Hendrik-Jan Megens

Hendrik-Jan Megens is an Assistant Professor in Animal Breeding and Genetics at Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Netherlands, affiliated with the Wageningen Institute for Advanced Studies (WIAS). His dr.ir. title reflects a Dutch engineering doctorate, and he maintains an active research profile with over 200 publications and 51 datasets. His work integrates genomic analysis with conservation and aquaculture applications across vertebrate species.

Research interests focus on:

• Genomic consequences of inbreeding in fragmented populations
• Environmental adaptation mechanisms in aquaculture species
• Structural variants in chromosome evolution
• Functional annotation of deleterious mutations
• Epigenetic regulation in reproductive transitions
• Genotype-environment interactions in growth traits

Recent publications (2023-2025) reveal dual expertise in wildlife conservation (European wild boar, sharks) and aquaculture genomics (tilapia, seabream, oysters). Key trends include application of long-read sequencing (Pore-C) for structural variant detection, pCADD-based prioritization of causal mutations, and investigation of polyploidy effects in teleost fish. His work bridges fundamental evolutionary questions with practical breeding challenges.

Megens has co-supervised 12 research projects including five PhD candidates:

• S. Ousley: Super corals project (reef restoration genomics)
• G. Kuguru: Black tipped reef shark diversity (Maldives)
• A. Blasweiler: AquaFAANG (fish health immunology)
• X. Yu: Nile tilapia adaptation architecture
• H. van Kruistum: Livebearing fish reproductive genomics

He leads projects on genomic tools development (pCADD) and contributes to international consortia like the European Reference Genome Atlas. His team collaborates across WUR's Animal Breeding and Genetics group, focusing on translating genomic findings into conservation strategies and sustainable aquaculture practices through field studies and computational pipelines.