Irish biotech venture Equinome, set to launch commercially in 2010, is developing genetic tests to optimize decision-making in the breeding and racing of thoroughbred horses. Although thoroughbred horse breeding is an international, multi-billion-euro business with more than 100,000 thoroughbred foals registered globally each year, breeding techniques have remained relatively unchanged for hundreds of years. Breeders combine successful bloodlines and hope the resulting foal will contain the same winning combination of genes. Until now, breeders could only determine whether those winning genes had been inherited by observing the racing and breeding success of the horse over a period of three to seven years after its birth. Equinome seeks to improve those odds by providing genetic tests for performance-associated genes in thoroughbred horses. The company — founded this year by Emmeline Hill, a horse genomics researcher in the School of Agriculture, Food Science, and Veterinary Medicine at University College Dublin, in partnership with Irish racehorse trainer Jim Bolger — was recognized as the winner of the 14th NovaUCD Campus Company Development Program. NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre, is responsible for commercializing IP from UCD research programs.
Source: Business & Leadership