Science fact not fiction: Detecting gene edited racehorses

Horse racing officials from the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) have been closely monitoring developments in gene editing and the potential to threaten the definition of the Thoroughbred. Currently, the only way to determine whether a Thoroughbred has been gene edited is to examine its DNA sequence and compare it either to a previously collected sample, or to its parents. Whilst this is possible with whole genome sequencing (WGS), it is expensive and creates large amounts of data that require specialist training to analyse. This project, will develop a kit to isolate and sequence the likely targets of gene editing in horse DNA in a test to be used to detect whether the heritable genome of a Thoroughbred has been artificially altered.