Dr Almas Gheyas

Lecturer in Aquaculture Production Scien

Institute of Aquaculture Stirling

Dr Almas Gheyas

Research (1)

My research interests lie primarily in employing genetic and genomic approaches for sustainable improvement of production, health and welfare traits of farm animal species. I use diverse methods including interdisciplinary approaches to study climate resilience, disease resistance, and production performance in aquaculture and livestock species. Through years of research, I have gained a diverse set of skills including bioinformatic analysis of high throughput genomic data, quantitative genetics, molecular genetics, and landscape genomics. I am an alumna of the Institute of Aquaculture (IOA) where I undertook my PhD research on "Applications of microsatellite markers to genetic management of carps in aquaculture". After my PhD, I joined The Roslin Institute of the University of Edinburgh and for the first three years served as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Associate in a salmon breeding company - Landcatch Natural Selection Ltd. (currently part of Hendrix Genetics) – to apply marker-assisted selection for IPN resistance in their Atlantic salmon breeding stock. Since then I have worked on other species, particularly poultry. My research on aquaculture has included species from tropical and temperate climates and have implications for promoting sustainable aquaculture in both developing and developed countries. After working for nearly 12 years as a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, I have joined IOA as a Lecturer in April 2022. I have supervised several PhD and MSc students to successful completion and would welcome new students.

Research programmes