UCD's Dr Emmeline Hill, Irish Tatler 2012 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year (Image Paul Sherwood)
Dr Emmeline Hill, a leading genomics scientist in the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science and a co-founder of the UCD spin-out company Equinome, has been named the Irish Tatler2012 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year at an awards ceremony held in Dublin.
Equinome, a world-leading equine genomics company, is based at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs at University College Dublin.
The Irish Tatler Women of the Year Awards were designed to recognise and reward Ireland’s most influential and successful women. In total fourteen awards were presented to some of Ireland’s leading women from the worlds of business, media and entertainment, fashion and music.
This year represents the first occasion that a dedicated Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award has been presented.
On receiving the award, Dr Hill said, "I am delighted and honoured to be the first recipient of this prestigious award. I am thrilled for science, innovation and entrepreneurship to be celebrated among women, and it is a privilege to share a stage with the other remarkable women who have been recognised for their amazing achievements.”
Dr Emmeline Hill hails from a family synonymous with horse racing and breeding in Ireland. Her grandmother was Charmian Hill, the owner of Dawn Run, the only racehorse to have completed the Cheltenham Champion Hurdle (1984) and Gold Cup (1986) double. She joined UCD in 2002 as a post-doctoral researcher.
In 2004, Dr Hill received a Science Foundation Ireland award which supported a 5-year programme of work at UCD to investigate the genomics of performance in thoroughbred horses.
In 2009, this research led to the world’s first known identification of a gene contributing to a specific athletic trait in Thoroughbred horses. This gene, called myostatin, was found to predict sprinting ability and stamina potential, which can immediately identify a thoroughbred as a potential sprinter, middle-distance or long-distance horse.
Equinome was established by Dr Hill in 2009 to commercialise the results of this research, through the Equinome Speed Gene Test, in partnership with the renowned racehorse trainer and breeder Jim Bolger.
To find out more about Equinome watch the UCD Innovation video.
Using the results of the company’s second test, Equinome Elite Performance Test, Thoroughbred horse owners and breeders can now also increase their chances of successfully identifying those foals and yearlings most likely to perform at the elite level.
Equinome has already secured clients around the world including in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, UK, France, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Speaking at the awards ceremony Norah Casey, CEO, Harmonia said, “I love these awards because they are so inspiriting, what could be better in the current climate than celebrating the best women in Ireland. I have been doing these awards for 12 years now and the calibre of winners just gets better and better.” She added, ”We started over a decade ago with a handful of nominations in the women in business category it’s now our largest and we have added in the women entrepreneur awards for the first time.”
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