My field of expertise covers wildlife conservation genetics and also domestication. I have acquired experience in these fields dealing with questions relative to the evolutionary history and population genetics of the African and Asiatic cheetahs, wild camel, dromedary, Bactrian camel, and more recently gray wolves. I have built a broad skill set in wet and in silico labwork. During my PhD, I worked with non-invasive and ancient DNA techniques for phylogeography analyses. In the course of my postdoctoral project at UCLA, I have gained experience with high throughput sequencing. I am currently using transcriptomic approaches (RNA-Seq) and bioinformatic tools to infer gene expression pattern in the Swiss barn owl population.
Academic achievements
2009 - 2012
PhD – Population and Conservation genetics – Vetmeduni Vienna – Vienna (AT) – “Insights from evolutionary history and population genetics for domestic and wildlife conservation – cases of the Old World camelids and cheetahs” – Supervision: Dr. Pamela Burger & Prof. Christian Schlötterer
External Board: Prof. Mike Bruford, Dr. Albano Beja-Pereira, Prof. Ralph Tiedemann - Defence: December 17th, 2012
2005 - 2006
Master 2nd year – Research – Ecology Biodiversity & Evolution – Conservation Biology – UPMC, Agro-Paris-Tech, ENS, MNHN, U-PSud – Paris (FR)
2004 - 2005
Master 1st year – Ecology and Ecosystems management – UPS Toulouse (FR)
2001 - 2004
Bachelor degree in Natural Sciences – with honours – UM II Montpellier (FR)
Internships and employments
May 15
Post-doctoral fellow – Swiss barn owl (Tyto alba) transcriptomes – Alexandre Roulin’s Lab, DEE, UNIL, Lausanne (CH)
Apr 13 - Oct14
Post-doctoral fellow – Yellowstone wolf (Canis lupus) transcriptomes – Robert Wayne’s Lab, EEB, UCLA, Los Angeles (US)
Oct - Dec 2009
Visiting student – Molecular work on mediaeval cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) samples from Iran using ancient DNA techniques – Institut Jacques Monod, Paris (FR)
Oct - Dec 2008
Visiting student – Molecular work on South African cheetah samples – genotyping – National Zoological Gardens, Pretoria (ZA)
May - Aug 2008
Research assistant – Population genetics analysis of the cheetah dataset; progress report – Vetmeduni Vienna (AT)
Jan - Mar 2008
Visiting student – Molecular work on South African cheetah samples – mtDNA sequencing – National Zoological Gardens, Pretoria (ZA)
Sept - Dec 2007
Research assistant – Molecular work on cheetah museum samples – Vetmeduni Vienna (AT)
Aug 2007
Field assistant – Setting of sample-database of Silena latifolia and its pollinator moth (Hadena sp.) in Scandinavia – Université de Lausanne (CH)
Sept 06 - July 07
Field volunteer – Population census and study of environmental interactions of the water vole (Arvicola sapidus) in Central France – Groupe Mammalogique d’Auvergne (FR)
Jan - June 2006
Diploma student – Determination of African cheetah mitochondrial haplotypes inferred from non-invasively collected samples – Vetmeduni Vienna (AT) – Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (USM0305), Paris (FR)
June - Aug 2005
Volunteer – Reproduction survey on a captive population of cheetahs – Safari de Peaugres (FR)
Conferences and seminars
(Only direct contributions considered)
Conference talks
- "Influences of demographic and environmental factors on the gene expression patterns in a wild wolf population” – 8th International Conference on Advances in Canine and Feline Genomics and Inherited Disease; June 22-26, 2015; Cambridge (UK)
- "Investigation of gene expression variation within the Yellowstone National Park gray wolf population using RNA-Seq” – Evolution 2014; June 20-24, 2014; Raleigh (US) “Genetic diversity of the worldwide dromedary population” – 1st Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology; July 6-10, 2012; Ottawa (CA)
- "Hybridization in Old World camelids: a big threat for the last Wild camels (Camelus ferus)” – 8th International Conference on Behaviour, Physiology and Genetics of Wildlife; Sept 14-17, 2011; Berlin (DE)
Conference posters
- Mitochondrial evidence of panmixia in the global population of Camelus dromedarius. SMBE; July 4-8, 2010; Lyon (FR)
- A single amino acid deletion in the mitochondrial gene ND5 separates the two East African cheetah subspecies, Acinonyx jubatus soemmeringii and Acinonyx jubatus raineyi. 7th International Conference on Behaviour, Physiology and Genetics of Wildlife; Sept 21-24, 2009; Berlin (DE)
- Phylogeography of African and Asiatic cheetahs. Populations under Pressure; May 26-28, 2009; Silwood Park, Imperial College London (UK)
Invited Seminar
- Genetic investigation of the Mongolian Wild camels (SPA Gobi A)” – Mongolian Academy of Sciences; Sept 15, 2010; Ulaanbaatar (MG)
Prizes and Grant
Grant
- Eighteen-month post-doctoral fellowship (US$ 80,000) – Austrian Academy of Science (AT) and Max Kade Foundation (US)
Prize
- Armin Tschermak von Seysenegg prize (best peer-reviewed publication annual prize) for the Molecular Ecology publication: “Phylogeography, genetic structure and population divergence time of cheetahs in Africa and Asia: evidence for long-term geographic isolates” – Vetmeduni Vienna (AT)
Poster Prize
- First prize (design and journalistic features) for the poster “Mitochondrial evidence of panmixia in the global population of Camelus dromedarius” – VetmedUni Vienna annual contest for science and communication – Austrian newspapers jury
Teaching and Supervisions
Diploma vet student
- Bio-molecular work on non-invasively collected wild camel samples from Mongolia – Lukas Lipp, Vetmeduni Vienna (AT) – 6 months
Master student
- Genotyping and sequencing of Bactrian camels from Iran – Saeed Shahkarami, Animal Science Research Institute of Iran, Teheran (IR) – 3 months
PhD student
- Genetic determination of breeds within the Nigerian dromedary population – Abdussamad Mohammad Abdussamad, Bayero University, Kano State (NG) – 4 months
- Genetic diversity of the Bactrian camel stock in Mongolia – Battsetseg Chuluunbat, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar (MG) – 3 months
Assistance
- Capture, immobilization and transportation of wildlife animals (undergraduate) – Assistant of Prof. Chris Walzer – Vetmeduni Vienna (AT)
- Medical biochemistry (undergraduate) – Assistant of Prof. Frantz Schwarzenberger – Vetmeduni Vienna (AT)
Competences
Languages
- French (native) - English (C2) - Italian (A2) - German (A1)
Informatics
- Bioinformatics (Unix; basic notions of Python and HTML; Tophat, HTSeq, Samtools, WGCNA, GATK…) - Statistics (R) - Population genetics (Arlequin, Phylip package, Structure, BAPS, BEAST, Codon Code Aligner, DnaSP …) - GIS (notions of MapInfo, ArcView) - Editing (Adobe Illustrator) - Windows Pack office.
Outreach activities
Documentary
- The Explorers Club – John Hare, defender of Wild camels – Aug 2011 – scientific advisory board – Director: Michael Schromers (DE); Arte Production
Newsletter
- “International research spotlight falls on African cheetah” – National Zoological Gardens – Dec 2008 http://www.nzg.ac.za/newsletter/issues/08/10.php
School Event
- “How to be involved in Conservation?” – Interactive teaching – Erich Fried Realgymnasium – Vienna (AT)
Public Events
- “Ships of the desert in the dialogue between science and the media” – Long Night of Research 2012 – April 27, 2012 – Vienna (AT)
- “Camels in Asia and North Africa Interdisciplinary workshop” – organization committee – Oct 5-6, 2010 – Vienna (AT)
References
Prof. Robert Wayne – rwayne@ucla.edu
Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology - University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
610 Charles E. Young Drive South
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1601 – USA
Dr. Pamela Burger – pamela.burger@vetmeduni.ac.at
Institute of Population Genetics - Vetmeduni Vienna
Veterinärplatz 1
1210 Vienna – Austria
