(Dorothy) Claire Wathes née Bulman (born 1953) is a British

veterinary Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all animal species, both ...

researcher who studies the

reproduction Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. There are two forms of reproduction: Asexual reproduction, asexual and Sexual ...

of farm animals. She is known for her work on

infertility In biology, infertility is the inability of a male and female organism to Sexual reproduction, reproduce. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy organism that has reached sexual maturity, so children who have not undergone puberty, whi ...

in dairy cattle. As of 2018, she is a professor of veterinary reproduction at the

Royal Veterinary College The Royal Veterinary College (informally the RVC) is a veterinary school located in London and a member institution of the federal University of London. The RVC was founded in 1791 and joined the University of London in 1949. It is the oldest an ...

in Hatfield.

Education and career

Wathes gained a BSc in zoology from the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

in 1974. Her PhD on

fertility Fertility in colloquial terms refers the ability to have offspring. In demographic contexts, fertility refers to the actual production of offspring, rather than the physical capability to reproduce, which is termed fecundity. The fertility rate ...

in dairy cattle was from the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

in 1978, under the supervision of Eric Lamming; her thesis was entitled "Progesterone levels and fertility of lactating cows".GE Lamming.
Reproduction during lactation
, pp 335–53, in ''Control of Ovulation'', DB Crighton, GR Foxcroft, NB Haynes, eds, (Butterworth-Heinemann; 2013) ( In 1990, she was awarded a DSc by the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

. Her first postdoctoral post was at the

Babraham Institute The Babraham Institute is a life sciences research institution focussing on healthy ageing. The Babraham Institute is based on the Babraham Research Campus, partly occupying a former manor house, but also laboratory and science facility buil ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. From 1979 to 1990, she worked in the

's Department of Anatomy, holding positions successively as lecturer and reader, before rejoining the Babraham Institute as a project leader (1990–94). She has been professor of veterinary reproduction at the

since 1994, leading the college's Reproduction and Development Group from 1995 to 2007. She also holds a guest professorship at Huazhong Agricultural University in China (since 2009). From 2000 to 2008, Wathes chaired "ARK-Genomics", the steering committee of the

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, is a non-departmental public body (NDPB), and is the largest UK public funder of non-medical bioscience. It predominantly funds science, scient ...

Investigating Gene Function Initiative for livestock, which aimed to facilitate

genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of molecular biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, ...

research across the UK. She became the first director of the Farm Animal Genetics and Genomics Faraday Partnership in 2002, and she continues to serve on a committee of its successor body, the Knowledge Transfer Network. She also served on the veterinary advisory committee of the

Horserace Betting Levy Board The Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB), commonly abbreviated to the Levy Board, is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in the United Kingdom. It is a statutory body established by the Betting Levy Act 1 ...

(from 1997 until 2006 or 2008).

Research

The long-term focus of Wathes' research has been

in domestic

ruminant Ruminants are herbivorous grazing or browsing artiodactyls belonging to the suborder Ruminantia that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through microb ...

s, including cattle and sheep.

Fertility Fertility in colloquial terms refers the ability to have offspring. In demographic contexts, fertility refers to the actual production of offspring, rather than the physical capability to reproduce, which is termed fecundity. The fertility rate ...

in dairy cattle, and the problem of infertility, have formed an important part of her work from the outset. In her early research in Nottingham, with Lamming and others, she developed a method to diagnose and monitor low fertility in cows by measuring levels of the

progesterone Progesterone (; P4) is an endogenous steroid and progestogen sex hormone involved in the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and embryogenesis of humans and other species. It belongs to a group of steroid hormones called the progestogens and is the ma ...

hormone A hormone (from the Ancient Greek, Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of cell signaling, signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs or tissues by complex biological processes to regulate physio ...

in their milk. Her subsequent research at the Royal Veterinary College has investigated what causes cows to have low fertility, including their genetic background,

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemistry, biochemical and physiology, physiological process by which an organism uses food and water to support its life. The intake of these substances provides organisms with nutrients (divided into Macronutrient, macro- ...

and

metabolic Metabolism (, from ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cellular processes; the ...

status, as well as

bacterial infection Pathogenic bacteria are bacteria that can cause disease. This article focuses on the bacteria that are pathogenic to humans. Most species of bacteria are harmless and many are beneficial but others can cause infectious diseases. The number of t ...

of the

uterus The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', : uteri or uteruses) or womb () is the hollow organ, organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans, that accommodates the embryonic development, embryonic and prenatal development, f ...

after calving. She has shown that lack of sufficient nutrients is an important cause of infertility. While working at Bristol she showed, with Ray Swann, that the

oxytocin Oxytocin is a peptide hormone and neuropeptide normally produced in the hypothalamus and released by the posterior pituitary. Present in animals since early stages of evolution, in humans it plays roles in behavior that include Human bonding, ...

hormone is produced in the

corpus luteum The corpus luteum (Latin for "yellow body"; : corpora lutea) is a temporary endocrine structure in female ovaries involved in the production of relatively high levels of progesterone, and moderate levels of estradiol, and inhibin A. It is the ...

of the

ovary The ovary () is a gonad in the female reproductive system that produces ova; when released, an ovum travels through the fallopian tube/ oviduct into the uterus. There is an ovary on the left and the right side of the body. The ovaries are end ...

in sheep and other ruminants, as well as in the neurohypophysis. RB Heap, APF Flint.
Pregnancy
, pp. 153–59, in ''Hormonal Control of Reproduction'', CR Austin, RV Short, eds, 2nd edn (Cambridge University Press; 1984) () This might form part of the mechanism by which female ruminants detect whether or not they have conceived. She has subsequently studied how hormonal and other factors regulate the

oestrus cycle The estrous cycle (, originally ) is a set of recurring physiological changes induced by reproductive hormones in females of mammalian subclass Theria. Estrous cycles start after sexual maturity in females and are interrupted by anestrous phases ...

and the

birth Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...

ing process in sheep and cows.

Awards and societies

Wathes is an elected fellow of the

Royal Agricultural Society of England The Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) promotes the scientific development of English agriculture. It was established in 1838 with the motto "Practice with Science" and was known as the English Agricultural Society until it received i ...

(RASE) and the

Royal Society of Biology The Royal Society of Biology (RSB), previously called the Society of Biology, is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom created to advance the interests of biology in academia, industry, education, and research. Fo ...

. She has served on the council of the Royal Society of Biology since 2017, and has also held roles on the committees of several other learned societies, including the European Society of Domestic Animal Reproduction, the

Society for Endocrinology The Society for Endocrinology is an international membership organisation and registered charity representing scientists, clinicians and nurses who work with hormones. The Society was established in 1946, and currently has approximately 3,000 mem ...

and the

Society for Reproduction and Fertility ''Reproduction'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering the cellular and molecular biology of reproduction, including the development of gametes and early embryos in all species; developmental processes such as cell differentiation, m ...

. Her awards include RASE's Research Medal (2006) for her work on fertility in dairy cattle, and the Society for Reproduction and Fertility's Marshall Medal (2015).

Personal life

She was married to Christopher Wathes, also a veterinary researcher; he died in 2016.

Selected publications

*DC Bulman, GE Lamming (1978). Milk progesterone levels in relation to conception, repeat breeding and factors influencing acyclicity in dairy cows. '' Journal of Reproduction and Fertility'' 54: 447–58 *DC Wathes, RW Swann (1982). Is oxytocin an ovarian hormone? ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'' 297: 225–27 *DC Wathes, DRE Abayasekara, RJ Aitken (2007). Polyunsaturated fatty acids in male and female reproduction. ''

Biology of Reproduction ''Biology of Reproduction'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal and the official journal of the Society for the Study of Reproduction. It is published with the assistance of Oxford University Press. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', ...

'', 77: 190–201 *DC Wathes, Z Cheng, W Chowdhury ''et al''. (2009). Negative energy balance alters global gene expression and immune responses in the uterus of postpartum dairy cows. ''Physiological Genomics'' 39: 1–13

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wathes, Claire 1953 births 20th-century British biologists 20th-century British women scientists 21st-century British zoologists 21st-century British women scientists Alumni of the University of Birmingham Alumni of the University of Nottingham British women biologists Academics of the University of Bristol Living people People associated with the Royal Veterinary College Place of birth missing (living people) Veterinary scientists Women veterinary scientists