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Dr Nick Hudson

Senior Lecturer in Biochem & Met

School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability
Faculty of Science
n.hudson@uq.edu.au
+61 7 54601 521

Overview

Nick is interested in fostering efficient, environmentally friendly animal production enterprises using the data and capabilities provided by modern 'omics technologies. He has a parallel interest in the development, physiology, metabolism and conservation of native Australian species, particularly frogs and butterflies.

Nick is a metabolic biochemist with research expertise in a) the handling and biological interpretation of large, complex data sets b) molecular technologies c) mitochondrial physiology and d) metabolic flux.

Nick enjoys teaching various aspects of biochemistry and molecular biology to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, illustrating the main themes using the comparative method.

Before taking his current position as a Teaching and Research academic in the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability (AGFS) Nick worked for the CSIRO in a research intensive multi-disciplinary Systems Biology group. Through this group he helped develop and apply bioinformatic methods that used metabolite, protein, RNA and DNA biotech to understand, model and predict phenotypes of commercial importance in cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens.

Following an undergraduate degree in Animal Biology at the University of St.Andrews, Nick was awarded his PhD through what was then the Zoology department of the University of Queensland, after travelling from England on a Britain-Australia Society funded Northcote Scholarship.

Research Interests

  • Mitochondrial physiology
  • Functional genomics
  • Metabolism
  • Flux analysis
  • Agricultural resource utilisation
  • Wildlife biology of butterflies and frogs

Research Impacts

Nick is an active science communicator whose research has been disseminated through print, radio and television media.

He hopes to make an impact on agricultural resource utilisation through a better understanding of production animal feed efficiency, and to sustainable agriculture through an understanding of agro-ecology and wildlife biology.

Nick has a very active national and international network of collaborators from academe, government agencies and industry.

This collaborative network has provided stimulating insights into industrial problems and how novel technologies and innovative concepts may inspire creative solutions.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland

Publications

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Grants

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Supervision

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Available Projects

  • The interface between genomes and diet in ruminant farm animals

    Global population growth is placing increasing demands on the agriculture sector to produce greater amounts of food more efficiently. Livestock products provide a nutritious source of protein for the world population and more efficient production will be required in the future to meet increasing demand. Breeds and individual cattle and sheep can show substantial differences in response to diet with some animals responding more productively than others. The proposed research program will investigate which parts of the genome likely underpin response to diet in cattle and sheep. Biochemical pathways relevant to the new science of nutrigenomics will be uncovered primarily through investigation of genome-wide gene expression data sets available for metabolically important tissues such as muscle, fat and liver. Cutting edge bioinformatics tools including the latest approaches from network science will be deployed. This knowledge may help us understand why some animals fare better than others under given nutritional circumstances and perhaps inform decisions regarding diet formulation.

  • honours project on saltwater crocodile biology

    Saltwater crocodiles, Crocodylus porosus, are an iconic Australian apex predator. Like all ectothermic organisms they are metabolically rather inactive, able to last long periods of time in between large meals. In nature their pattern of physical activity tends to be restricted to brief, anaerobically supported, lunges and death rolls. However, they can also engage in long swims and dives, and other behaviours relating to competition, mating and nest formation. Many of these activities are sustainable and are supported aerobically by mitochondrial ATP formation, while the anaerobic ones require repayment of an oxygen debt. Variation in mitochondrial function across tissues, sex and disease status is unknown in this species. In this project we will develop and deploy a molecular assay to estimate mitochondrial content in a high throughput manner allowing a relatively large number of samples to be rapidly quantitated. We will examine a range of existing tissue samples from metabolically important tissues such as tail muscle and liver, in animals from both sexes, some of which have been exposed to a virus. The student will gain exposure to molecular techniques in the form of DNA extraction, gel electrophoresis and qRT-PCR.

  • Butterflies and frogs honours and coursework masters

    If, like me, you share an interest in butterflies and frogs please get in touch. Opportunities for exciting ecology based honours projects are now available at Spicer's resort, Hiddenvale.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Featured Publications

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Cellular oxidative damage and ruminant feed efficiency

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Using Systems Biology to understand the genetic basis of bull fertility phenotypes and their covariance

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • The interface between genomes and diet in ruminant farm animals

    Global population growth is placing increasing demands on the agriculture sector to produce greater amounts of food more efficiently. Livestock products provide a nutritious source of protein for the world population and more efficient production will be required in the future to meet increasing demand. Breeds and individual cattle and sheep can show substantial differences in response to diet with some animals responding more productively than others. The proposed research program will investigate which parts of the genome likely underpin response to diet in cattle and sheep. Biochemical pathways relevant to the new science of nutrigenomics will be uncovered primarily through investigation of genome-wide gene expression data sets available for metabolically important tissues such as muscle, fat and liver. Cutting edge bioinformatics tools including the latest approaches from network science will be deployed. This knowledge may help us understand why some animals fare better than others under given nutritional circumstances and perhaps inform decisions regarding diet formulation.

  • honours project on saltwater crocodile biology

    Saltwater crocodiles, Crocodylus porosus, are an iconic Australian apex predator. Like all ectothermic organisms they are metabolically rather inactive, able to last long periods of time in between large meals. In nature their pattern of physical activity tends to be restricted to brief, anaerobically supported, lunges and death rolls. However, they can also engage in long swims and dives, and other behaviours relating to competition, mating and nest formation. Many of these activities are sustainable and are supported aerobically by mitochondrial ATP formation, while the anaerobic ones require repayment of an oxygen debt. Variation in mitochondrial function across tissues, sex and disease status is unknown in this species. In this project we will develop and deploy a molecular assay to estimate mitochondrial content in a high throughput manner allowing a relatively large number of samples to be rapidly quantitated. We will examine a range of existing tissue samples from metabolically important tissues such as tail muscle and liver, in animals from both sexes, some of which have been exposed to a virus. The student will gain exposure to molecular techniques in the form of DNA extraction, gel electrophoresis and qRT-PCR.

  • Butterflies and frogs honours and coursework masters

    If, like me, you share an interest in butterflies and frogs please get in touch. Opportunities for exciting ecology based honours projects are now available at Spicer's resort, Hiddenvale.

  • Honours and PhD projects in the broad area of metabolism, functional genomics and flux analysis

    Are you interested in growth, development and metabolism? Students are encouraged to get in touch with any of their own ideas in the broad area of animal (or even plant!) biology. Projects can be developed collaboratively with other academics within and beyond SAFS so there is lots of scope for diversity and inter-disciplinary research.

    We like to encourage students to develope their own ideas and projects. In our lab we use a range of metabolic and molecular tools such as gene expression, metabolic flux analysis and SNP genotyping that can be readily applied across species and biological circumstances.

    You can learn how to handle and quantitate DNA and RNA, run an agarose gel, estimate gene expression by quantitative PCR and phenotype animal and plant cells in the state of the art XFe24 Flux analyser.

    Remember, a new discovery is just round the corner!

  • The mitochondria and metabolic efficiency in cattle

    Global population growth is placing increasing demands on the agriculture sector to produce greater amounts of food more efficiently. Livestock products provide a source of protein for the world population and more efficient production will be required in the future to meet increasing demand. The proposed research program will investigate the mechanistic basis of variation in metabolic efficiency in beef cattle. Some cattle utilise feed more efficiently for production than others, while some are able to maintain muscle mass, liveweight and productivity under periods of nutritional and environmental stress. Why is this? The successful applicant will focus their research on the biology of the mitochondria and its role in determining metabolic efficiency in cattle.

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

feed efficiency, muscle growth, mitochondria, production animals, functional genomics, flux analysis

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ResearcherID: AAF-5644-2020

ORCID: 0000-0002-3549-9396

Scopus ID: 7103017836

Google Scholar ID:

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