DR. FRED G. BIDDLE

B.Sc., M.Sc. (Windsor), Ph.D. (British Columbia) - Professor, Department of Medical Genetics and Emeritus Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Adjunct Professor, Sciences and Department of Biological Sciences.

Affiliations: Member- The Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute for Child and Maternal Health   

Research Interests:

I work on the genetic and functional analysis of complex traits of development and disease process using mouse model systems (publications are on my research web pages). Many heritable traits appear complex because they have phenotypic heterogeneity that arises from the inherent noise in the dynamics of their underlying biology. The challenge for genetic analysis is to use the information in noisy phenotypes to identify heritable character states that can be attached to the genome. In essence, how do we map genotype and genotypic change to phenotypes and phenotype and phenotypic change to the genotype?

Our primary research focus is the genetic network that regulates the process of learning and memory underlying hand-preference behavior in the mouse. Mathematical analysis of replicable quantitative measures of the behavior allows us to dynamically model the phenotypic variation of different genotypes and we can do this under different environmental constraints. Learning and memory is the emergent property of the system. We can now fully reconstruct phenotypic differences in the behavior of different mouse strains from identified genetic components. In collaborations, we are using molecular map location to identify the genetic elements that regulate the behavior and we are developing stochastic agent-based models that predict and exactly reproduce the dynamic phenotypic variation in hand preference behavior among genetically different mice. Predictability is the critical pillar if the promise of P4 Medicine^TM is to be applied to complex traits.

Research Web pages     http://www.cs.tut.fi/~sanchesr/Biddle/index.html

                                              http://www.medicalgenetics.ca/fredbiddle.html

Personnel:

Ms. Brenda Eales	Research Associate
Ms. Deb Hewko	Administrative Assistant

 

 

 

 

View pub med for recent publications & abstracts 

Recent Publications:

• Ribeiro, A.S., Lloyd-Price, J., Eales, B.A., and Biddle, F.G. (2009) Dynamic agent-based model of hand-preference behavior patterns in the mouse. Adaptive Behavior
• Biddle, F.G., and Eales, B.A. (2010) Getting it right. Learning and memory determines hand-preference behavior in the mouse. In: Cambridge Encyclopedia of Behavior Genetics. Vol. 1. Behavioral Genetics of the Mouse. Crusio, W.E., Sluyter, F., and Gerlai, R.T. (eds.). Cambridge University Press

Contact Information:

The University of Calgary,
Room 262 Heritage Medical Research Building,
3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary,
Alberta Canada T2N 4N1
Phone: (403) 220-7953
Fax: (403) 283-8225
E-mail: fgbiddle [at] ucalgary [dot] ca