Originally a Bay Area native, Maria received her BS in Microbiology from UC San Diego. Previously, she worked making antigenic proteins and aiding in therapeutic antibody discovery and production. In the Ott lab, she is interested in exploring airway organoids and other methods to study SARS-CoV-2 infection and developing therapeutics against viral protein targets. Outside of the lab, Maria enjoys camping, hiking, traveling, and lacrosse.
Archives: People
Person
Zapatero Belinchon
Francisco (Fran) comes originally from Spain and obtained his PhD in Virology at Hannover Medical School in Germany. His main interests are the dissection of viral entry and host‑pathogen interactions of emerging and re-emerging pathogens using novel proteomics approaches. Outside the lab, he enjoys hiking, camping, playing video games, and tasting a good ol’ brew.
Padget
Rachel received her B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Central Missouri, an M.S. in Biology from Missouri State University, and her Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health, where she studied the roles of viruses in sudden cardiac arrest. In the Ott lab, she focuses on the role of factor acetylation in HIV latency and SARS-CoV-2 toxicity in the heart. Outside of the lab, she enjoys running down to the ocean and taking the bus back uphill, playing video games with her cats, and baking cookies.
Matsui
Yusuke studied basic HIV research and clinical medicine at Kyoto University, Japan.
He then joined the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan, where he was involved in the outbreak control of infectious diseases with molecular techniques.
At Ott lab, he is working on research to eradicate diseases caused by HIV and SARS-CoV-2 by studying them from the molecular level.
Outside of the lab, he enjoys participating in marathon races around the world.
Li
Zichong was born in China. After an M.S. research on shrimp White Spot Syndrome Virus, Zichong did his PhD in UC Berkeley exploring the functions of the human transcription elongation machinery in HIV infection. With prior experience on genome wide genetic screens, in the Ott lab, his focus is to derive unbiased comprehensive networks of validated gene pairs supporting critical biological and pathological processes, including chronic HIV infection. Outside of the lab, he enjoys binge-reading research papers, thought experimenting, and eating cheese salad.