VGL - Key Persons
Anna Grulikowski is currently a Project Manager at the VGL. She completed her degree in Animal Science at UC Davis in 2023. As an undergraduate intern in the laboratory, she worked on various projects related to pigmentation genetics in alpacas.
Ms. Lindquist is the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory's Quality and Efficiency Manager and a Forensic Analyst. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of California, Davis and went on to earn her Masters of Science in Forensic Science from George Washington University in Washington, DC. In 2010, she led the forensic section of the VGL in the efforts to obtain accreditation to the international forensic standards (ISO17025 forensic accreditation). The Veterinary Genetics Laboratory Forensic section (known as VGL-Forensics in the law enforcement community) was successful in this endeavor and is the only laboratory in the United States accredited to complete forensic DNA profiling on domesticated animal species. Ms. Lindquist joined the leadership team in 2015, as the Associate Director of Forensics and now fills the leadership role of Quality and Efficiency Manager for the entire VGL. As Quality and Efficiency Manager, she led the VGL team to implement the international standard in all VGL services, successfully obtaining accreditation of the entire VGL in 2019. She works with all VGL faculty and staff to develop and implement all aspects of the laboratory's quality management systems which ensures efficiency and accuracy in all of the laboratory procedures.
Dr. Alexandra Grillos received her undergraduate degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and completed her DVM at UC Davis in 2023. She joined the Bellone research group as part of the STAR program. Her work investigated the genetics of early pregnancy loss in Thoroughbreds as a collaboration between the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory and the Royal Veterinary College in London, UK. She also contributed to the discovery of the first fragile foal case in the Thoroughbred (Grillos et al., 2021). She is currently a resident of Theriogenology and Reproductive Medicine at The Ohio State University.
Dr. Alyssa Atilano joined the lab as an undergraduate student where she performed pedigree analysis for several ocular disorders in horses, such as in families of Friesian Horses with bilateral corneal stromal loss (BCSL) (Alberi et al., 2018). She has since earned her DVM from UC Davis and is now an equine veterinarian.
Job Titles:
- Bioinformatics Programmer
Dr. Bradley Till is a Bioinformatics Programmer in the VGL. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Oregon and worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. Before joining the VGL in 2020, Dr. Till conducted research in Austria and Chile. He collaborates on various equine and camelid genetics and genomics projects with the VGL research group.
The Finno Laboratory works on companion animal genetic investigations, especially related to neuromuscular disease. Dr. Finno is a faculty member in genetics, a clinician with the Equine Medicine Service, and the Director of the Center for Equine Health at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. She and her team have been responsible for discovering the genetic underpinnings of occipitoatlantoaxial malformation in Arabian horses and Immune-Mediated Mysositis in the American Quarter Horse and related breeds, among other traits. She is currently investigating these and other neuromuscular diseases including equine neuroaxonal dystrophy (eNAD), which is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder affecting many horse breeds.
Drs. Carrie Finno, Jessica Petersen of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Rebecca Bellone of the VGL are directly involved in the Functional Annotation of the ANimal Genome (FAANG) project, elucidating the regulatory elements of horse genome.
All ongoing research projects of the Finno Lab can be viewed directly on the Finno Lab website.
Dr. Helena Rockwell joined the laboratory as a fourth-year Animal Science undergraduate with a passion for both horses and human medicine. She has been involved in several projects contributing as the first author to data collection and analysis for Equine Recurrent Uveitis in the Appaloosa (Rockwell et al., 2020). Helena has since earned her MD from the University of California, San Diego.
The Murray laboratory works on genetic engineering and gene editing in large animals, and on equine genetics, having contributed both to the creation of equine genetic maps and more recently to annotations and the definition of long-non coding RNA annotations in the horse genome. Professor Murray is a faculty member in the Department of Animal Science (CA&ES) and the Department of Population Health and Reproduction (SVM). He and his team have been responsible for discovering the genetic underpinnings of cerebellar abiotrophy in Arabian horses. Professor Murray's current equine related research is focused on defining the genetics of the Santa Cruz Island horse.
Dr. Jiayin Liu joined the Bellone laboratory during her junior year as an Animal Science undergraduate intern. Her work contributed to the discovery of the risk variant for ocular SCC in Haflinger horses (Bellone et al. 2017). After earning her bachelor's degree, she completed her veterinary degree at The Ohio State University and is a small animal veterinarian, with a focus in emergency medicine.
Dr. Kelly Knickelbein obtained her veterinary degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 2015. She then completed a one-year rotating internship in equine medicine and surgery followed by a one-year internship in comparative ophthalmology. Dr. Knickelbein completed her veterinary ophthalmology residency at UC Davis in 2021 under the mentorship of Drs. Mary Lassaline and Bellone. She is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists. During her residency, she contributed to projects investigating the genetics of ocular squamous cell carcinoma in multiple breeds of horses (Knickelbein et al., 2019) and corneal disease in Friesian horses. Currently she is an assistant professor at Cornell University and continues to collaborate on many ocular projects with the VGL equine research group.
Job Titles:
- Professor
- Research / Research
Dr. Lyons is Professor Emerita of the Department of Population & Health and Reproduction in the School of Veterinary Medicine. She was on the faculty at UC Davis from 1999 - 2013 where she initiated her research on the population dynamics of cat breeds and populations and the investigation of inherited disease and traits in cats. Together with Dr. Robert Grahn and Jennifer Grahn, their research has led to the discovery of over 30 disease and trait DNA variants in cats, many are tested at the VGL. Her research also developed the Cat Ancestry test and her laboratory has produced several of the background databases used in forensic applications.
Now as the Gilbreath - McLorn Endowed Professor of Comparative Medicine at the University of Missouri (MU), College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Lyons maintains a strong interaction with the VGL. Via voluntary submission by cat owners, DNA samples from cats interested in participating in research are sent from the VGL to Dr. Lyons at MU. The UC Davis VGL is an active participant in the 99 Lives Cat Sequencing Initiative that is coordinated by Dr. Lyons. As strong collaborators, Dr. Lyons and the VGL share DNA samples and scientific data to produce the evidence to support DNA variant discovery of traits and health concerns in cats.
Dr. Margo Crausaz joined the laboratory during the end of her last year as a UC Davis undergraduate and stayed on for the following year prior to moving to Scotland to earn her BVM&S at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. Her work contributed to data collection and analysis of the genetics of squamous cell carcinoma in multiple breeds of horses (Crausaz et al., 2020).
Dr. Maura Mack joined the laboratory as a UC Davis Animal Science undergraduate intern during her last year of college and stayed on for a year as a research associate before heading to veterinary school. Maura was heavily involved in several of the projects in the Bellone laboratory. Her work identified the two mutations associated with the tiger eye phenotype in Puerto Rican Paso Fino horses (Mack et al., 2017) and contributed to studies on equine recurrent uveitis in the Appaloosa. After leaving UC Davis, she went on to earn her veterinary degree from Colorado State University and is now a practicing equine veterinarian.
Dr. Nicole Kingsley obtained her Ph.D. in Integrative Genetics and Genomics Graduate group in 2022 and is currently a veterinary student at UC Davis. Her work contributed to the Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes project (FAANG) by analyzing the Chromatin Immuno-Precipitation Sequence (ChIP-seq) data (Kingsley et al., 2019, Kingsley et al., 2021). This project aims to improve the annotations for the genomes of several important agricultural species, including the horse. She is researching the genetic underpinning of Equine Recurrent Uveitis (ERU) in Appaloosas and other breeds (Sandmeyer et al., 2020; Kingsley et al., 2022a; Kingsley et al., 2022b; Kingsley et al. 2022c).
Dr. Bellone's interest in genetics began as an undergraduate student; she earned her bachelor's degree in 1997 from the University of Florida in agriculture specializing in biotechnology and completed an honors thesis project on the genetics of equine coat color. She went on to earn her doctoral degree in equine genetics from the University of Kentucky studying at the Gluck Equine Research Center. After earning her doctorate, she joined the faculty at University of Tampa, in Tampa, Florida, and spent twelve years teaching courses in biology, genetics, and molecular biology, while also conducting research and making important scientific discoveries to advance the understanding of genetics and genomics. While at the University of Tampa, she was a recipient of three Outstanding Scholar Awards and one Outstanding Student Research Supervision Award. Her research work has identified several causal mutations for both pigmentation traits as well as several genetic disorders in horses. She currently leads a research team of graduate and undergraduate students who are investigating several pigmentation and ocular disorders in horses and other species.
In 2014, she joined the School of Veterinary Medicine faculty at UC Davis and the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory team where she has expanded both the research and educational programs of the VGL. Dr. Bellone joined the leadership team as the Associate Director of Education and Outreach in 2016 and was appointed Director in November of 2017. She directs and oversees all operations as they relate to the mission of the unit.
Dr. Savanna Vig completed her veterinary degree at UC Davis in 2017. She joined the laboratory after her second year at Davis as a STAR (Students Training in Advanced Research) summer fellow. During her summer fellowship, Savanna investigated a genetic risk factor for ocular SCC in multiple horse breeds (Singer-Berk et al., 2019). Dr. Vig has since completed a residency in ophthalmology at Animal Eye Specialists and is now a board certified veterinary ophthalmologist.
Elizabeth Esdaile completed a masters in the Animal Biology Graduate group under the mentorship of Dr. Bellone and Dr. Avila. Her master's thesis focused on studying the genetics of several coat color traits in horses and genetic diversity in the Standardbred (Esdaile et al., 2021a). Currently, she is the research coordinator for the VGL and lab manager of the Bellone research group. Her work contributes to many of the projects in the lab, and her most recent work identified the W13 allele in Shetland ponies and Miniature horses (Esdaile et al., 2021b).
Elizabeth Esdaile completed a master's degree in Animal Biology at UC Davis in September of 2021. As part of her thesis, she studied the genetics of coat color phenotypes in horses as well as genetic diversity within and among horse breeds. She is currently a Lab Manager for the Bellone Laboratory at the VGL.
Emily Cooper joined the laboratory as a third-year Animal Science major at UC Davis. She worked on a research project related to deafness in blue-eyed white alpacas.
Erin Hisey is currently enrolled as a dual degree DVM/PhD student at UC Davis. She began working in the equine research section as a second-year Animal Science undergraduate student during which she investigated the genetic mechanisms for distichiasis in Friesian horses, leading to the discovery of a 16kb deletion that is associated with the disease (Hisey et al., 2020).
Job Titles:
- Assistant Research Geneticist
Haley Cronin is an Animal Biology major at UC Davis. She is working on various projects focused on elucidating the genetic basis of phenotypic and disease traits in camelids, horses, and sheep. On her spare time, she likes to hike.
Izzie Hack began interning in the laboratory as an Animal Biology undergraduate student at UC Davis. As part of her honors thesis, she began working on the genetics of ocular disease. Izzie's work contributed to the discovery of the causal variant for night blindness in the Tennessee Walking Horse, which she is the first author of the scientific paper that details those findings (Hack et al., 2020). Additionally, Izzie investigated genetic risk factors for insidious uveitis in the Icelandic horse (Hack et al., 2022). She is now a third year veterinary student at UC Davis.
Jocelyn Tanaka completed a master's in Animal Biology at UC Davis in December 2019. As part of her thesis, she identified the genetic cause for the mushroom dilution in Shetland ponies and studied the genetic mechanisms of several other pigmentation traits in horses and donkeys. After completing her master's, she became a research technician at the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, assisting in the test development and research section until moving into human genetics. Jocelyn is currently a senior research associate at Color Health, Inc.
Julia Hoff graduated from UC Berkeley with a dual bachelor's degree in Integrative Biology and Molecular and Cell Biology in 2024. Currently, she is the Lab Manager of the Bellone research group and is particularly interested in using her bioinformatics skills to identify genetic variants that contribute to disorders and traits of interest in animals.
Juliana Mun joined the lab as a UC Davis undergraduate student and worked on coat color projects. She now works as a Clinical Laboratory Assistance at the University of Southern California.
Megan Elcombe is working towards her veterinary degree at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Megan participated in the Students Training in Advanced Research (STAR) Program in 2021. She worked on a joint project between the Bellone and Finno laboratories to investigate the frequency of the genetic variant associated with Equine Familial Isolated Hypoparathyroidism (EFIH) in Thoroughbred Horses. She is also a recent recipient of the Ann T Bowling scholarship, awarded to outstanding veterinary students who have contributed to equine genetics. Her current interests are specifically in Thoroughbreds and Racetrack Medicine.
Moriel Singer-Berk completed a master's in Animal Biology at UC Davis in December 2018. As part of her thesis, she investigated risk factors for squamous cell carcinoma in multiple horse breeds (Singer-Berk et al., 2019). She is currently a clinical genomic variant curator at the Broad Institute.
Myles Hammond graduated from UC Davis with a master's in Genetics and Genomics. Myles is originally from Colorado. Before coming to Davis, he earned his bachelor's degree in Marine Science for the University of Tampa in 2019. He joined the Bellone research group in 2021, and shortly thereafter, he quickly found a passion for horses. His master's research contributed to studies on pigmentation.
Rayann Eaves is currently working towards her veterinary degree at Colorado State University, as well as working for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). She joined the laboratory during her junior year as an Animal Science undergraduate intern, and worked on projects related pigmentation genetics in alpacas.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Service, Forensics and Test Development
Dr. Grahn received his bachelor's degree in biology from University of California, Davis in 1991 and subsequently performed research for several years on feline immunodeficiency virus. He went on to earn his doctorate from the University of Idaho, Moscow where he studied the molecular systematics of South American rodents using transposable elements. After completion of his doctoral degree, Dr. Grahn returned to UC Davis and spent 14 years investigating inherited genetic diseases in cats. Dr. Grahn joined the VGL team in 2013, where he has assisted in the research and development of new test offerings for multiple species. He also works as an accredited Forensic analyst within the VGL-Forensics section and he mentors students in the Masters of Forensic science program at UC Davis. In 2018, he was appointed the Associate Director of Test Development; in this role Dr. Grahn leads the team that develops new tests and testing methodologies to enhance both the quality and breadth of tests offered across the diverse set of species tested at the VGL. In 2019, Dr. Grahn was appointed into the dual role of Associate Director of Service and Test Development, heading the Service section of the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory in addition to his role as test development lead. As of 2021, Dr. Grahn also directs the Forensics unit of the VGL. He and his team also collaborate with scientists at UC Davis and around the globe, to facilitate the advancement of important genetic discoveries. Dr. Grahn's own research efforts focus on the identification of novel genetic variants that can be used by animal owners, breeders, and veterinarians to make informed decisions regarding their animals.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Informatics and Engineering
Mr. Hughes began working at the VGL as a student in 1989 while studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He collaborated on a project using image processing and machine learning to classify antigen reaction images, a very repetitive task which was done manually at the time. With the advent of high volume genotyping using STR markers at the laboratory in the early 1990's, his focus moved to software integration and automating DNA analysis at VGL. He developed the software needed to analyze these data, known as the STRand program, and this was the subject of Mr. Hughes's master's thesis in Electrical Engineering.
Mr. Hughes joined VGL's leadership team in 1996, overseeing the Informatics and Engineering section of the unit and in 2012 was appointed the Associate Director of the Administrative and Information Technology where he supervised the members of these section, overseeing and implementing the business management plan. As of 2022, following the hire of our Chief Administrative Officer, Mr. Hughes is now able to fully focus on leading our Informatics and Engineering team.
Tiger eye is a dilute iris color found in Puerto Rican Paso Fino Horses. In contrast to the brown-colored eyes of most horses, "tiger eye" is characterized by a yellow, amber, or bright orange color. Researchers at the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory investigated the genetic basis of this phenotype and identified two variants in the gene SLC24A5 responsible for tiger eye, named Tiger eye 1 (TE1), in exon 2, and Tiger eye 2 (TE2), in exon 7. The tiger eye phenotype is inherited as a recessive trait. Horses with tiger eye are most frequently homozygous (two copies) for the TE1 variant (TE1/TE1). Some tiger eye horses are compound heterozygous (one copy each) for both variants (TE1/TE2). Horses with the genotype (TE2/TE2) are rare; the one documented case had a very light yellow/blue iris color. Brown-eyed horses can carry one copy of either TE1 or TE2 but they will also have one copy of the normal gene. Unlike the iris color dilution associated with the cream and champagne mutations, there does not appear to be a connection between tiger eye and dilute coat pigmentation. The tiger eye phenotype has been seen on all three non-dilute base coat colors (black, bay, and chestnut) and in both males and females. While to date TE1 and TE2 have only been detected in Puerto Rican Paso Finos, it is possible that these variants may explain lighter eye color in closely related breeds.