Melanie Ott, MD, PhD

Senior Investigator, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology

Professor

Department of Medicine

+1 415 734-4807

Research Overview:

We study viruses of today to be prepared for the viruses of tomorrow. Currently, we focus on multiple human pathogens—the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), Zika virus, the hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV and HCV), influenza A and B , SARS-CoV-2 and multiple common cold coronaviruses. We use four main technologies—human organoids, rapid quantitative diagnostics, a viral protein expression library, and transcriptomics. We deliberately apply lessons learned from one virus to others; specifically, we search for common host and viral factors that can be targeted by panviral therapeutics against respiratory viruses, define new ways to silence and cure chronic viral infections such as HIV and HBV and develop versatile, easy to reprogram CRISPR diagnostics that use mobile phones as readers. We welcome graduate students into our diverse and friendly research teams as equal partners and nurture their scientific success and personal growth.

Primary Thematic Area:

Virology & Microbial Pathogenesis

Secondary Thematic Area:

Immunology

Research Summary:

Molecular Pathogenesis of HIV and Hepatitis C Virus Infections

Websites

Publications:

The lysine methyltransferase SMYD5 amplifies HIV-1 transcription and is post-transcriptionally upregulated by Tat and USP11.

Cell reports

Boehm D, Lam V, Schnolzer M, Ott M

Rapid assembly of SARS-CoV-2 genomes reveals attenuation of the Omicron BA.1 variant through NSP6.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology

Taha TY, Chen IP, Hayashi JM, Tabata T, Walcott K, Kimmerly GR, Syed AM, Ciling A, Suryawanshi RK, Martin HS, Bach BH, Tsou CL, Montano M, Khalid MM, Sreekumar BK, Kumar GR, Wyman S, Doudna JA, Ott M

SARS-CoV-2 infection of airway organoids reveals conserved use of Tetraspanin-8 by Ancestral, Delta, and Omicron variants.

Stem cell reports

Hysenaj L, Little S, Kulhanek K, Magnen M, Bahl K, Gbenedio OM, Prinz M, Rodriguez L, Andersen C, Rao AA, Shen A, Lone JC, Lupin-Jimenez LC, Bonser LR, Serwas NK, Mick E, Khalid MM, Taha TY, Kumar R, Li JZ, Ding VW, Matsumoto S, Maishan M, Sreekumar B, Simoneau C, Nazarenko I, Tomlinson MG, Khan K, von Gottberg A, Sigal A, Looney MR, Fragiadakis GK, Jablons DM, Langelier CR, Matthay M, Krummel M, Erle DJ, Combes AJ, Sil A, Ott M, Kratz JR, Roose JP

Nuclear accumulation of host transcripts during Zika Virus Infection.

PLoS pathogens

Leon KE, Khalid MM, Flynn RA, Fontaine KA, Nguyen TT, Kumar GR, Simoneau CR, Tomar S, Jimenez-Morales D, Dunlap M, Kaye J, Shah PS, Finkbeiner S, Krogan NJ, Bertozzi C, Carette JE, Ott M

Mild SARS-CoV-2 infection results in long-lasting microbiota instability.