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Benchmark Genetics announces new director of innovation

December 14, 2021  By RAStech Editorial Staff


Professor Ross Houston. Photo: Benchmark Genetics

Benchmark Genetics (BG) has announced that affective on Mar. 1, 2022, professor Ross Houston will join the company as director of innovation, genetics. Currently, Houston holds the role of personal chair of aquaculture genetics at The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, where he leads the aquaculture genetics team, and is also the Institute’s deputy director for translation and commercialization.

In this new position, Houston will lead BG’s strategic development of innovation and research and development (R&D). Additionally, he will develop and lead internal and external collaborative projects, including harnessing synergies on innovation across the field of genetics, health, and nutrition within the Benchmark Group, as a member of the Benchmark cross-divisional Innovation Board.

Furthermore, the role will involve product development for the company’s in-house breeding programs in salmon, shrimp, and tilapia, and will also assist in expanding the portfolio of external clients for the applied genetics consultancy service.

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Houston began his career in salmon genetics in 2004, in a postdoc position at Roslin. Since then, he has become well-known in the aquaculture genetics and animal breeding communities, building an international reputation in the field as he discovered a major QTL association with resistance to Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis in 2008. These findings still remain as an example of using genetics to help control disease and improve health.

Houston has lead numerous high-profile international aquaculture research projects that have focused on application of genomics and genome editing technologies to improve disease resistance.


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