Dr Mathew Wheto, is an Animal breeder, geneticist and biotechnologist with a lot of research experience in quantitative and genomic analysis. He is a Registered Animal Scientist (RAS) and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. He is a research scientist working with Program for Emerging Agricultural Research leadership (PEARL) sponsored by Bill and Melinda Gate foundation on the use of genomic selection and proteomics to identify superior indigenous chicken’s line for growth and egg traits. He was a visiting scholar to Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America for three month working on gene expression and transcriptomic expression of heat tolerance traits in temperate and tropical breed of cattle and to Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health, Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh between February 2020 – March, 2020 to work on the genetic analysis and improvement of FUNAAB Alpha Chicken, the first improved Nigeria indigenous chicken breed to be registered.
Dr Wheto is a member of many professional bodies such as African Animal Breeding Network, Animal Science Association of Nigeria (ASAN), World Poultry Science Association (WPSA) Nigerian Branch, Nigeria Society for Animal Production (NSAP), Genetic Society of Nigeria (GSN) and a member of Editorial Board, Nigeria Journal of Biotechnology. He is also a seasoned reviewers for many academics journal within and outside the country. Dr Wheto is also versatile in the use of statistical, molecular and some Bioinformatics tools which include SAS, DNAsp, MEGA, ClustalW/X, Bioedit, Codoncode Aligner, qPCR/PCR machine, Primer3. He has run analyses include: Single nucleotide Polymorphism detection, multiple sequences Alignment, Phylogeny tree, Secondary and Tertiary structure prediction, Annotation of sequences using Map viewer, Primer design using Primer3.
He has a humble background and have established connections with professional colleagues within and outside the country. He can work independently and can equally work with people of diverse cultural backgrounds to achieve desired objectives at all times. He has supervised more than 20 Postgraduate students and many undergraduate students working on genetic variation and sequence analysis of some selected immune response and growth related gene in both small ruminant, Nigerian indigenous chicken, FUNAAB Alpha chicken and Guinea fowl. The long-term goal of his research activities is to molecularly characterize the Nigerian ruminant and chicken population using candidate gene approach, to carry out genetic diversity in immune related genes and development of chicken lines for the Nigerian environment.
He was a lead reseracher in Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) Institution- Based Research Intervention, 2015; Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) Research grant under the Directorate of Grant Management, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta 2016, to carry out a project of the Insulin like Growth factor I gene polymorphism and its effect of the reproductive performance of Improved Nigerian Indigenous Chicken; Team member (Breeder and Geneticist) in the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) National Research Fund 2019 on the Improvement of Guinea fowl in Nigeria; Team member (Breeder and Geneticist) in the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) National Research Fund 2019 on the Beef value chain enhancement using Muturu cattle breeding and multiplication in Nigeria; Team member (Breeder and Geneticist) in the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) National Research Fund 2019 on the development of novel feed resources for domestic chickens through innovative inclusion of phytogenics.
