Olga Vinnere Pettersson

Project manager at Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology; Facilities; Uppsala Genome Center

Telephone:: +46 18 471 44 93
Mobile phone:: +46 70 425 01 34
E-mail:: olga.pettersson@igp.uu.se
Visiting address:: BMC, Husargatan 3
75122 Uppsala
Postal address:: Box 815
75108 Uppsala

Download contact information for Olga Vinnere Pettersson at Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology; Facilities; Uppsala Genome Center

ORCID:: 0000-0002-5597-1870

Short presentation

I am the scientific lead for SciLifeLab Planetary Biology area, a cross-disciplinary initiative aimed at combing various data types, genomic, molecular as well as ecological, in order to elevate Swedish biodiversity research to the international cutting-edge.

I personally have 20 years of experience in de novo sequencing and non-model organism genomics, 13 of which as NGS expert at Uppsala Genome Center.

Keywords

Genomics
NGS
non-model species
biodiversity

Biography

With a background in biology, I began my scientific career as a mycologist, earning an MSc from the University of Latvia. In 1999, I got a PhD fellowship from the Swedish Royal Academy of Forestry and Agriculture, focusing on the taxonomy of plant-associated asexual fungi, and obtained my PhD from Uppsala University in 2024.

After working in fungal genomics at SLU, I transitioned in 2012 to SciLifeLab’s Genomics Platform, supporting researchers in experimental design, nucleic acid extractions, and next-generation sequencing (NGS) applications. My expertise in long-read sequencing led to involvement in major international initiatives, including the Vertebrate Genome Project Sample Prep Committee (2018), the Earth Biogenome Project Sampling Subcommittee (2019), and the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA), where I became a founding member in 2020 and was elected as a Vice-Chair in 2023.

Currently, I lead UU and SciLifeLab’s involvement in the EU-funded Biodiversity Genomics Europe (BGE) consortium, co-leading efforts with the Welcome Sanger Institute to sequence reference genomes of European biodiversity. I also spearhead the creation of a pan-European network of biodiversity sequencing facilities.

As one of two Scientific Leads of SciLifeLab’s Planetary Biology Capability, I focus on integrating diverse technologies to study life in its environmental context. This initiative promotes a multi-technology approach to address complex biological questions, ensuring SciLifeLab’s platforms support researchers working on non-model species. A key goal is to facilitate collaboration between SciLifeLab infrastructure, technology developers, and research groups, fostering innovation in biodiversity and ecosystem studies.

I am a strong advocate for collaboration and open science, fostering knowledge exchange across infrastructures and research communities.