Catch the AbacusBio team at WCGALP 2026 — see our papers & presentations

Marcelo mollinari

Marcelo is a Quantitative Geneticist at AbacusBio, where he integrates quantitative genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics to help plant breeding programs transform data into practical actions. His work focuses on addressing complex problems in genetic data analysis, improving genotype data quality, and developing computational tools that make breeding decisions more accurate and efficient. Before joining the …

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Thiago Oliveira

Thiago is a highly skilled and accomplished statistician with over eight years of experience in experimental statistics and statistical modelling. He holds a PhD in Statistics from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and during his PhD studies, he gained expertise in statistical modelling in agricultural data while working as a visiting scholar at the …

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Ee Cheng

As a veterinarian with a genetics PhD, Ee Cheng works across a wide variety of animal projects. A typical day for her might include building genetic evaluations for health and fertility traits, modelling changes to farm systems, or working with clients to help them get value out of their data. One of her favourite projects …

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Mason Chizk

Driven by a passion to do more with less, Mason enjoys breaking down resource bottlenecks in breeding programs through pipeline development. His software-driven approach draws from applied field experience in plant breeding programs ranging from inbred seed crops to clonally propagated perennials. As a proponent of the ‘art of plant breeding’, Mason seeks to complement …

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Caeli Richardson

Caeli is a plant and animal geneticist specialising in livestock genetics, sustainability, and the application of advanced data and genomic tools to real-world agricultural challenges. Her interest in agriculture began through hands-on experience working on a dairy farm in Canada, and was shaped further by first-hand exposure to farming systems across multiple countries, giving her …

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David Kenny

David is an Animal Breeder Consultant who focuses on a variety of aspects associated with genetic improvement in livestock production. This primarily involves modelling the effects and implications of animal breeding programs. Moreover, David possesses an in-depth knowledge of genetic and genomic analyses, including variance component and breeding value estimation. David takes pride in contributing …

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Tom Kirk

Tom’s background in finance, economics, and statistics provide a unique perspective on which clients can tap to understand insights about the trade-offs and economic issues facing the agricultural and food systems industries. Tom joined AbacusBio in 2014, firstly as an intern and then later as a consultant based in Edinburgh. His commerce background and ability …

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Leticia Lara

Letícia joined us in our Edinburgh office as a consultant, bringing with her a highly specialised skillset in genetics and plant breeding. Originally from Brazil, Letícia gained a Bachelor and a Master’s degree from the Federal University of Lavras. She moved on to complete a PhD at the University of São Paulo. Her PhD looked at …

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Luna Zhang

Luna Zhang is a quantitative genetics consultant at AbacusBio. She holds a PhD in Animal Genetics and Breeding from the University of Georgia. Luna specialises in turning complex, abstract breeding concepts into practical, end-to-end solutions—developing robust, scalable, and user-friendly tools, models, and pipelines that help clients make better breeding decisions. She works across a diverse …

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Katarzyna Stachowicz

Born and raised in Poland, Kat joined AbacusBio in 2013 and is an expert on animal breeding and genetics with special interest in genetic variability and the long term consequences of selection. Her experience in the genetic evaluation of sheep and cattle, variance components estimation, economic selection indexes and the identification of key ancestors for …

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