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Professor Mike Bruford FLSW

Professor Mike Bruford

FLSW

Dean for Environmental Sustainability, Co-director Sustainable Places Research Institute

Email
brufordmw@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)29 2087 4312
Fax:
+44 (0)29 2087 4116
Campuses
Sir Martin Evans Building, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX
Comment
Media commentator
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I am a molecular ecologist interested in studying the demographic and evolutionary processes affecting populations, species and ecosystems of conservation concern. We focus on understanding the determinants of genomic diversity, population structure and fitness across species and at a variety of spatio-temporal scales, including studying the behaviour and movements of individuals within their breeding territories, examining how demography and social structure interact with genetic diversity in fragmented ecosystems, through to understanding the partitioning of genomic diversity in species with high vagility and continent-wide ranges. We focus our projects on trying to understand basic evolutionary processes but we place substantial emphasis on provision of data and recommendations to management authorities for action and policy development.

Our work includes wild and domestic species, including livestock breeds, for which demographic history is often well understood and where genome resources are abundant. We use methods from forensic DNA profiling through to whole genome sequencing and integrate these data with environmental data and genealogical and stochastic population modelling in an effort to provide comprehensive information for biodiversity management and conservation. Much of our work is carried out in collaboration with applied conservation organisations, including the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Bristol Zoological Society, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the Ryeland and Lleyn Sheep Societies. We also work directly within and in collaboration with the IUCN Species Survival Commission, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and Welsh Government.

I am also Dean for Environmental Sustainability with University-wide remit for helping the University achieve its plans steeming from our climate emergency declaration in 2019, including our drive towards carbon net zero status for Scopes 1 and 2 by 2030 for for Scope 3 as soon as possible thereafter. In 2020 our team produced the University's first climate emergency white paper and Ecosystem Resilience and Biodiversity Action Plan (ERBAP).

Biography

I did my PhD at the University of Leicester on the development of DNA fingerprinting techniques in birds and genome mapping in chickens using minisatellite DNA markers between 1986 and 1990. Between 1990 and 1999 I worked as a postdoctoral research associate, research fellow and then Head of Conservation Genetics at the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London. I joined Cardiff University in 1999 and led the Organisms and Environment Division between 2010 and 2015. I am currently a co-Director of the University's Sustainable Places Research Institute, where I am involved in a variety of projects linking natural and social sciences in place-based sustainability research.

I am on the editorial boards of Conservation Genetics Resources, Frontiers in Genetics, Integrative Zoology and Endangered Species Research. I have previously served on the editorial review board for Molecular Ecology and was a founding editor for the journal Animal Conservation. I served as Editor-in-Chief of Heredity between 2012 and 2016

Honours and awards

I was awarded the Zoological Society of London's Scientific Medal in 2003, was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales in 2010 and I was a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holder (2012-2016). I am co-Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's Conservation Genetics Specialist Group (2015-2020).

I was elected a member of the Academia Europaea and received the Marsh Award for Conservation Biology (Zoological Society of London) in 2020. I was given the Chimelong Award for foreign scientists for services to zoology in China (China Zoological Society) in 2021. I was appointed an Extraordinary Professor at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Biochemistry at the University of Pretoria in 2020.

Publications

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  • Bruford, M. W., Burke, T., Hanoote, O. and Smiley, M. B. 1990. Hypervariable markers in the chicken genome. Presented at: 4th World Congress on Genetics applied to Livestock Production, Edinburgh, Scotland, 23-27 July 1990 Presented at Hill, W. G., Thompson, R. and Woolliams, J. A. eds.Proceedings of the 4th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production : Edinburgh, 23-27 July, 1990, Vol. XIII. Edinburgh: Organising Committee, 4th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production pp. 139-142.

1989

1987

Teaching

I teach a large portion of the Biodiversity and Conservation Biology module (third year biological sciences - BI3154) and participate in the Rainforest Biodiversity Assessment field course we run at Danau Girang Field Centre at the end of Year 2 in Biological Sciences. I also teach on the MSc in Global Ecology and Biodiversity (conservation biology and sustainable development).

My research focuses on the application of molecular genetics and genomics to the conservation of endangered species and livestock in an era of anthropogenic environmental change. We try to understand how genetic diversity evolves in small populations, the role that local adaptation and climate change plays in this evolution and its consequence for conservation biology and management. Research in this field must be collaborative and our projects are based in countries including China (collaborators: Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Malaysia (Danau Girang Field Centre, Sabah Wildlife Department) and South Africa (Universities of Pretoria and Venda, National Zoological Gardens of South Africa).

Our most recent work has focused on the use of genomic data to understand and predict population responses under climate change, for example we recently published an article in Nature on population genomics of Arctic breeding peregrine falcons (Gu et al 2021, Nature 591: 259-264).

I am also interested in zoological biobanking for conservation and research and have been a Trustee and now Director of the Frozen Ark project (www.frozenark.org) and we recently have been awarded funding from the BBSRC's BBR program to establish a UK-wide zoological biobank for research and conservation, called CryoArks (2018 - 2021 - https://www.cryoarks.org).

Current Projects

Cryoarks

BBSRC BBR funded project led by Cardiff University (Mike Bruford with Mafalda Costa) to establish a zoological biobanking network for the UK. Partners including the Natural History Museum (Co-Is Aidan Emery and Tim Littlewood with Jackie Mackenzie Dodds and Kirsty Lloyd), the National Museums of Scotland (Co-I Andrew Kitchener with Gill Murray-Dickson), Nottingham University (Co-I Lisa Yon), Edinburgh University (Co-I Rob Ogden) and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (WildGenes lab, Edinburgh Zoo, Helen Senn also with Gill Murray Dickson). Our project has the backing and involvement of the European Association and the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums and from many museums and many universities and research institutes around the UK. We aim to double the UK collection of zoological specimens in three years and to make these discoverable for conservation and research using the Specify database system (http://www.sustain.specifysoftware.org) and to provide the underpinning frozen infrastructure to sustainably and responsibly manage these resources into the future. Our website will be available in January 2019. Project runs 1/7/2018 - 31/3/2022.

G-Bike

G-Bike is a COST action project (CA18134), coordinated by Dr Cristiano Vernesi (Fundazione Edmund Mach, Trento, Italy) that builds on our ConGRESS project (see below) to provide a framework for the introduction and utilisation of genomic data into conservation management strategies and actions across Europe. Cardiff (Prof Mike Bruford) is one of the UK's two Management Committee members. The project will run from April 2019 - March 2024.

Recent Projects

Climgen

The Climgen project (Climate Genomics for Farm Animal Adaptation - https://climgen.bios.cf.ac.uk) was led by Cardiff University (Mike Bruford, Pablo Orozco-terWengel, Isa-Rita Russo) and ran from 2015 - 2018 funded as a Coordination and Support Action project by the European Commission. The project focuses on the development of tools and analysis of existing data for livestock populations experiencing climatic extremes across Eurasia and the tropics. The project has partners in Italy (Licia Colli, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Piacenza and Filipo Biscarini, Parco Tecnologico di Padano), Romania (Agriculture and Veterinary University of Cluj Napoca, Augustin Vlaic, Antonia Odagiu, Bogdan Vlaic), Finland (LUKE, Juha Kantanen, Kisun Pokharel, Ismo Stranden), Spain (Complutense University of Madrid, Susana Dunner, Javier Canon, Natalia Sevane - who was a Marie Curie Fellow in Cardiff at the same time on the project AdaptClim) and France (Francois Pompanon).

Congress

As part of out policy and management activities, we coordinated an EU Framework 7 Support Action Project ConGRESS which provides genetic information in a user-friendly and well-used web portal (http://www.congressgenetics.eu/Default.aspx) to policy-makers and biodiversity managers across the European Union. The project involved 13 partners across the EU and end-users from 19 countries, whose input guided the development of the portal during 2012 and 2013. The website is still active and is providing a template for a number of similar initiatives.

Nextgen

As conservation is becoming more focused on genome-level analysis, whole genome-based population and evolutionary genetic analysis is now routinely used in conservation programs. We participated in the Nextgen Framework 7 project (http://nextgen.epfl.ch/), coordinated by Prof Pierre Taberlet, Universite Grenoble-Alpes and our research focused on genome-wide analysis of local adaptation in Moroccan sheep, systematically sampled across an extreme environmental gradient (temperature, rainfall) north and south of the Atlas mountains.

Falcon Genome project

Our long-term project on falcon genomics involves collaboration with the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing (Prof Xiangjiang Zhan), the Abu Dhabi Falconer's Club (Dr Andrew Dixon). Cardiff University and IoZ have a joint laboratory on biocomplexity research and Mike Bruford was a President's International Fellow, spending three months in Beijing in 2018.

Peregrine and Saker falcon genome resources:

Note: if required please use username 'nopriv' and password 'bruford' to access the above downloads.

Grants

Our work has been supported by:

  • The Royal Society
  • The European Commission
  • The Environment Agency Abu Dhabi
  • The Leverhulme Trust
  • NERC
  • BBSRC

Collaborations

Examples within the School and University include:

  • Dr Pablo Orozco terWengel: livestock genomics, population genetics of endangered species (Ryland Sheep Society, Durrell, Zoological Society of London, PhD students Jody Leigh Edmunds, Dan Pitt)
  • Dr Frank Hailer: carnivore landscape genetics and genomics (PhD student Nia Thomas, MRes student Will Littlejohn)
  • Dr Benoit Goossens: conservation genetics and landscape management of the Kinabtangan Wildlife Sanctuary (PhD students Senthilvel Nathan and Juan Manual Aguilar Leon, Danau Girang Field Centre)
  • Prof Susan Baker (Sustainable Places Research Institute), Dr TC Hales (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences), Dr Leanne Cullen-Unsworth, Dr Poppy Nicol: resilience in coupled natural-social systems

Other external examples include:

  • Prof Tamas Szekely (University of Bath): Landscape genetics of wetland birds (PhD student Josie Jackson)
  • Professor Fuwen Wei (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Zoology): Landscape genetics of giant pandas (PhD student Tianxiao Ma).
  • Dr Grainne McCabe (Bristol Zoo): conservation genetics of the Sanje Mangabey, Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania (PhD student Christina Paddock)
  • Prof Yoshan Moodley (University of Venda) and Prof Love Dalen (Swedish Museum of Natural History): Population and conservation genomics of the black rhinoceros (Dr Isa Rita Russo)

Research group

PDRAs/Fellows

  • Dr Mafalda Costa (CryoArks project)
  • Dr Maria Joana Ferreira da Silva (FCT funded Conservation genomics of west African primates)

PhD Students

  • Isa Pais (FCT with Dr Tania Minhos, New University of Lisbon - chimpanzee and colobine dietary diversity in Sierra Leone and Guine Bissau)
  • Paul Robinson (self-funded, with Dr Rob Thomas - avian diversity as a function of protected area status in northern Sierra Leone)
  • Marina Ramon (Exeter, co-supervised with Kim Hockings and Camille Bonneaud) NERC GW4+
  • Daniel Osmond (Exeter, co-supervised with Jamie Stevens) NERC FRESH CDT
  • Kees Wanders (Bath 2019 – 2022, co-supervised with Tamas Szekely and Araxi Urrutia) NERC GW4+
  • Ivo Costeira (FCT with Dr Joana Silva - conservation genetics of Guinea Bissau primates)

Supervision

Conservation Biology

Genomics

Evolutionary Biology

Livestock genetics

Population genetics

Current supervision

alt

Isa Gameiro Aleixo Pais

Research student

alt

Nina White

Research student

Nia Thomas

Nia Thomas

Research student

Paul Robinson

Research student

Past projects

I have supervised or co-supervised a total of 56 PhD students to completion. Most recently, these have included those funded via the NERC GW4+ Doctoral Training Program (Josie Jackson - project on Madagascan jacanas with Bath University), The Cardiff University President's studentship scheme (Hannah Macdonald - project on freshwater macroinvertebrate diversity), NERC's iCASE program (Dave Stanton - project on okapi conservation genetics with ZSL) and the Sardinian government's Master and Back scheme (Mario Barbato and Pierfrancesco Sechi - projects on Sardinian mouflon genomics and earthworm phylogeography, respectively).

Engagement

I am academic lead for the Wales Biodiversity Partnership's Biodiversity Ecosystem Evidence Research Needs program and regularly serve on grant panels in the UK (NERC), Finland (Finnish Academy) and for the European Commission (Horizon 2020).

I served as one of three Chairs for NERC Panel C between 2018 and 2020. I serve on the Future Earth BioGENESIS/EvolvES steering committee (appointed 2016). I am one of the University’s nominated members of the GW4 Climate Alliance and co-lead the Climate and Health theme.

Areas of expertise

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External profiles

Research links