| The Makova Lab at Penn State

Linnéa Smeds

Postdoctoral Scholar

Interests

Conservation genomics
Molecular evolution
Structural variation
Bioinformatics

Education

Ph.D. in Biology with specialization in Evolutionary Genetics,

Uppsala University
M.S. in Bioinformatics Engineering,

Uppsala University

Biography

Linnéa’s research in the Makova lab involves investigating selection in non-canonical DNA from primates, especially G4 quadruplexes, using bioinformatics methods. Linnéa worked for 8 years as a bioinformatician in Dr. Hans Ellegren’s lab, developing approaches to study speciation, mutation rate and sex chromosome evolution in birds, before taking on a Ph. D. in evolutionary genetics. Her thesis “Conservation genomics in inbred Scandinavian wolves using bioinformatic methods” involved work on Y chromosome evolution, admixture, genetic load and structural variation.

Publications

D Yoo, A Rhie, P Hebbar, F Antonacci, GA Logsdon, SJ Solar, D Antipov, BD Pickett, Y Safonova, F Montinaro, Y Luo, J Malukiewicz, JM Storer, J Lin, AN Sequeira, RJ Mangan, G Hickey, GM Anez, P Balachandran, A Bankevich, CR Beck, A Biddanda, M Borchers, GG Bouffard, E Brannan, SY Brooks, L Carbone, L Carrel, AP Chan, J Crawford, M Diekhans, E Engelbrecht, C Feschotte, G Formenti, GH Garcia, L de Gennaro, D Gilbert, RE Green, A Guarracino, I Gupta, D Haddad, J Han, RS Harris, GA Hartley, WT Harvey, M Hiller, K Hoekzema, ML Houck, H Jeong, K Kamali, M Kellis, B Kille, C Lee, Y Lee, W Lees, AP Lewis, Q Li, M Loftus, YHE Loh, H Loucks, J Ma, Y Mao, JFI Martinez, P Masterson, RC McCoy, B McGrath, S McKinney, BS Meyer, KH Miga, SK Mohanty, KM Munson, K Pal, M Pennell, PA Pevzner, D Porubsky, T Potapova, FR Ringeling, JL Rocha, OA Ryder, S Sacco, S Saha, T Sasaki, MC Schatz, NJ Schork, C Shanks, L Smeds, DR Son, C Steiner, AP Sweeten, MG Tassia, F Thibaud-Nissen, E Torres-González, M Trivedi, W Wei, J Wertz, M Yang, P Zhang, S Zhang, Y Zhang, Z Zhang, SA Zhao, Y Zhu, ED Jarvis, JL Gerton, I Rivas-González, B Paten, ZA Szpiech, CD Huber, TL Lenz, MK Konkel, SV Yi, S Canzar, CT Watson, PH Sudmant, E Molloy, E Garrison, CB Lowe, M Ventura, RJ O’Neill, S Koren, KD Makova, AM Phillippy, EE Eichler. Complete sequencing of ape genomes. NATURE, 2025.

Sex chromosome Paper Link

L Smeds, K Kamali, I Kejnovská, E Kejnovský, F Chiaromonte, KD Makova. Non-canonical DNA in human and other ape telomere-to-telomere genomes. NUCLEIC ACIDS RES, 2025.

Non-B DNA & Microsatellite Paper Link