Ott Lab News

Dr. Ott is part of a team at Gladstone researching SARS-CoV-2. She is working with Dr. Jennifer Doudna to develop a CRISPR-based method to rapidly measure COVID-19 RNA. By combining the technique with iPhone technology, they aim to develop a diagnostic that could deliver rapid results and be widely deployed even far from traditional labs, such as in airports and other ports of entry, and in remote communities throughout the world. More info on Gladstone’s COVID-19 research can be found here: https://gladstone.org/news/gladstone-institutes-responds-covid-19-pandemic.

Melanie Ott is part of the team at Gladstone working on research around the current global coronavirus pandemic. She has given several talks and appeared on television and radio to discuss the situation. You can read her answers to some questions about the novel coronavirus here: https://gladstone.org/news/gladstone-preparing-start-research-live-coronavirus.

Ott Lab graduate student Camille Simoneau presented data about gender equity at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine meeting on November 19, 2019 in Seattle, Washington. Camille and a classmate, Emma Alme, held a Town Hall in March to discuss ways to improve gender and sexual harassment at UCSF. They conducted live polling during the Town Hall to get feedback on their recommendations and presented the data from these polls at the NASEM event. You can view the poster from their presentation here: https://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/sitessite/documents/webpage/sites_196864.pdf.

Great job, Camille!

Ott Lab graduate student Kristoffer Leon presented at the Bay Area RNA Club on December 4, 2019. His 7-minute talk was entitled “The Role of RNA Surveillance Mechanisms during Zika Virus Infection and Pathogenesis”.

Great job, Kris!

On November 18, 2019, the Gladstone Institutes and UCSF hosted Dr. Antonio Lanzavecchia, who presented a seminar entitled “Dissecting human antibody responses: useful, basic and surprising findings”. Dr. Lanzavecchia gave a wonderful talk and met with both trainees and faculty throughout his visit. This was the first seminar in the new Infectious Disease and Human Health Series, which is organized by GIVI, HPMI, QBI and BioFulcrum II.

Congrats to Sarah McMahon who was recently awarded the Tobacco-related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) fellowship to study the role of NF-kB acetylation in models of therapeutic resistance in non-small cell lung cancer.

Sarah recently presented her work at the 2019 FASEB meeting on Protein Acetylation in Disease in Lisbon, Portugal. She gave a phenomenal talk on her work titled, “Regulatory Role for NF-kB/RelA K310 Acetylation Identified In Vivo by a CRISPR Knock-in Approach”, and was a recipient of the “Best Poster” award.

Ott Lab postdoctoral scholar Nathan Meyers gave a talk entitled “Hepatitis C virus infects and perturbs liver stem cells” at the UCSF Mini-Symposium on Liver Stem Cells on May 30, 2019. The Mini-Symposium was part of the UCSF Liver Center’s annual programming, and included talks from researchers at Gladstone, UCSF, and Stanford University.

Great job, Nathan!

Dr. Melanie Ott was nominated for and accepted an NIH Merit Award for her R01 “Role of Factor Acetylation in the Regulation of HIV transcription”. Merit awards enable NIH Institutes to give investigators with stellar records of research accomplishment a five-year award with the possibility of extending the initial award for up to five additional years without undergoing another IRG peer review.

Congratulations, Melanie!

Kristoffer Leon, a graduate student in the Ott Lab, has been awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for his project ‘Understanding the Role of RNA Surveillance Mechanisms in Neuropathogenesis during Zika Virus Infection’. This is an F31 that will help Kris fund his education and research.

Congrats, Kris!