In our series “Who is…?” we introduce you to all of our team members.

Mirjam Spengeler

• I started working for Qualitas as a geneticist in 2017. However at that time I had been working in the office rooms from Qualitas already for 2 years. At that time I did a PostDoc at HAFL in collaboration with Qualitas.
• I studied Biology at the University of Bern where I obtained a Master in Molecular Life Sciences in 2012. Already during my master thesis I was confronted with SNP data. I was able to identify a variant that causes disprotionate Dwarfism in Labrador Retrievers, which enabled a gene test.
• For my PhD at the University of Bern I changed Species from dog to horses and from mainly SNP data to whole genome sequence data. For this project I worked with breeding values fort he first time.
• In 2015 I could start a PostDoc at the HAFL. The project entitled Swiss LowInput Genetics (SLIG). As this project was in close collaboration with Qualitas at that time I started working from Zug. Finally when the project ended I could stay at Qualitas.
• For my working in breeding value estimation is very interesting. I enjoy especially the work with the huge amount of data coming from SNP Data and even more from whole genome sequence data. I could also start working on various topics. I like the flexibility I have during work and the collaboration with the team.
• Together with my husband, I live in the canton Lucerne, on a farm. We have suckler cows and sows. Furthermore we have some alpacas, a couple of peacocks and some chickens. The first one were Appenzeller Barthühner which I had received as a goodbye present for my job at HAFL. In summer we also rear silkworms. For this interesting project I am also in the management board of swiss silk.