Animal health and physiology
The group has long-standing interests in farm animal physiology and health, with a current focus on immune function and long term interests in growth and muscle development. We are characterising these systems at the molecular and cellular level, with a focus on understanding regulation of gene expression. We are currently focusing on leveraging single cell omics to resolve the cell-specific basis for animal health traits. While mainly working on fish, at the Roslin Institute we also work on other farmed species, including cattle and chicken.
Representative recent papers:
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Phadwal K, Haggarty J, Kurian D, Aguilar Marti J, Sun J, Houston, RD, Betancor MB, MacRae VE, Whitfield PD, Macqueen DJ. 2025. Rapamycin induced autophagy enhances lipid breakdown and ameliorates lipotoxicity in Atlantic salmon cells. BBA Mol Cell Biol Lipids. 1870: 159636. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbalip.2025.159636.
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Sun J, Borowska D, Furniss JJ, Sutton K, Macqueen DJ*, Lonneke Vervelde*. 2025. Cellular landscape of avian intestinal organoids revealed by single cell transcriptomics. Sci. Rep. 15(1):11362. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-95721-4. * Equal senior author position and shared correspondence.
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Sun J, Ruiz Daniels R, Balic A, Andresen AMS, Bjørgen H, Dobie R, Henderson NC, Koppang EO, Martin SAM, Fosse JH, Taylor RS, Macqueen DJ. 2024. Cell atlas of the Atlantic salmon spleen reveals immune cell heterogeneity and cell-specific responses to bacterial infection. Fish Shellfish Immunol. 109358. doi: 10.1016/j.fsi.2024.109358.
Daniels RR, Taylor RT, Robledo D, Macqueen DJ. 2023. Single cell genomics as a transformative approach for aquaculture research and innovation. Reviews in Aquaculture. https://doi.org/10.1111/raq.12806