Melanie Ott’s lab studies viruses that infect humans, and applies the lessons learned to new and emerging viruses. Founded at the peak of the AIDS epidemic, the lab has since broadened its scope from HIV to other viruses with global relevance such as Hepatitis C Virus, Zika Virus, and SARS-CoV-2. The Ott Lab combines broad expertise—in virology, cell biology, biochemistry, systems biology, and chromatin biology—with a diverse and highly collaborative approach. They focus on human-host factors restricting or enabling viral infections, and build and study complex primary cell systems, such as organoids, to model physiological conditions closely. Ott’s team leads the HOPE Collaboratory, an NIH-funded multidisciplinary research consortium dedicated to eradicating HIV.

Disease Areas

SARS-CoV-2
HIV/AIDS
Zika
Influenza
Immune Aging

Areas of Expertise

Virology
Chromatin Biology
Organoids
Lipid Droplets
CRISPR Diagnostics
Working in the Ott lab

Lab Focus

Developing a diagnostic platform that combines CRISPR-based biochemistry with smartphone optics for the rapid and quantitative detection of RNA viruses—including SARS-CoV-2 and HIV.
Utilizing human organoids derived from adult tissues, adult stem cells, or induced pluripotent stem cells to model infection of the lung, liver, intestine, brain, or airways.
Building a library of all the proteins encoded in the genomes of HIV, Zika, influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and others as a resource for the research community.
Adapting single-cell and bulk genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic technology to analyze organoids and immune cells, and innovative chromatin tools to study latent HIV provirus.

Research Impact

The Ott Lab has uncovered a number of ways in which viruses harness the biology of human cells to their own benefit and to the detriment of their hosts. These findings pave the way for the development of therapies that target the virus-host interface.

For instance, the lab demonstrated the importance of non-histone protein acetylation in HIV transcription and latency, ushering in the use of drugs that block acetylation as a potential step toward the eradication of HIV. They discovered a major pathway explaining hepatitis C virus’s dependence on lipid droplets inside liver cells, and identified nonsense-mediated RNA decay as a new host defense against RNA viruses that is inactivated by Zika virus.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ott’s lab and collaborators developed a testing platform that detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA without amplification, using CRISPR/Cas13a and a mobile phone. The platform could be deployed for rapid molecular testing at home or at a point-of-care facility.

They have used genome-wide CRISPR screens to identify host pathways enabling the replication of SARS-CoV-2 and of common cold coronaviruses as the basis for new pan-coronaviral therapeutic strategies.

They have also characterized Delta, Epsilon, and Omicron variants with pseudotyped viruses, virus-like particles and full-length molecular clones to identify mutations in S and N proteins that increase viral spread.

 

Professional Titles

Senior Investigator and Director, Gladstone Institute of Virology

Director, Gladstone Institute of Virology

Senior Investigator, Gladstone Institutes

Senior Vice President, Gladstone Institutes

Professor, Department of Medicine, UC San Francisco

Director, Michael Hulton Center for HIV Cure Research

Bio

A native of Germany, Melanie Ott, MD, PhD, is the director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology, a senior investigator at Gladstone Institutes, and a professor of medicine at UCSF.

Ott is passionate about using viruses to find fundamental new biology in host cells. She has made important discoveries about how viruses—including the hepatitis C virus and Zika—hijack human cells, and has contributed to efforts to eradicate HIV by gaining insight into viral transcriptional control. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, she pivoted the focus of her team and spearheaded the effort to establish a dedicated airborne pathogen BSL-3 lab to enable work on live SARS-CoV-2.

Prior to joining Gladstone in 2002, Ott started her own research group at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany, working closely with Nobel laureate Harald zur Hausen. She is a trained neurologist with an MD from the University of Frankfurt/Main in Germany. She transitioned to basic virology research during the AIDS crisis, earning a PhD in molecular medicine from the Elmezzi Graduate School in Manhasset, New York.

Ott has received several honors, including the Young Researcher Award at the European Conference on Experimental AIDS Research and the Hellman Award. She is a member of the Association of American Physicians and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. She is a recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Public Service from UCSF for her work as the founder and co-chair of the student outreach committee at Gladstone. Ott also received the California Life Sciences Association’s Biotechnology Educator Pantheon Award for establishing the PUMAS (Promoting Underrepresented Minorities Advancing in the Sciences) internship program at Gladstone, which seeks to increase diversity in STEM.

How Did You Get Your Start in Science?

“I worked as a neurologist when the first genome was sequenced and PCR was discovered. This triggered my passion for the molecular basis of diseases.”

Melanie Ott, MD, PhD

Honors and Awards

2019 NIH Merit Award, National Institutes of Health

2018 UCSF AIDS Research Institute Award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring

2018 Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (Elected)

2017 DiNA Award Biotechnology Educator of the Year, California Life Sciences Association (CLSA)

2014 Avant-Garde Award, National Institutes of Health

2013 Member of Association of American Physicians (Elected)

2008 Thomas N. Burbridge Award, UC San Francisco

2008 Sandler Opportunity Award, UC San Francisco

2008 UCSF Chancellor’s Award for Public Service, UC San Francisco

2006 Hellman Family Award, UC San Francisco

2000 Young Researcher Award, European Conference on Experimental AIDS Research, Madrid, Spain

1999 Young Research Award, European Conference on Experimental AID Research, Tampere, Finland

1991 Honors, Magna Cum Laude, University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany

1984 Scholarship, German National Merit Foundation

Publications

Contact

Melanie Ott
Email
415.734.4807


Lab Members

Daniela Boehm, PhD
Staff Research Scientist II
Irene Chen, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Irene Chen, PhD
Collaborator
Patricia Defechereux, PhD
Scientific Project Manager
Tyler Detomasi
Visiting Scientist
Patrik Dufault-Geleziunas
Student Intern
Daniel Fletcher, PhD
Affiliate Investigator
Parinaz Fozouni
Collaborator
Robert Furler O'Brien, PhD
Visiting Scientist
Ronnie Gascon
Research Associate II
Ludivine Grzelak, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Jennifer Hayashi, PhD
Scientist
Sachin Jajoo
Research Associate I
Akshaya Jayakarunakaran
Research Associate I
Julia Kazmierski, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Mir Khalid, PhD
Collaborator
Kanika Khanna, PhD
Scientific Program Leader I
Gabriella Kimmerly
Collaborator
Renuka Kumar, PhD
Scientific Program Leader II
Anna Kurianowicz
Student Intern
Quinn Langdon, PhD
Bioinformatician I
Zichong Li, PhD
Research Scientist
Katelyn Luo
Student Intern
Yusuke Matsui, MD, PhD
Scientist
Maria McCavitt-Malvido
Research Associate III
Mauricio Montano
Research Scientist
Rachel Padget, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Valentina Pedrero
Student Intern
Julia Rosecrans
Research Associate I
Ursula Schulze-Gahmen, PhD
Senior Staff Research Scientist
Camille Simoneau, PhD
Collaborator
Ava Sorenson
Student Intern
Bharath Sreekumar, PhD
Scientist
Rahul Suryawanshi, PhD
Scientific Program Leader II
Chia-Lin Tsou, MS
Research Scientist
Cecilia Vagi-Szmola
Visiting Researcher
Francisco Zapatero Belinchon, PhD
Scientist