The overarching goal of my research program is to advance health, fertility, and productive traits of dairy cows to optimize their contribution to environmental stewardship and sustainability of the global food supply.

My research program has been focused on three areas:

1) Reproductive performance: recent efforts include studying how genomic prediction for fertility traits translates into measurable reproductive outcomes and contributions of estrous synchronization program and endocrine profile to fertility predictions. I also have continued to conduct studies to understand the mechanisms by which nerve growth factor-ß influences ovulation, luteal development, conceptus development, and pregnancy in cattle.

2) Antimicrobial stewardship: my research has been investigating strategies to improve the judicious use of antimicrobials and the implication of microbiome to economically important diseases in dairy cows such as mastitis and metritis. Recent efforts include integrating cow, environment, and microbial-related data to predict the cure and self-cure of metritis using classic statistical inferences and machine learning algorithms.

3) Host-genome and gut microbiome interplay on productive traits: My research program also investigates host-genome and gut microbiome interactions modulating the milk production and feed efficiency traits in dairy cows.