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Operating within the intensely competitive global
thoroughbred industry, Irish company Equinome
has stolen a march with a product that helps
maximise the genetic potential of top horses.
Jim Aughney talks to the woman behind the science,
DR EMMELINE HILL
W
HEN I ARRIVE AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
(UCD) TO INTERVIEW DR EMMELINE HILL, SHE IS
HAVING HER PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN FOR THIS AR-
TICLE ABOUT HER COMPANY EQUINOME.
Photographer Angela wonders about using props and I
ask Hill if we might use the award she has won. “Which
one?” she asks without a trace of bravado.
It’s a fair response. In 2004 Hill received Ireland’s most
prestigious award for young scientists – the Science Foundation
of Ireland (SFI) President of Ireland Young Researcher
Award. In 2010 she was named the Image
Entrepreneur of the Year, and in January her company
Equinome was shortlisted for the Irish Times/Inter-
TradeIreland 2011 Innovation Awards.
Yet the company employs a mere six people for now, including
Hill and managing director Donal Ryan. The key to
Equinome’s success to date, and its ability to catch the eye
of award judges, is based on the fact that its product is
truly unique worldwide.
Equinome operates in the intensely competitive world
of the global thoroughbred industry, which produces
100,000 expensive foals each year. For the past 300 years,
thoroughbred horses have been bred to maximise their
speed and stamina. Throughout those three centuries,
Weatherbys The General Stud Book has been the means of
recording the most successful horses. The General Stud
Book and the breeder’s experience and ‘eye’ have been the
only tools used for selecting which horses to breed.
THE SPEED GENE TEST
Equinome has developed the Speed Gene Test as a further
third tool for breeders, trainers, owners and bloodstock
agents to assist them in maximising the genetic potential
of thoroughbred horses. The test, which is carried out in
the labs at NovaUCD, can be used to predict the optimum
racing distance for an individual thoroughbred. It does this
by analysing the DNA sequence of a gene related to muscle
mass development.
Equinome was established in 2009 as a result of groundbreaking
research led by Hill in UCD’s School of Agriculture,
Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, in partnerhip
with Irish racehorse trainer Jim Bolger.
In 2007 the genetic blueprint for the horse was unravelled
Issue 2 Spring/Summer 2011 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 45