Dean McKeown

July 2025- present

In 2019 I completed my PhD in Marine Virology at the Marine Biological Association of the UK (MBA) in the lab of Dr. Declan Schroeder. My first postdoc was in the Station Biologique de Roscoff, in the Algal Genetics Group led by Dr. Mark Cock, where I annotated giant virus elements integrated in brown algal genomes as part of the PhaeoExplorer project (2019-2022). Next I returned to the Schroeder lab, this time at the University of Minnesota (UoM), where I performed in-house sequencing and metagenomic analyses of RNA viruses in bees (2023-2024). My research interests are in applying multiomics approaches towards understanding the molecular mechanisms of ecological adaptation, particularly when they involve viruses and transposable elements. In the González lab I am examining the role of TEs in the invasive and adaptive capacity of Drosophila species.