Samodha Fernando

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Samodha Fernando

Professor Animal Science University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Contact

Address
ANSC C220k
Lincoln, NE 68583-0908
Phone
402-472-0518 On-campus 2-0518
Email
samodha@unl.edu

Dr. Fernando's research interests are in understanding microbial structure-function relationships to improve human and animal nutrition. To this end, I am intersted in 1) understanding the role of the microbial food chain in methanogenesis and other metabolic disorders in ruminants; 2) developing new animal models to study structure-function relationships in the human microbiome; 3) understanding the influence of host-genotype, gut microbiota and environment towards pathogen colonization in humans and livestock; and 4) uncovering the gut virome in ruminants and non-ruminants.

Areas of Expertise

Featured Publications

Duar, R. M., S. A. Frese, X. B. Lin, S. C. Fernando, T. E. Burkey, G. Tasseva, D. A. Peterson, J. Blom, C. Q. Wenzel and C. M. Szymanski (2017). "Experimental evaluation of host adaptation of Lactobacillus reuteri to different vertebrate species." Applied and environmental microbiology 83(12): e00132-00117.

Abbas, W., J. T. Howard, H. A. Paz, K. E. Hales, J. E. Wells, L. A. Kuehn, G. E. Erickson, M. L. Spangler and S. C. Fernando (2020). "Influence of host genetics in shaping the rumen bacterial community in beef cattle." Scientific reports 10(1): 15101.

Aluthge, N. D., W. A. Tom, A. C. Bartenslager, T. E. Burkey, P. S. Miller, K. D. Heath, C. Kreikemeier-Bower, H. Kittana, R. J. Schmaltz and A. E. Ramer-Tait, S. C. Fernando (2020). "Differential longitudinal establishment of human fecal bacterial communities in germ-free porcine and murine models." Communications biology 3(1): 760.

Anderson, C. L. and S. C. Fernando (2021). "Insights into rumen microbial biosynthetic gene cluster diversity through genome-resolved metagenomics." Communications biology 4(1): 818.

Anderson, C. L., M. B. Sullivan and S. C. Fernando (2017). "Dietary energy drives the dynamic response of bovine rumen viral communities." Microbiome 5(1): 155.