz Baggs (Deputy Director), Dr Darren Watt (Business Manager) and Lyndsey Hayes (PA). Many new academic appointments will be made over the next few months to lead the Academy’s ambitious research

and teaching agenda, which includes the launch of a series of new BSc programmes in Agricultural Science.

www.ed.ac.uk/global-agriculture- food-security

Supporting Evidence-Based Interventions in sub-Saharan Africa

ROSLIN Reporter Summer 20174

CEO John Mackenzie continues to secure strategic tenants for the Centre.

The Roslin Innovation Centre is already over half full, with companies

undertaking strategic, commercial and collaborative research in the Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Agri Tech and One Health industries committed to moving in within the initial weeks and months of the scheduled opening in August 2017.

Heads of Terms (HoT) have been issued to four potential mid-sized anchor tenants, who should all be signing up to five year leases, with a further eight HoTs issued to smaller tenants on an “easy in, easy out” 12 month lease basis. Final Design briefs for customisation of office and lab space have also already been

agreed with three of these four large anchor tenants.

All tenants are international in their outlook and are a good mix of established, local/multinational, start-up/spin out companies, charities, and some internal University business units, with innovation at their core.

Between them these tenants already account for a total of 262 jobs. Having already reached 50% occupancy, John is confidently projecting an 85% occupancy rate by 31st July 2018.

www.roslininnovationcentre.com

Roslin Innovation Centre: A business location of choice

The University of Edinburgh and five other institutions are joining forces to form the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI).

This £250M initiative has been established in response to the

Government’s 2020 Challenge on Dementia. Its mission is to find new ways of diagnosing and treating dementias – including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases. The UK DRI is led by the Medical Research Council with founding charity partners Alzheimer’s

Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK. It will have its headquarters at University College London.

Dr Barry McColl from the The Roslin Institute will be leading one of the five foundation programmes of research at the University of Edinburgh investigating the role of microglia in susceptibility and resilience to neurodegenerative disease.

The International Veterinary Vaccinology Network

The International Veterinary Vaccinology Network (IVVN) has

been awarded £2.1M by the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council to facilitate the formation of new partnerships that will contribute to the development of vaccines against livestock diseases that have major impacts on the health and productivity of animals in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs).

The IVVN will facilitate collaborations between scientists, industrial partners and others from both the UK and LMICs working across a broad range of disciplines by funding scientific meetings, workshops, laboratory exchanges and supporting ‘pump-priming’ projects.

The IVVN is being led by researchers from The Roslin and Pirbright Institutes with approximately 20 industrial and academic partners from both the UK and LMICs already part of the Network. New members who have a scientific contribution to make or an interest in the aims of the Network are always welcome!

A Network website with more information will be available soon, but if you would like to find out more before then please contact Dr. Timothy Connelley:

timothy.connelley@ed.ac.uk

ROSLIN Reporter Summer 2017 5

On the 13th March, I took part in the STEM for Britain event at Portcullis

House, Westminster. This is an annual poster presentation event to promote early stage researchers working in the UK, sponsored by Stephen Metcalfe MP. Around 175 posters were selected from over 500 applications spanning Biological and Biomedical Science, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering and Mathematics. Unfortunately, the event took place the same day as the Article 50 vote, so not as many MPs were able to attend this year, but it was very interesting to see all the exciting work that is being done by young researchers across the country. I would definitely encourage anyone who is interested to apply next year.

Presenting my work on transgenic chickens as bioreactors for protein-based drugs at STEM for Britain was actually one of my last ‘acts’ as a postdoc. On the 1st April I took up a Royal Society of Edinburgh/BBSRC Enterprise Fellowship. This is a one year fellowship providing salary, business development funds, mentoring and training to turn researchers into entrepreneurs. I’m in a cohort of 11,

In May, eleven school pupils from Midlothian secondary schools took

part in a week-long work experience programme focusing on the business side of the Campus.

The Business Insights programme was designed to introduce high school pupils to the wide range of operational areas that support a large organisation such as The University of Edinburgh. It provided first-hand experience of working in a real business environment and the opportunity to learn directly from those working in Finance, Marketing and Communications, Health and Safety, Human Resources, IT and Facilities.

The week was organised and run by Campus HR Manager, Cat Eastwood, and Marketing Communications Officer, Tom Mortimer. Through interactive sessions the pupils got a taster of what different roles involve and a chance to further develop core skills, such as writing personal statements, that will help them when applying for future study or training opportunities. The feedback from the pupils and teachers was extremely positive.

Business Insights

Easter Bush Campus runs a new work experience programme.

Val Hughes-White, Campus Operating Officer, said:

The Easter Bush Campus is committed to providing opportunities for young people and the Business Insights programme is another way in which the Campus is reaching out and engaging with the local community.”

The University of Edinburgh’s Sustainability Awards recognise staff

and students who contribute towards the University becoming more socially responsible and sustainable. To achieve a 2016 Lab Award, the participating teams had to demonstrate compliance with a wide range of sustainable lab practices. Brian McTier and the Facilities team at the Easter Bush Campus led The Roslin Institute’s application and managed to successfully retain its Gold status.

The Easter Bush Campus also received a Gold Office Award for the project led by Sharon Boyd on behalf of the Campus, which demonstrates the key role that veterinary medical research and teaching plays in achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals. It is one of the first award projects to focus specifically on social responsibility and sustainability in learning and teaching at the University.

Fourth Gold Award for Roslin LabsThe Roslin Institute retains its Gold Sustainability Award for the fourth consecutive year.

with five NERC-funded fellows and five Scottish Enterprise funded fellows. The training sessions so far have been interesting and fun, if a bit scary when they start talking about financial reports and director responsibilities.

The RSE fellowships are open to applicants twice a year and the application process is managed via Edinburgh Research and Innovation Ltd, which acts as your host institution during the fellowship. The success rate is higher than average, with at least 30% making it through from application to selection. The downside is that you’re all but banned from the lab for the year of the fellowship, so don’t think of it as an extension to your PhD or postdoc contract!

I have just been named the winner of the Emerging Innovation category of Inspire.Launch.Grow, the University of Edinburgh’s entrepreneurial competition for staff and students, and have reached the Top 30 in the Converge Challenge, a similar competition but Scotland-wide. Both programmes involve training and pitching, so look out for Eggcellent Proteins!

Pastures NewLissa Herron describes the first steps on her entrepreneurial journey.

Lorna Bathgate and Brian McTeir holding this year’s sustainability awards

ROSLIN Reporter Summer 20176

Nicola Stock rounds up the public engagement and outreach activities we have been involved with so far this year.

Sharing our Science

Ahead of the opening of the Easter Bush Science Outreach Centre

(EBSOC) in the autumn, in January and February we carried out a series of teacher consultation sessions to determine the types of activities local high schools would like to see at the new facility. There’s definitely a demand for pupils to get hands-on, research lab experiences and the opportunity to meet real scientists, so over the summer we will be developing and testing our first set of workshops.

Events roundup

We also hosted a very well received Continuing Professional Development (CPD) day for Higher Human Biology teachers in February, featuring researchers from across the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine and showcasing the Institute’s facilities. We are planning to offer future sessions in the EBSOC.

Our researchers have been busy visiting schools to share their experiences of working in science and several took part in Careers Hive, an event for high

school pupils and their families at the National Museum of Scotland. We also hosted visits from Biology and Chemistry students from local high schools, who got to see behind the scenes in our research labs.

Alice Roberts, clinical anatomist, author, broadcaster and Professor of Public Engagement with Science at the University of Birmingham, paid a visit to the Institute in February. In addition to giving a thought-provoking seminar about why academics should

Alice Roberts delivering her seminar on Public Engagement with Research

Visiting teachers tour our Bio-imaging facility

Science Communication training gets interactive!

ROSLIN Reporter Summer 2017

Events roundup

7

In March, The Roslin Institute was pleased to host the Edinburgh lecture

of the Society for Reproduction and Fertility’s (SRF) 2017 ‘Sex in Three Cities’ series. The lecture series, which was established in 2011, enables a high-profile and engaging reproductive biologist to give a thought-provoking lecture in three UK cities to promote reproductive biology research and the SRF. This years’ lecture entitled ‘Programmed for Sex’ was delivered by Professor Richard Sharpe from the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh. His inspiring and amusing lecture drew a near-capacity attendance in the auditorium and prompted lively, stimulating discussions immediately after the lecture and during informal discussions throughout the afternoon.

Sex in Three Cities Lecture: Programmed for Sex

consider engaging with the public, she also joined a smaller group of research staff and students for a lively discussion about public engagement in practice.

As in previous years, Roslin researchers took part in the Edinburgh International Science Festival in April, contributing content and volunteers for the successful Moments in Time exhibition on the Mound in central Edinburgh and taking our Needle Felting with Dolly the Sheep workshop to the Mini Maker Faire at Summerhall.

In May we took our Cute Egg activities to the Border Union Agricultural Society Children’s Countryside Day in Kelso, where our team engaged several hundred primary school children and their teachers with fun, interactive activities about their research on the cuticle of hen’s eggs.

We rounded off this half of the year with an interactive and insightful science communication training session led by David Price from Science Made Simple. Our researchers were challenged to perform demonstrations and give presentations, all the while focusing on not just the scientific content (and keeping it simple and jargon-free!) but also their audience and themselves as presenters.

Next stop: the Royal Highland Show!

Prof. Richard Sharpe talking about the critical interplay between diet and reproduction

Needle Felting with Dolly the Sheep

School pupils get to grips with our Cute Egg activities

ROSLIN Reporter Summer 20178

On the 24th April Professor Tanja Opriessnig delivered an inaugural lecture on her research career path. Her research focuses on infectious diseases in

pigs, with an emphasis on porcine circovirus type 2. For many years this virus was considered a “circus act” by many leading pig scientists until research clearly showed it caused major disease outbreaks. Once industry was convinced of the importance of the virus, there was a race to produce what is now considered the most used vaccine in pig production.

Inaugural Lecture: From “circus virus” to most used swine vaccine

Research Student Day

The annual Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies (R(D)SVS)

Research Student Day took place on the 10th May and brought together postgraduate students from The Roslin Institute, Scotland’s Rural College, the Moredun Research Institute as well as R(D)SVS. The students’ presentations covered the diverse range of research within the School and the wider Easter Bush Research Consortium. Final year PhD students gave short talks summarising the most exciting aspects of their research projects. First, second and third year PhD students, along with MSc by research, MVetSci students and Clinical Scholars presented posters. Overall, 121 students took part, giving 32 talks and 89 poster presentations.

The day was an outstanding success, highlighting the strength of the research community and the inclusive atmosphere across the Campus. It showcased the

contribution that our students make to the School’s research output and provided a snapshot of their research interests to both staff and students. The high quality of the presentations posed a hard task for the various session judges, all of whom commented on the difficulty of choosing winners. The standard was excellent at all levels.

The day concluded with the Charnock Bradley Lecture by Professor Appolinaire Djikeng, Director of the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH), who gave an inspiring lecture entitled “Science-based opportunities for small scale farmers”, a reception and the prize giving ceremony. Professor David Argyle and Professor Bruce Whitelaw congratulated the students on the high quality of their work and presented the certificates and prizes to the winners.

L-R: Luise Seeker, Ailbhe Brazel, Jessica Powell, Laura Glendinning, Imogen Johnston-Menzies, Colin Farquharson, Yennifer Cortes Araya, Amanda Warr, Violeta Trejo Reveles, Tom Marchant, Dadakhalandar Doddamani, Bruce Whitelaw, Maria Contreras Garcia

Research Student Day PrizesFirst year poster winner: Jessica PowellFirst year poster runners up: Imogen Johnston-Menzies and Yennifer CortesSecond year poster winner: Dadakhalander DoddamaniSecond year poster runners up: Maria Contreras Garcia and Stefan SzymkowiakThird year poster winner: Amanda WarrThird year poster runner up: Tom MarchantMSc poster winner: Violeta Trejo RevelesClinical Scholar poster winner: Jennifer CartwrightOral presentation winner: Laura GlendinningOral presentation runners up: Luise Seeker and Ailbhe Brazel

Events roundup

Prof. Tanja Opriessnig

ROSLIN Reporter Summer 2017

At this year’s Microbiology Society Conference, Dr Prerna Vohra (above), was awarded the Principal Investigator Poster Prize, for her work on the genetic basis of Salmonella pathogenesis in cattle.

At the same meeting PhD student Rodrigo Bacigalupe (below) was awarded the ‘Most Promising Science Prize in Microbial Genomics’ for his poster on the genetic diversity of Legionella and implications for infection control.

9

Roslin Researcher Successes

The outstanding quality of the research carried out at the Institute has been recognised at local, national and international meetings. Below we feature

some of the awards received by Roslin Institute researchers in the last six months:

James Alibhai was awarded the prestigious Jean Corsan Prize at the Alzheimer’s Research UK Conference in March. This prize is awarded to the best scientific paper in neurodegeneration published by a PhD student. James’ study in PLoS Biology demonstrates that the distribution of misfolded prion protein alone does not predict regions of neurodegeneration and highlights the role of the hosts’ immune response to misfolded protein in determining subsequent neurodegeneration.

PhD student Fiona Allan’s poster on controlling livestock vector-borne diseases in Tanzania won the poster competition at the launch of the Edinburgh Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy on the 22nd March.

PhD student Alewo Idoko-Akoh won the Genetics Society Overall Poster Prize at The Genetics Society, British Society for Developmental Biology and British Society for Cell Biology joint meeting, held at Warwick University in April. His project is using gene-editing to uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying chicken primordial germ cell migration.

PhD student Tom Marchant won a prize at the Edinburgh Musculoskeletal Group launch on the 22nd April as well as the Student Speaker Prize at the 9th International Conference on Canine and Feline Genetics and Genomics in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His work focuses on the genetics of canine head shape variation.

Three awards at the Edinburgh Neuroscience Day went to Roslin PhD students. Declan King and Maica Llavero Hurtado won the student poster runners-up prizes and Yana Aleksandrova’s presentation entitled ‘Maternal Care in the domestic chicken is associated with increased mesotocin in the hypothalamus’ won the three-minute talk prize.

At the 6th Edinburgh Infectious Diseases Annual Symposium, Dr Laura McCulloch’s poster on infection susceptibility after stroke won the postdoc poster prize and PhD student Maria Contreras Garcia won the best student poster for her work on Ovine Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma, a contagious viral disease of sheep.

ROSLIN Reporter Summer 201710

Research highlights

When an egg is released from a follicle in the ovary, the tissue that

is left behind forms the corpus luteum and secretes progesterone, the hormone that maintains pregnancy. Inadequate development of the corpus luteum or insufficient production of progesterone can cause miscarriages in several species. A team led by Xavier Donadeu identified a molecule that may be involved in this process.

Using a genome-wide screen, they found that in both cattle and human luteal cells the levels of the gene-regulating molecule miR-96 increase as the corpus luteum develops. Downregulating miR-96 with a specific inhibitor decreased the production of progesterone and triggered human luteal cell death. The team identified the protein that mediates this process, the transcription factor FOXO1, shedding new light on potential targets for fertility treatments.

Cattle as a model to study human fertility

The genetics of flat-faced dogs

The popularity of the French bulldog and Pug belies the morbidities

caused by their flattened face shape (known as brachycephaly), which include respiratory distress and ocular trauma. Jeff Schoenebeck and colleagues have analysed dog CT scans and genotypes to identify genes associated with face length. Their work, published in Current Biology, describes a genetic variant that disrupts the gene SMOC2 and contributes to brachycephaly. These data uncover a molecular mechanism that has enabled dogs to morphologically diversify. Importantly, the identification of SMOC2’s role in brachycephaly will enable scientists to further understand the consequences of its disruption with respect to dog development, health and welfare.

Targeting the immune system to improve stroke recovery

Why are one-third of stroke patients stricken by infections? A study led by Barry McColl, and

published in the journal Nature Communications, shows that stroke damages the immune system. After a stroke, mice had fewer specialised immune cells called marginal zone B cells and were more susceptible to infections. Loss of these cells was caused by noradrenaline, a chemical produced by nerves that are activated during stroke. Following administration of a drug that blocks the effects of noradrenaline, the mice developed fewer infections. Developing therapies that block or bypass the damage caused to marginal zone B cells could reduce the risk of infection after stroke. New tests could also identify stroke patients at high risk of developing infections so that they can be monitored more closely.

There are more dying cells (green) two days after stroke (right) than before (left)

ROSLIN Reporter Summer 2017 11

Hens that do not produce their own chicks have been developed for

use as surrogates to lay eggs from rare breeds. The advance – using gene-editing techniques – could help boost breeding of endangered birds, as well as improving production of commercial hens.

A team led by Mike McGrew describe in the journal Development how they used the genetic tool TALEN to delete a section of the chicken gene called DDX4, which is crucial for the generation of primordial germ cells and egg production. However, when primordial germ cells from other bird breeds are implanted into the gene-edited hens, they will be able to produce eggs containing all of the genetic information from the other breeds. These are the first gene-edited birds to be produced in Europe.

Egg-free surrogate chickens produced in bid to save rare breeds

Prion diseases – which include variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)

in people and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cows – are infectious brain conditions that can spread by eating contaminated meat. But why are some individuals more at risk than others?

Specialised cells in the lining of the gut called M cells help the body against gut infections. A team led by Neil Mabbott found that prions use M cells to infect

the gut. Mice that do not have M cells were completely resistant to prion infections whereas those with a greater number of M cells were around ten times more susceptible.

These findings may in part explain why most human cases have affected young people, who tend to have higher numbers of M cells. The presence of other gut infections such as Salmonella may increase the chances of infection by prions.

Gut cells are gatekeepers of infectious brain diseases

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) causes severe

breathing problems, anorexia and diarrhoea in young pigs and breeding failures in pregnant females. Vaccines have mostly failed to stop the spread of the virus, which continues to evolve rapidly. The disease costs the swine industry billions each year.

In the quest to produce pigs that are potentially resistant to PRRS, Christine Burkard and colleagues used a gene-editing tool called CRISPR/Cas9 to cut out a small section of the CD163 gene in the pigs’ DNA. Studies in cells from the pigs show that this modification prevents the virus from causing infection. The animals are otherwise healthy and the biological function of CD163 is not impaired by the removal of the small section. In vivo challenge experiments are on-going.

Gene-edited pigs show signs of resistance to major viral disease

Research Highlights

Wholemount of some M cells (green) in a Peyer’s patch in the intestine

If you have any articles you would like to submit for the next Roslin Reporter or have any questions or feedback on this issue please contact us: info@roslin.ed.ac.ukThe University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.Photography by Norrie Russell and Alan Inglis.Designed by Graphic Design Services, LTW, ISG, The University of Edinburgh www.ed.ac.uk/is/graphic-design

Although my Leverhulme Trust residency at Easter Bush Campus had

come to an end, there was one workshop idea I was keen to revisit.

Cath Keay, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of Design at Edinburgh College of Art, joined me in designing and producing nine sculptural objects that would appeal to both humans and pigs, so that the experience would be a shared one and mutually enriching.

Throughout the process of designing and making the objects we were thinking about what matters to pigs, and carefully crafted objects that they could interact with. The Popcorn Piñata was perhaps the greatest success. Ours was a nine-pointed star piñata, made from a large silicone sphere covered with papier mache and cones with jute tassels, filled to the brim with popcorn.

It was an exhilarating afternoon observing the pigs’ enthusiasm for investigative play, although the joy was mixed with sadness, in the knowledge that we were offering such a singular experience.

The Easter Bush Academic Society (EBAS) has successfully applied for

official Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) status.

The society will serve the whole Campus and is open to everyone, including postgraduates, undergraduates and staff.

As an official society we are eligible to apply for funding from EUSA to support Easter Bush Campus activities, such as social gatherings, seminars and sporting events that promote interaction with other societies and clubs on Campus as well as with other University departments.

If you would like to join EBAS please get in touch with Omar Alfituri.

Easter Bush Academic Society

An afternoon to remember

SAT NAV:EH25 9RG12 - 4pm

Visit the University of Edinburgh’s Easter Bush Campus and meet our scientists and vets. Get hands-on with fun activities suitable for all the family.

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OCTOBER

Andrea Roe, Lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art, discusses an unusual intervention at Easter Howgate Farm.