Paul Strothard

Position: Professor

Institution: Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta

Role with AMR - One Health Consortium: Co-Investigator

Dr. Paul Stothard received a Ph.D. in genetics and molecular biology from the University of Alberta, where as a postdoc he helped develop several popular bioinformatics resources, including the DrugBank and HMBD databases, and the CGView genome viewer, which have each been cited in thousands of studies. Now a full professor at the U of A, Dr. Stothard leads a team of bioinformaticians who analyze and interpret huge DNA sequence, genotype, and gene expression datasets from a diverse range of species. These efforts have contributed to three publications in Nature Genetics, have helped to identify causative variants affecting a variety of traits in animals, and have led to new genomics tools for animal breeding. His group also developed a popular collection of microbial genome analysis software tools that are widely used to investigate bacterial genome function and evolution, and which are being adapted by his team to support genomics-based diagnostics for prudent antimicrobial use in cattle feedlots. Dr. Stothard has led or co-led several large-scale research projects, including two Genome Canada-funded Large-Scale Applied Research Projects. He has authored 94 peer-reviewed articles, is an associate editor of BMC Genomics, and was a member of the board of the Bioinformatics Organization (2005-2014). His students and staff have gone on to work in industry (IBM, The Maschhoffs, Geneseeq Technology, and Electronic Arts), academia (US, Canada, and China), and government (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Government of Alberta). In addition to working as a professor Dr. Stothard consults for a variety of companies in Canada and the US that are using or developing genomics technologies in the agricultural sector.

Key Areas of Expertise: Bioinformatics, Genomics, Molecular Genetics, Livestock