Markus Hiltunen
Postdoc
markus.hiltunen{at}ebc.uu.se

​I am interested in the forces that govern the structure, content and function of eukaryotic genomes, from an evolutionary point of view. Such forces can be mutation, recombination, selection, and the activity of mobile elements. I am always happy to discuss weird and interesting organisms and genomes.

I finished my PhD in June 2021 at the Systematic Biology programme, Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University. The work was focused on characterizing novel genetic variation in a basidiomycete fungus. Prior to my PhD studies I completed a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in biology, in 2014 and 2016, respectively, also at Uppsala University.

I started in the Burki lab as a researcher in January 2022 to study the genomics of Ascetosporea: a poorly known lineage of protist parasites. They infect marine invertebrates such as crabs and mussels, and are of special concern in aquaculture where they need to be controlled. A major challenge with studying Ascetosporean parasites is data acquisition, since they are intracellular and unculturable. My work thus revolves around disentangling parasite from host and other contaminating organisms using bioinformatic workflows, to investigate the evolutionary transition to parasitism in this enigmatic lineage.
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When not working I like to play and listen to music, cook good food, eat even better food, and brew beer. I enjoy spending time in nature, especially for long-distance running or picking mushrooms.