I would like to thank the Pastoral Breeds Health Board very much for supporting the TNS research and providing the funding that supports my part of the work with a scholarship. It will allow me to concentrate more on the research and less on the business of finding food and shelter.
A little bit about myself: I am a 23 year old PhD student at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, originally from the north coast of New South Wales in Australia. I did a B.Sc and in 2005 started working on TNS for my Honours research year. During that time I have gathered the samples to facilitate the research and identify the gene involved in TNS.
When I finish my PhD I think I will continue in the field of genetic diseases and possibly move onto human genetic disease. However, working on the dog genome has given me an interest in the genetics of behavioural and physical characteristics. Dogs are the single greatest example of selective breeding for physical characteristics and behaviours giving huge potential for research into the genes responsible for characteristics such as aggression, body size, curiosity and intelligence to name just a few, which would be interesting areas to research.
Having never travelled outside of Australia before, travel is pretty high on my list of things to do when I finish my PhD, or hopefully earlier if I get an opportunity to travel to an international conference, where scientists meet and share ideas. I consider myself lucky to have found Trapped Neutrophil Syndrome as a project for my PhD and hope to have it solved by the end of this year. It would not be possible without the support of all the Border Collie clubs and their members. The willingness of breeders to come forward and confront this disease has revealed a problem more extensive than anyone imagined. With continued support and openness by breeders about this disease we will be able to test for carriers so that breeders can avoid matings which could produce affected pups and through a slow process of selective breeding remove the disease from the population entirely.
Jeremy Shearman
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