Samodha Fernando will discuss "Meta-Functional Genomics: Towards Improving Animal Health and Nutrition" at noon, Feb. 8 in the East Union. The lecture, part of the Nebraska Gateway for Nutrigenomics Seminar Series, is free and open to faculty, staff and students.
Fernando is a UNL assistant professor of animal science. He received his doctorate in animal nutrition/microbial genomics from Oklahoma State University in 2008. He joined UNL in 2011 after completing a postdoctoral associate position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Fernando's research interests focus on understanding microbial structure-function relationships to improve human and animal nutrition. His research specifically involves: understanding the role of the microbial food chain in methanogenesis and other metabolic disorders in ruminants; developing new animal models to study structure-function relationships in the human microbiome; understanding the influence of host-genotype, gut microbiota and environment towards pathogen colonization in humans and livestock; and uncovering the gut virome in ruminants and non-ruminants.
For more information on the Nebraska Gateway for Nutrigenomics Seminar Series, go to http://nutrigenomics.unl.edu/seminar.shtml.