Dr Laercio Porto Neto

Current Roles

• Team Leader Animal Genomics, Livestock & Aquaculture
  Lead the management, and support activites of the team on dry and web labs.

• Project Leader
  Natural selection eats domestication for breakfast (2022-2025)

• Project Leader
  Towards sex selection in livestock production: from biological discovery to applied genetics (2023-2026)

• Project Team Member (Activity Lead - Livestock Applications)
  Unlocking the genetic potential of animals through Precision Breeding (Genome Engineering) Technologies (2022- )

• Project Leader
  Bull fertility update: historical data, new cohort and advanced genomics (2019 – 2021; still with ongoing activities).

Academic Qualifications

Professional Experiences

• 2019-present

  Senior Research Scientist
  CSIRO

• 2017-2019

  Research Scientist
  CSIRO

• 2013-2017

  Postdoctoral Fellow
  CSIRO

• 2011-2012

  Postdoct Fellow
  University of New England, Armidale

Other highlights

• 2023--

  Invited talk: Northern Beef Research Update Conference (NBRUC), Darwin (2023) Using genomics to select non-pedigree cattle for bull fertility traits.

• 2023--

  Invited talk: 25th Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics (AAABG), Perth, Australia (2023) Translating multibreed genomic predictions of bull fertility traits into on-farm selection.

• 2023--

  Invited talk: Cutting Edge Symposium on Precision Genome Engineering, Sydney, Australia (2023) Commercial Application of Precision Genome Engineering (PGE) in Livestock and Aquaculture.

• 2021--

  Invited talk: Associacao Brasileira dos Criadores de Bovinos das Racas Wagyu (Brazilian Society of Breeders of Wagyu), Passo Fundo, Brazil (2021) Genomic evaluation of Wagyu in Australia.

• 2021--

  Invited talk: The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, Philippines (2021) Impact of Gene Technology in Animal Agriculture and Food Production – State of Biotech Research and Development in Livestock (cattle).

• 2019--

  Invited talk: 37th Conference for the International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG), Lleida, Spain. The effect of allele ancestry on production traits of tropical composite cattle.

• 2019--

  Invited talk: University of Melbourne, Animal Welfare Science Centre, Melbourne, Australia (2019) Advanced biotechnologies to improve the welfare of farm animals.

• 2018--

  Invited talk: Yangling International Agri-Science Forum, Yangling, China (2018) Combining reproductive and genomic technologies for maximum genetic improvement in beef cattle.

• 2018--

  Invited talk: Symposium of Reproduction and Genetics, Campo Grande, Brazil (2018) Combining reproductive biotechnology to genomics for animal improvement.

• 2018--

  Invited talk: 8th Symposium on Applied Animal Reproduction, Londrina, Brazil (2018) Beef production in Australia, from management to genomic evaluation.

• 2018--

  Invited talk: 11th World Congress of Genetics Applied to Livestock Production (WCGALP), Auckland, New Zealand (2018) Closing the gap on genomic technologies applied to tropical beef cattle.

• 2017--

  Invited talk: 22nd Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics (AAABG), Townsville, Australia (2017) Breed composition effects and genetic parameters for productivity of tropical beef cattle.

• 2016--

  Invited talk: 35th Conference for the International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG), Salt Lake City, USA (2016) The effect of selection over years on breed composition in tropical composite cattle.

• 2016--

  Invited talk: Regulatory Oversight of Products Developed Through New Breeding Techniques (NBTs), Brisbane, Australia (2016) Current applications of NBTs in animal science.

• 2015--

  Invited talk: 21st Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics (AAABG), Lorne, Australia (2015) Missing heritability of adaptation phenotypes of tropical cattle.

• 2015--

  Invited talk: 5th international workshop: genomics applied to cattle production – beef chain production, Aracatuba, Brazil (2015) Applied genomics in cattle production in Australia: myth or reality?

• 2015

  Invited talk: XXIII Plant and Animal Genome Conference (PAG), San Diego, USA. Systems Biology Approach to Prioritize SNP and Genes Affecting Fertility in Tropical Beef Cattle.

Grants

• 2020-ongoing

  HeiferSELECT, SteerSELECT, ImmuneDEX - collaborative project with Angus Australia. Project Team Member.

• 2021-ongoing

  Wagyu Feeder Check - Collaborative project with the Australian Wagyu Association. Project Team Member.

• 2023-2026

  A&F Winaga-y Postdoctoral Fellow - Towards sex selection in livestock production: from biological discovery to applied genetics. Project Leader

• 2022-2025

  CSIRO ResearchPlus Postdoctoral Fellow - Natural selection eats domestication for breakfast. Project Leader

• 2019-2022

  CSIRO ResearchPlus Postdoctoral Fellow - The weakest link – using genomics to lift the productivity of Australia’s northern rangeland beef herds. Project Co-Leader.

• 2018-2021

  CRC NA - Tropical beef genotypes to suit modern meat markets (being contracted)

• 2018-2021

  Meat & Livestock Australia - Female Reproduction Phenobank and Validation Herds (being contracted)

• 2018-2019

  CSIRO Strategic Investment - Improving bio-prediction in animals using DNA pools and low-density chips informed by regulatory regions.

• 2018-2020

  Meat & Livestock Australia - Improving the Australian Poll Gene Marker Test

• 2018-2018

  Meat & Livestock Australia - In silico analyses: Angus performance in the tropics. (being contracted). Partner Investigator.

• 2018-2018

  SME Connect - Data analyses for Rennylea Angus Stud herd

• 2017-2019

  ResearchPlus Postdoctoral Fellow - Animal Genome to Phenome. Partner Investigator (unofficial mentor)..

• 2014-2016

  Accelerate Partnership Program - Breeding optimal Queensland beef cattle

Community and Corporate Citizenship

• 2022--

  A&F Vacation Students Program, Committee member

• 2020-2023

  Journal of Animal Science. Associate Editor.

• 2019-2021

  CSIRO Queensland Animal Ethics Committee. Member.

• 2016-2021

  Ruminant Genetics and Genomics, International Society for Animal Genetics Conferences. Workshop Chair.