MERILÄ LAB
Lab Alumni

Dr Ying Chen
Postdoctoral Fellow
I am a conservation biologist, I obtained my MSc. degree majoring in Nature Conservation at Beijing Forestry University in 2012, a postgraduate diploma on Wildlife Conservation and Practice at Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Oxford University in 2013, a Ph.D. degree majoring in Ecology and Biodiversity at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 2022. I worked as a research assistant in the Wildlife Institute, Beijing Forestry University before I joined HKU, where I participated in Feline survey of snow leopard in the plateau desert ecosystem in Northwest China and Indochinese tiger in the tropical forest ecosystem in Southwest China. These adventures touched my heart and inspired me to build stronger connections with nature and this was realized on my PhD journey through studying ecology of the largest terrestrial mammal in Asia - Asian elephants. I evaluated the impact of land use changes, urban expansion and linear infrastructure development to the long-term viability of Asian elephants, mapped habitat suitability across their entire range in China and studied population demography and structure among fragmented populations using DNA extracted from dung piles. It was brilliant to apply genetic tools to draw a picture of population demography history that dated back to the past, which assists our understanding of contemporary patterns and policy-making based on evidence from science. It is a new journey for me to join the Merilä Lab from October 2022 on, this creates opportunities for me to dive into a world that best utilize population genomics data and front line techniques to enhance our understanding of science towards species adaptation to the environments. I am quite looking forward to the scenery along the route.
Dr Antoine Fraimout
Postdoctoral Fellow
I am an evolutionary biologist interested in understanding how phenotypic and genetic variation is generated, maintained or eroded through biological evolution. I am particularly interested in the effects of evolutionary mechanisms involved in the colonization of new habitats - whether contemporary (e.g. biological invasions) or historical (e.g. post-glaciation colonization) - on the levels of genetic variation in natural populations. My current research project seeks to understand the effects of effective population size (Ne) on different aspects of quantitative genetic variability in natural populations. Specifically, I aim to understand how historical dynamics of Ne have influenced additive and dominance genetic variance levels as well as mutation loads in the nine-spined sticklebacks (Pungitius pungitius). The repeated colonization of freshwater habitats by P. pungitius from large-sized marine populations resulted in the establishment of landlocked small populations, which provide an opportune model to study the role of selection, drift and mutation between populations with markedly different Ne.
My areas of research cover population and quantitative genetics, geometric morphometrics and experimental biology


Dr Lei LV
Visiting researcher
I am an evolutionary ecologist primarily interested in how animals response to climate change, by using long-term individual based field data. I am mainly working on two passerine species: the hair-crested drongo (Dicrurus hottentottus) in central China and the superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) in southeast Australia. For both species, I test how climate influence breeding phenology and reproductive success, how climate affect individual mortality, and whether climate change contribute to the population decline and through which vital rate. For my own drongo project, I also test why the morphological trait (tarsus length) increased dramatically across the last decade. By using genome-wide association analysis, I aim to identify the relevant genes that causing the variations of tarsus length between individuals, and to examine whether the relevant gene of tarsus length is changing across years. Interested PhD students and postdocs are welcome to get in touch to discuss the research opportunities.
Dr Weixuan Ning
Postdoctoral Fellow
I am a plant biologist with a great interest in species adaptation and diversification using genetic/genomic sequencing data. My current research is to investigate the population genetic variation of endangered Aquila sinensis in Hong Kong with SNP data. For my PhD (Massey University), I studied the origins, biogeographical history, and diversification patterns of polyploid-rich genus Azorella in New Zealand using phylogenomic approaches. I worked on the transcriptome comparison of three locally adapted populations of Arabidopsis lyrata for my MSc (Oulu University). I also had experiences working on the allele-specific expression of allopolyploid species Capsella bursa-pastoris (Uppsala University) and phenotyping the African accessions Arabidopsis thaliana (Max Planck Institute).


Dr Xueling (Ling) Yi
Postdoctoral Fellow
I have a broad interest in evolutionary biology and biodiversity. My research includes population genetics, biogeography, phylogeography, and phylogeny, mostly using genetic and genomic methods in non-model animals. I obtained my Ph.D. in May 2022 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the United States, working on the molecular evolution and biogeography of the New World Eptesicus bats. I joined the Merilä Lab between August 2022 and June 2024 to continue working on evolutionary biology and population genomics in nine-spined sticklebacks. My research projects include the patterns of sex-specific gene flow between stickleback populations using whole genome sequencing data, the evolution of sex chromosomes and sex determination systems, and the quantitative trait (QTL) analyses of adaptive traits in freshwater sticklebacks. I also have continuous research interests and research projects on the evolution and genomics of bats. Read more about me on my personal website.