Beatrice Bylén – PhD student

My PhD revolves around unraveling phylogenetic relationships, genetic diversity, and genomic features of lichen-associated algal photobionts. I’m especially interested in one of the most common lichen photobionts – green algal species from the genus Trebouxia. I will explore Trebouxia samples from a diverse range of environments to study population structure, distribution ranges, and dispersal mechanisms.

Part of my work will also be to investigatee and compare photobiont community composition in lichens collected in different climatic zones within Sweden as well as globally.

Valentina Peona – Postdoctoral Fellow

I’m an evolutionary biologist interested in all the types of repeats, transposable elements, centromeres and structural rearrangements. I’ve been working mostly on vertebrates and birds where I combine multiple omics to understand the role of transposable elements in the evolution of genomes and sex chromosomes. Now I am focusing on the genomic basis (including transposons of course!) for algae lichenization and specialization.

Natasha Sam – Master student

I am currently completing my masters thesis, exploring the impact of LKAB-associated pollution on photobiont communities across six lichen species. I will test whether changes in photobiont community composition are linked to heavy metal concentration, and whether the different lichen species show similar or contrasting responses to pollution.

During my free time, I love to knit, play rugby and do gymnastics.

Steffi Billiau

I’m a molecular biology student with a special interest in fungi and protists and the evolutionary processes behind endosymbiosis. In my Master’s project at the Brännström lab I will examine how giant transposable elements called Starships have led to the repeated loss of sexual reproduction in Icmadophilaceae lichen forming fungi.

In my free time you can usually find me on outdoor adventures or in my garden, where I try to grow fruits and vegetables with varying success. 

Agnes Jämtjärn

I am currently working on my bachelor thesis with Ioana. I will investigate, using bioinformatics, the composition and abundance of photobionts across three Thamolina species.

In my spare time i enjoy having a beer with friends and i also train BJJ (Brazilian jiu-jitsu) which is really really fun!

Ester Ward

I am doing my bachelor thesis on a ‘Mission Impossible’ project: : I will try to kill the photobionts of the lichen Evernia prunastri to replace with fluorescent photobionts marked with Quantum Dots.

Fun fact about me: I love knitting.

Veronika Veselá

Veronika visited in spring 2026 us as a guest PhD student supported by an ERASMUS+ grant from Charles University in Prague, affiliated with Pavel Škaloud’s laboratory.

Karl Angervall

Did his bachelor thesis spring 2026 on the photobiont dynamics in two lichen across seasons, and if this change is connected with the environmental conditions.