Evolutionary and conservation genomics
Genomic pedigrees, runs of homozygosity and longitudinal fitness data.
Academic curriculum vitae
Weronika Klecel, PhD
Evolutionary genomicist and quantitative geneticist studying how inbreeding, demography and environment shape the health and persistence of small equid populations.
Profile
I combine longitudinal field data, population and pedigree genomics, computer vision and open-source research software. My current work centres on free-living Sable Island horses and comparative conservation genomics.
Population history and breeding systems
Founder contributions, demographic bottlenecks and diversity change.
Computational phenotyping
Markerless pose estimation, laser photogrammetry and reproducible workflows.
Academic appointments
Oct 2025–present
Postdoctoral Associate
Poissant Lab · Faculty of Veterinary Medicine · University of Calgary
Investigating inbreeding depression in Sable Island horses by integrating genomic pedigrees and runs of homozygosity with long-term records of survival, reproduction, morphology, parasites and microbiome.
Mar–Aug 2025
Guest Postdoctoral Fellow
Poissant Lab · University of Calgary
Developed a deep-learning pipeline for contact-free morphometry and joined the 2025 Sable Island field campaign.
Jun 2024–Sep 2025
Research and Teaching Assistant
Warsaw University of Life Sciences
Taught genetics, genomics and bioinformatics; supervised student projects; and supported quantitative analyses and manuscripts.
Sep 2023–Feb 2024
Visiting PhD Student
Brooks Equine Genetics Lab · University of Florida
Built a markerless computer-vision workflow from more than 1,000 videos of trotting horses and led development of refineDLC.
Nov–Dec 2022
NAWA PROM Visiting PhD Fellow
Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse · University of Toulouse
Worked on equine evolutionary genomics and whole-genome analysis in Professor Ludovic Orlando’s group.
Mar–Apr 2022
Visiting PhD Student
National Research Institute of Animal Production · Poland
Contributed mitochondrial diversity, phylogenetic and bioinformatic analyses to a collaborative equine-genetics study.
Oct 2020–Sep 2024
PhD Researcher
Warsaw University of Life Sciences
Studied Arabian population structure, pedigree diversity, conformation and movement through international research, software development and teaching.
Education
Awarded Feb 2025
PhD in Animal Science and Fisheries
Warsaw University of Life Sciences
Population structure, conformation and movement of Purebred Arabian horses. Research completed in 2024; GPA 4.88/5.0.
2020
MSc in Animal Science
Warsaw University of Life Sciences
Racing performance in Thoroughbred and Purebred Arabian horses. Graduated with distinction, first in class; GPA 4.87/5.0.
2019
Engineer degree in Animal Science
Warsaw University of Life Sciences
Animal breeding, genetics and conservation. BSc equivalent; graduated first in class; GPA 4.67/5.0.
Research outputs
Open-source software
refineDLC
Lead developer of a published Python package for advanced post-processing of DeepLabCut outputs.
Precision phenotyping
Equine computer vision
More than 1,000 videos, a 16-landmark movement model, and a field pipeline using 26 body landmarks plus two laser-calibration points.
Longitudinal resources
Population-scale data
More than 12,000 Arabian pedigree records and a 19-year Sable Island resource spanning over 1,500 identified horses.
Publications
- 2026
Stefaniuk-Szmukier M, Klecel W, Szmatoła T, Ropka-Molik K. Associations of genetic variants in the PPARD gene to racing performance in pigeons (Columba livia). Developmental Biology 530:260–264. DOI
- 2025
Klecel W, Rahael H, Brooks SA. refineDLC: an advanced post-processing pipeline for DeepLabCut outputs. Biology Methods and Protocols 10(1):bpaf084. DOI
- 2024
Klecel W, Kloch M, Wojciechowska M, Gajewska M, Martyniuk E. Population structure and genetic diversity of Polish Arabian horses based on pedigree data. animal 18(5):101148. DOI
- 2024
Gmel AI, Lamas LP, Rosa TV, Stefaniuk-Szmukier M, Klecel W, Martin-Giménez T, Cruz AM, Weishaupt MA, Neuditschko M. Shape and joint angle data for seven European horse breeds and their repeatability. Data in Brief 56:110799. DOI
- 2024
Gmel AI, Haraldsdóttir EH, Serra-Bragança F, Lamas LP, Rosa TV, Stefaniuk-Szmukier M, Klecel W, Neuditschko M, Weishaupt MA. Inertial sensor data of horses from four breeds at walk and trot in hand on a straight line. Data in Brief 55:110764. DOI
- 2023
Klecel W, Drobik-Czwarno W, Martyniuk E. Judging the Arabian Beauty: what are the relationships between different scoring categories? Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 123:104247. DOI
- 2022
Myćka G, Klecel W, Stefaniuk-Szmukier M, Jaworska J, Musiał AD, Ropka-Molik K. Mitochondrial Whole D-Loop Variability in Polish Draft Horses of Sztumski Subtype. Animals 12(15):1870. DOI
- 2021
Klecel W, Martyniuk E. From the Eurasian Steppes to the Roman Circuses: a review of early development of horse breeding and management. Animals 11(7):1859. DOI
Proceedings and preprint
- 2026
Siwek M, Bee G, Debernardis R, Klecel W, Kozlowski K, Martyniuk E, Pszczola M, Wolc A, Yalcin S, Zarski D. The NEW network: young researchers and the global science community. 13th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, contribution 2471.
- 2021
Klecel W, Drobik-Czwarno W, Martyniuk E. Factors influencing racing performance in Polish Thoroughbreds and Purebred Arabian horses. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 100:103499. Peer-reviewed conference proceeding.
- 2022
Klecel W, Drobik-Czwarno W, Martyniuk E. Female Factor: the influence of dams on the racing performance of Purebred Arabians and Thoroughbreds. SSRN Electronic Journal. Preprint. DOI
Selected presentations
Level of genomic inbreeding does not affect reproductive performance and multivariate morphology in a closed Straight Egyptian Arabian mare population
15th Havemeyer Horse Genome Workshop · Lexington · Presenting-author poster
Precision phenotyping system for conformation and locomotion traits in various livestock species
87th Polish Society of Animal Production Symposium · Presenting-author oral
Employing deep neural networks for precision phenotyping of selected kinematic traits in Arabian horses: pilot heritability and inbreeding analyses
14th Havemeyer Horse Genome Workshop · Caen · Presenting-author oral
Phenotypic correlations between selected kinematic traits in Arabian horses: preliminary results and possible genetic background
31st Plant and Animal Genome Conference · San Diego · Presenting-author poster
Utilising deep neural networks to assess quality of movement in the Arabian horse
9th UF/IFAS Graduate Student Symposium · Presenting-author poster
Long short-term memory convolutional neural networks: a novel approach to accurate assessment of Arabian horse movement
13th Havemeyer Horse Genome Workshop · Cornell University · Presenting-author poster
Factors influencing racing performance in Polish Thoroughbreds and Purebred Arabian horses
Equine Science Society International Symposium · Presenting-author oral
Teaching and supervision
University teaching
Approximately 300 contact hours delivered to around 180 students in bioinformatic analyses in genomics, population genetics and breeding methods, animal breeding and genetics, and breeding policy and legislation.
Research supervision
Primary supervision and project mentorship across two MSc and two BSc projects in inbreeding depression, equine kinematics, computational animal behaviour and dairy-cattle phenotyping.
Mentoring
Fulbright Buddies mentor and informal advisor in computer vision, R, Python and high-performance computing workflows.
Leadership, service and distinctions
Leadership and service
- Elected Vice-President Operations for 2026–27, University of Calgary Postdoctoral Association; term beginning September 2026.
- Member-at-Large, University of Calgary Postdoctoral Association Executive Committee, April–August 2026.
- Member, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Postdoctoral Planning Group, 2025–present.
- Doctoral representative, WULS Senate Commission for International Cooperation, 2024.
- Elected class president, three terms, 2017–2020.
- Ad hoc peer reviewer for animal, Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology and PLOS ONE.
Funding and distinctions
- VPR Postdoctoral Excellence Award · University of Calgary · 2025–2027
- WULS Rector’s Mobility WFS Fellowships · 2023 and 2025
- USDA Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative Travel Grant · 2024
- NAWA PROM Fellowship · 2022
- Polish Society of Animal Production Best Master’s Thesis Award · 2021
- Equine Science Society Genetics Graduate Student Competition, third place · 2021
- WULS Doctoral School Scholarship · 2020–2024
- WULS Rector’s Scholarships for academic excellence, three awards · 2017–2020
Methods and skills
Quantitative and population genetics
Linear, logistic and multivariate models; pedigree and founder analysis; inbreeding, ROH, relatedness and population structure.
Genomics and bioinformatics
Genotype quality control, multimodal data integration, SNP-array and targeted-sequencing workflows; PLINK, Bowtie2 and GATK.
Programming and reproducibility
R, Python, Bash, Git, GitHub and Linux; scripted workflows, validation, documentation and reproducible figures.
Computer vision and HPC
DeepLabCut, landmark tracking, image and video curation, post-processing, Bash and Slurm workflows.
Laboratory and field
DNA extraction, RT-PCR, electrophoresis, non-invasive sampling, laser photogrammetry, population surveys and traceability.
Languages
Polish, native; English, full professional; French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, limited.
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