Dr. Samodha Fernando joined the Department of Animal Science in 2011 as an Assistant Professor, and has served as a Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry since 2021. He also has courtesy appointments in the School of Biological Sciences and Department of Food Science and Technology. He is a member of the Nebraska Food for Health Center and the Nebraska Center for Virology.

Education

Post-Doctoral Associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Host Microbe Interactions, 2008-11
Ph.D., Oklahoma State University, Animal Nutrition/Microbial Genomics, 2008
M.S., Oklahoma State University, Animal Science/ Reproductive Physiology, 2004
B.S., University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2002

Teaching

ASCI 921: Interdepartmental Nutrition Seminar
Summary: Presentation and discussion of current literature and research in the field of nutrition.

ASCI 922: Advanced Animal Nutrition (Ruminant)
Summary: Nutrient metabolism and utilization by ruminant animals for maintenance, growth, finishing, reproduction and lactation. Major emphasis on protein and energy.

Research

My research is focused on understanding factors that influence microbial community assembly and colonization in livestock species and humans. To this end, my research focuses and colonization history, methane mitigation, early life microbiome intervention, host-microbe interaction and microbiome manipulation to improve animal health and performance.

Selected Publications

• Christopher L. Anderson*, and Samodha C. Fernando (2021). Insight into rumen microbial biosynthetic gene cluster diversity through genome resolved metagenomics (2020). Nature Communication Biology. Communication Biol. 2021 Jun 29;4(1):818. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02331-7. 
• Nirosh D. Aluthge*, Wesley A. Tom*, Alison C. Bartenslager*, Thomas E. Burkey, Phillip S. Miller, Kelly D. Heath, Craig Kreikemeier-Bower, Hatem Kittana, Robert J. Schmaltz, Amanda E. Ramer-Tait, Samodha C. Fernando (2020). Differential longitudinal establishment of human fecal bacterial communities in germ-free porcine and murine models. Nature Communications biology 3:1-14. 
• Waseem Abbas*, Jeremy T. Howard*, Henry A. Paz*, Kristin E. Hales, James E. Wells, Larry A. Kuehn, Galen E. Erickson, Matthew L. Spangler+, Samodha C. Fernando+. Influence of host genetics in shaping the rumen microbiome in beef cattle (2020). Scientific Reports, 10:1-14 * denotes these authors equally contributed and + denotes co-corresponding authors 
• Henry A. Paz*, Kristin E. Hales, James E. Wells, Larry A. Kuehn, Harvey C. Freetly, Elaine D. Berry, Michael D. Flythe, Matthew L. Spangler, and Samodha C. Fernando. Rumen bacterial community structure impacts feed efficiency in beef cattle (2018). Journal of Animal Science, 96; 3, 1045-1058. https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skx081
• Christopher L. Anderson*, Matthew B. Sullivan, and Samodha C. Fernando. Digestible energy content drives the dynamic response of bovine rumen viral communities (2017). Microbiome, 5:155 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-017-0374-3 
• Paz, HA*, Anderson, CL*, Muller, MJ*, Kononoff, PJ, and Fernando SC. 2016. Rumen Bacterial Community Composition in Holstein and Jersey Cows Is Different under Same Dietary Condition and Is Not Affected by Sampling Method. Frontiers in Microbiology, 7; 1206. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01206