Miguel Pérez-Enciso

Miguel Pérez-Enciso

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Life & Medical Sciences

I am a Biologist and obtained my PhD in 1990 in Genetics (Universidad Complutense, Madrid). After that I moved to the USA and France during three years to carry out post doctoral studies, specializing in Bayesian Statistics applied to Animal Breeding and Quantitative Genetics. I worked at the Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentaria (IRTA) from 1993 - 1999 and at INRA (Toulouse, France) from 1999 til 2003, when I became an ICREA Research Professor. I am also part-time professor in Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona, based at Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) on UAB campus. Currently on leave.

Research interests

Most of the genes that are of socioeconomic importance, e.g., genes affecting disease susceptibility or that makes Iberian pig meat taste good, are very difficult to find because they are influenced by many genes of small effect. My main area of research is to develop statistical and computational tools that help us to identify and utilize these genes in breeding programs. I participated in the consortium leading to the publication of the pig genome sequence (Nature, 2012) and I am responsible for the first genome sequence of an ancient pig, and of the first Iberian pig genome. My current interests include the application of machine learning technologies to genomics in livestock, humans and plants, the use of sequence data for genomic selection, and software development.

Selected publications

- Gianola D, Cantet RJ, Dekkers JCM & Pérez-Enciso M 2022, 'Rohan Fernando: a road from Sri Lanka to Ames', Genetics Selection Evolution, 54, 1, 9.

- Zingaretti LM, Monfort A & Perez-Enciso M 2022, 'Automatic Fruit Morphology Phenome and Genetic Analysis: An Application in the Octoploid Strawberry (vol 2021, pg 1, 2021)', Plant Phenomics, 2022, 9873618.

- Vourlaki IT, Castanera R, Ramos-Onsins SE, Casacuberta JM & Pérez-Enciso M 2022, 'Transposable element polymorphisms improve prediction of complex agronomic traits in rice', Theoretical And Applied Genetics, 135(9), 3211-3222.