Dr Brian Dalrymple, research leader in systems and computational biology.

Dr Brian Dalrymple: bioinformatics expert

Dr Brian Dalrymple’s research focuses on identifying and utilising genes, gene networks and biochemical pathways important to product quality characteristics of livestock.

• 1 November 2007 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities 
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Dalrymple leads the Systems and Computational Biology research team at CSIRO Livestock Industries, based at the Queensland Bioscience Precinct in Brisbane, Australia.

His research interests include:

• development of genomics resources
• assembly of genome sequences, primarily cow and sheep genomes
• development of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) resources
• non-coding RNAs
• comparative genomics of mammals.

Dr Dalrymple is a key member of the International Sheep Genomics Consortium, contributing with leadership, scientific expertise and research tools.  

He is also involved in research using genome sequences and gene expression data to understand the development of muscle structure and function.

His research aims to identify and utilise genes, gene networks, biochemical pathways and biological systems to improve the product quality characteristics of livestock.

Background

Dr Dalrymple undertook postdoctoral work at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland, studying mobile genetic elements.

In 1985 he joined CSIRO, initially working in Sydney within a group developing vaccines for bovine footrot.

He moved to Brisbane in 1987, joining a CSIRO team working to develop a vaccine against the cattle tick, Babesia bovis.

Dr Dalrymple was involved in building a dedicated high performance computing facility for CSIRO, a resource that has been used to develop the necessary bioinformatics support for related research projects within CSIRO Livestock Industries, such as the annotation of the bovine genome.

He has been a key participant in the cattle and sheep genome international sequencing consortia.  

Academic qualifications

Dr Dalrymple has been awarded a:

• Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry at the University of Bristol, UK
• Doctor of Philosophy in Genetics from the University of Leicester, UK.

His doctoral research was on plasmid-borne DNA replication enzymes.

Achievements

Dr Dalrymple has published more than 65 scientific articles.

Dr Dalrymple was a leader of the Livestock Genomics Team, which in 2010 was awarded the CSIRO Chairman’s Medal for leadership of the international Bovine Genome Sequencing Consortium and scientific contributions dedicated to decoding of the cattle genome. In 2009, this project culminated in a milestone publication (Science 324: 522–28).

Read more about CSIRO Livestock Industries.