Professor Bill (William) Breed

Biography/ Background

Prof. Bill Breed is a reproductive biologist whose main research focus is on the morphology and evolution of sperm, eggs, and egg coats of Australian rodents and marsupials. He has published around 160 papers (including 2 in Nature) in morphological, zoological, and reproductive biological journals. Late in 2007 he had a book, with Fred Ford, published by the CSIRO publishing company in their Australian Natural History Series entitled Native Mice and Rats. Over the last five years he and his associates have had around 30 papers published in the field of reproductive biology and comparative cell biology of mammalain sperm and eggs. He has also published 20 review articles including one, with Prof. Brian Setchell, on mammalian male reproductive anatomy in the 3rd edition of "Knobil and Neill's Physiology of Reproduction". Bill is a past Head of The Discipline of Anatomical Sciences in The School of Medical Sciences at The University of Adelaide. He, together with his collaborators, has been largely responsible for the introduction of a number of modern microscopical techniques within the discipline including fluorescence microscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, and immuno-gold labelling techniques. He was an Editorial Board Member of the journal Reproduction for 6 years and wrote, with Ken Aplin, the introduction sections on rodents in the 3rd edition of Mammals of Australia edited by S Van Dyck and R Strahan. He is a past president of the Australian Mammal Society, is a research associate of the Royal Zoological Society of South Australia, and a fellow of The Royal Society of South Australia.
Bill has been the major supervisor of 11 completed PhD, 1 MSc, and 47 honours student projects all the latter of which have obtained either a first class or upper 2A degrees. At the present time he currently cosupervises 4 students studying for their PhDs at The University of Adelaide and has recently been the overseas cosupervisor of two PhD students funded by The Royal Golden Jubilee Postgraduate programme at two universities in Thailand. Bill’s present research projects include studies on evolution of sperm and eggs of Australian mammals including investigations on sperm nuclear chromatin organisation, sperm head and tail cytoskeletal protein organisation, egg coat zona pellucida glycoproteins and their evolution.

Research Interests

Evolution of sperm and egg form and function in Australian mammals including:
Sperm nuclear chromatin organisation.
Sperm head and tail cytoskeletal protein organisation.
Egg coat glycoproteins and their evolution.
Sperm-egg interactions and fertilisation.
Application of reproductive technology to conservation of Australian mammals (including AI, IVF, Embryo Transfer, Sperm freezing and thawing).

Environmental effects on sperm production and quality in native mammals.

Publications

Book Publications Native Mice and Rats Australian Natural History Series Bill Breed University of Adelaide Fred Ford NSW Department of Environment and Conservation Colour illustrations 200 pages Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING Publication date: December 2007 click here for more information

Recent Publications (Limited list)

Expertise for Media Contact

Categories	Animals and veterinary science, Fertility & reproduction
Expertise	Anatomy; reproductive biology; fertility; reproduction
Notes	Alt phone: (08) 8303 5998
After hours	(08) 8362 1767

Entry last updated: Sunday, 20 May 2012