Abdulfatai is the newest post-doc in the Munger lab. Abdulfatai was trained as a veterinarian and later developed interest in genetics following his curiosity to understand the science behind the variations in disease resistance and susceptibility observed among cattle populations. His curiosity led him to join the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) in Nigeria where he pioneered the Nigerian livestock genomics project aimed at the genetic characterization of indigenous livestock breeds. Realizing his dearth of expertise in genomics, he sought for and received scholarship opportunities for master’s and PhD studies at the University of Nottingham, UK, where he trained with Professor Olivier Hanotte at the School of Life Science. His PhD research focused on livestock population genetics and genomics and characterized the genetic diversity of indigenous African cattle at a genome-wide level to investigate their adaptations to their production environments.

      After graduating with a PhD in Genetics in 2019, he continued his research as a Postdoctoral Fellow (Genome analyst) within the Livestock Genetics group at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Addis Ababa. There, he worked as part of the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH)’s genomic reference resource for African cattle initiative, a collaborative project involving scientists from thirteen African National institutions, The Roslin institute, UK and Scotland Rural College (SRUC), UK. He led the bioinformatics analyses of a large, collated dataset of African cattle whole genome sequences to investigate candidate genes and variants linked to cattle resilience and productivity traits including trypanosomiasis and stress response to heat, to support breeding programs. In addition, he has contributed to bioinformatics capacity building to support graduate fellows at ILRI and African research partners.