Juliane Dohm

Juliane Dohm is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Computational Biology, Department of Biotechnology and Food Science, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). Her research focuses on computational genomics, particularly in plant species such as beet, spinach, and quinoa, using high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics tools to understand genome evolution, structural variation, and crop domestication.

Education:

• Habilitation in Bioinformatics (Venia Docendi), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, 2020
• Doctorate in Bioinformatics (Dr. rer. nat.), University of Potsdam and Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics Berlin, 2008
• Diploma in Biochemistry (Dipl.-Biochem.), Ruhr University Bochum and Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology Dortmund, 2002

Her research interests span computational biology, plant genomics, structural variation, phylogenetics, population genomics, and machine learning applications in genomic data analysis. She employs long-read sequencing, k-mer analysis, and comparative genomics to unravel evolutionary relationships and identify candidate genes for agronomic traits in crops of the Amaranthaceae family. Her work bridges bioinformatics with plant breeding and conservation genetics.

The recent publications highlight a strong trend in plant genome analysis, particularly focusing on beet and spinach. Key themes include genome assembly, structural variation, domestication history, and gene discovery using machine learning. Several studies employ k-mer-based phylogenetics and haplotype analysis to explore evolutionary dynamics and flowering time regulation. Additional work extends into microbial genomics and metatranscriptomics, particularly in livestock and industrial yeast systems.

Juliane Dohm has supervised numerous Master’s and PhD theses in bioinformatics and genomics, mentoring students in areas such as quinoa subgenome separation, beet structural variation, and spinach genomics. She is involved in multiple externally funded research projects, including FWF- and EU-supported initiatives on beet genomics and crop wild relative conservation. She also contributes to the scientific community through conference organization and presentations at major bioinformatics events.

She leads research within the Institute of Computational Biology, collaborating closely with Heinz Himmelbauer and contributing to the development of genomic resources for key crops. Her lab utilizes advanced sequencing technologies and computational pipelines to generate high-quality genome assemblies and functional annotations.