| The Makova Lab at Penn State

Byung June Ko

Postdoctoral Scholar

Interests

Genome assembly of complex genomes
Functionality of chromatin structure alteration

Education

Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and population genomics,

Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
M.S. in Conservation genetics,

Kongju National University, Gongju, South Korea

Biography

Currently, Byung June focuses on telomere-to-telomere genome assembly and the functional research of chromatin’s complex structure, particularly in sex chromosomes. Prior to bioinformatics, Byung June majored in conservation genetics, focusing on identifying the genetic diversity and structure of the leopard cat in the South Korea during his M.S. course, supervised by Prof. Soo Hyung Eo. This research sparked his interest in bioinformatics and genome functionality, leading to his false gene gain research collaboration with the Vertebrate Genomes Project during his Ph.D. course at Seoul National University, supervised by Prof. Heebal Kim. Outside of science, Byung June enjoyed playing bass and electric guitar and now enjoys weight lifting and walking in peaceful towns.

Publications

A Rhie, SA McCarthy, O Fedrigo, J Damas, G Formenti, S Koren, M Uliano-Silva, W Chow, A Fungtammasan, GL Gedman, LJ Cantin, F Thibaud-Nissen, L Haggerty, C Lee, BJ Ko, J Kim, I Bista, M Smith, B Haase, J Mountcastle, S Winkler, S Paez, J Howard, SC Vernes, TM Lama, F Grutzner, WC Warren, C Balakrishnan, D Burt, JM George, M Biegler, D Iorns, A Digby, D Eason, T Edwards, M Wilkinson, G Turner, A Meyer, AF Kautt, P Franchini, HW Detrich III, H Svardal, M Wagner, GJP Naylor, M Pippel, M Malinsky, M Mooney, M Simbirsky, BT Hannigan, T Pesout, M Houck, A Misuraca, SB Kingan, R Hall, Z Kronenberg, J Korlach, I Sović, C Dunn, Z Ning, A Hastie, J Lee, S Selvaraj, RE Green, NH Putnam, J Ghurye, E Garrison, Y Sims, J Collins, S Pelan, J Torrance, A Tracey, J Wood, D Guan, SE London, DF Clayton, CV Mello, SR Friedrich, PV Lovell, E Osipova, FO Al-Ajli, S Secomandi, H Kim, C Theofanopoulou, Y Zhou, RS Harris, KD Makova, P Medvedev, J Hoffman, P Masterson, K Clark, F Martin, K Howe, P Flicek, BP Walenz, W Kwak, H Clawson, M Diekhans, L Nassar, B Paten, RHS Kraus, H Lewin, AJ Crawford, MTP Gilbert, G Zhang, B Venkatesh, RW Murphy, KP Koepfli, B Shapiro, WE Johnson, F Di Palma, T Margues-Bonet, EC Teeling, T Warnow, JM Graves, OA Ryder, D Hausler, SJ O’Brien, K Howe, EW Myers, R Durbin, AM Phillippy, ED Jarvis. Towards complete and error-free genome assemblies of all vertebrate species. NATURE, 2021.

Sex chromosome Paper Link