Education

• Post-doctorate, Swine Molecular Genetics, Iowa State University, 1999-2002
• Ph.D., Animal Breeding and Genetics, Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Bucharest, Romania, 1999
• B.S., Animal Science, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 1992

Teaching

ASCI 432/832: Genome Analysis
Summary: Theoretical and practical aspects of: structure and function of eukaryotic genomes; genome sequencing and assembling, polymorphism and isoform detection and genotyping; gene and genome annotation; strategies used to identify genetic variants responsible for phenotypic differences; and personalized genomics, social and ethical aspects associated with genomic information.

Research

The focus of my current studies is to understand genetic and mechanistic basis of viral disease susceptibility. The objectives of the research are to identify genes, genetic variants, and molecular pathways that explain the variation in susceptibility to Porcine Circovirus 2 and other swine viruses. We integrate refined-molecular phenotypes that define disease status, with large-scale genotyping, host and viral genome sequencing and infection models, to uncover genetic causality of susceptibility to infectious diseases.

Selected Publications

Walker LR, Vu HL, Montooth KL, Ciobanu DC. Functional and evolutionary analysis of host Synaptogyrin-2 in porcine circovirus type 2 susceptibility. PLoS Genet. 2023 Nov 27;19(11):e1011029. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011029. 

Sutton KM, Eaton CW, Borza T, Burkey TE, Mote BE, Loy JD, Ciobanu DC. Genetic Diversity and Detection of Atypical Porcine Pestivirus Infections. J Anim Sci. 2022 Jan 1;100(1):skab360. doi: 10.1093/jas/skab360. 

Wijesena HR, Kachman SD, Lents CA, Riethoven JJ, Trenhaile-Grannemann MD, Safranski TJ, Spangler ML, Ciobanu DC. Fine mapping genetic variants associated with age at puberty and sow fertility using SowPro90 genotyping array. J Anim Sci. 2020 Oct 1;98(10):skaa293. doi: 10.1093/jas/skaa293. PMID: 32888012. 

Walker LR, Jobman EE, Sutton KM, Wittler J, Johnson R, Ciobanu DC. Genome-wide association analysis for Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus susceptibility traits in two genetic populations of pigs. J Anim Sci. 2019, May 31 doi:10.1093/jas/skz184. 

Walker LR, Engle TB, Vu H, Tosky ER, Nonneman DJ, Smith TPL, Borza T, Burkey TE, Plastow GS, Kachman SD, Ciobanu DC. Synaptogyrin-2 influences replication of Porcine circovirus 2. PLoS Genet. 2018 Oct 31;14(10):e1007750. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1007750. eCollection 2018 Oct. PubMed PMID: 30379811. 

Walker LR, Tosky ER, Sutton KM, Griess R, Abebe MD, Barnes SY, Cunnigham T, Kachman SD, Nielsen MK, Ciobanu DC. A 16.7kb deletion in Sipa1l3 is associated with juvenile cataract in mice. Mamm Genome. 2017 Dec;28(11-12):515-519. doi: 10.1007/s00335-017-9720-9. Epub 2017 Sep 26. PubMed PMID: 28951961.

Additional publications can be found here.