User:Damian Ekiert

Damian C. Ekiert PhD Candidate Department of Molecular Biology and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology The Scripps Research Institute 10550 N. Torrey Pines Rd. BCC-206 La Jolla, CA 92037 858-784-2941 dcekiert at scripps dot edu

I am a graduate student in the Wilson Lab at The Scripps Research Institute.

Research Interests

• Neutralization of influenza viruses by antibodies
• Rational vaccine design guided by broadly neutralizing antibodies
• Diversity of antibody structure and function

Education

• 2011 (Expected), PhD, Scripps Research Institute
  
• 2005, B.A. in Biology, The University of Chicago
  

Past Lab Work

• 2007-2011: Prof. Ian A. Wilson Lab, thesis, structural characterization of broadly neutralizing antibodies against the influenza A virus.
• 2006-2007: Prof. Carlos Barbas Lab, graduate rotation, directed evolution of site specific recombinases for genome engineering and gene therapy.
• 2005-2006: Prof. Michael Glotzer Lab (gap year) working on cytokinesis in mammalian cells.
• 2003-2004: Prof. Miroslav Radman (Université Paris Descartes) and Prof. Masamichi Kohiyama (Université Pierre et Marie Curie) groups during year abroad in Paris, working on mismatch-stimulated killing and the localization of replication forks in E. coli.
• 2003-2005: Prof. Bernard Strauss Lab (University of Chicago), undergraduate honors thesis, investigating the coordination of DNA replication and cell division in E. coli.

Publications

• Wang TT, Tan GS, Hai R, Pica N, Ngai L, Ekiert DC, Wilson IA, García-Sastre A, Moran TM, Palese P.

Vaccination with a synthetic peptide from the influenza virus hemagglutinin provides protection against distinct viral subtypes.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Nov 2;107(44):18979-84.

PMID: 20956293

• Xu R *, Ekiert DC *, Krause JC, Hai R, Crowe JE Jr, Wilson IA.

Structural basis of preexisting immunity to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza virus.

Science. 2010 Apr 16;328(5976):357-60.

PMID: 20339031

• Ekiert DC, Bhabha G, Elsliger MA, Friesen RH, Jongeneelen M, Throsby M, Goudsmit J, Wilson IA.

Antibody recognition of a highly conserved influenza virus epitope.

Science. 2009 Apr 10;324(5924):246-51.

PMID: 19251591

• Simon GC, Schonteich E, Wu CC, Piekny A, Ekiert D, Yu X, Gould GW, Glotzer M, Prekeris R.

Sequential Cyk-4 binding to ECT2 and FIP3 regulates cleavage furrow ingression and abscission during cytokinesis.

EMBO J. 2008 Jul 9;27(13):1791-803.

PMID: 18511905

• Matic I, Ekiert D, Radman M, Kohiyama M.

Generation of DNA-free Escherichia coli cells by 2-aminopurine requires mismatch repair and nonmethylated DNA.

J Bacteriol. 2006 Jan;188(1):339-42.

PMID: 16352851

• Strauss B, Kelly K, Ekiert D.

Cytochrome oxidase deficiency protects Escherichia coli from cell death but not from filamentation due to thymine deficiency or DNA polymerase inactivation.

J Bacteriol. 2005 Apr;187(8):2827-35.

PMID: 15805529

• Strauss B, Kelly K, Dincman T, Ekiert D, Biesieda T, Song R.

Cell death in Escherichia coli dnaE(Ts) mutants incubated at a nonpermissive temperature is prevented by mutation in the cydA gene.

J Bacteriol. 2004 Apr;186(7):2147-55.

PMID: 15028700