Lab Members

Principal Investigator

Karen Ottemann, Ph.D. Karen grew up in Michigan and Illinois before landing in the San Francisco Bay area in 7th grade. She received her B.S. in Bacteriology from UC Davis in 1987, worked for almost a year at Cetus Corporation, and then carried out Ph.D. work on the Vibrio cholerae virulence gene regulator ToxR at Harvard University in the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Department with Prof. John Mekalanos. After finishing her Ph.D. in 1994, she moved to UC Berkeley Molecular Cell Biology Department to work on Salmonella chemoreceptors with Prof. Daniel E. Koshland, Jr. from 1994-1999. In 1999 she started her own lab at UC Santa Cruz focussed on colonization abilities and chemotaxis of Helicobacter pylori. She enjoys sharing science with her lab members, the collegial atmosphere and amazing research done by her colleagues, and exploring the many gorgeous campus hiking and biking trails. 

Email: ottemann@ucsc.edu

Lab Members

Xiaolin Liu, Ph.D.

Post doc Xiaolin grew up in the beautiful Shandong Peninsula between the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea. He completed his Ph.D. work on Azorhizobium caulinodans chemotaxis in 2021 from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) and Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research. During his Ph.D., he and earned a China Scholarship Council award to work in the Ottemann Lab for part of his Ph.D. His postdoc focus is on H. pylori flagellar and chemotaxis signaling responses. When out of lab, he likes reading and hiking. Email: xliu241@ucsc.edu

Christina Yang, Ph.D.

Christina grew up in the Central Valley before moving to Santa Cruz. She completed her B.S. in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology at UCSC in 2016. As an undergraduate, she worked in the Ottemann lab studying H. pylori gland colonization dynamics. She started her graduate studies in 2016 in the Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology Dept. Her project investigates the relationship between chemotaxis and gland colonization dynamics with a focus on TlpB. She completed her PhD in 2022, and is currently a postdoctoral scholar. Email: cyang26@ucsc.edu

Raymond Lopez Magaña, Ph.D. student. 

Raymond was born in the central coast of California. He received his B.S. in Microbiology from SFSU where he studied host-microbe interactions in the J. Chen Lab. In 2017, he moved back to the central coast to start his graduate studies in the department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology at UC Santa Cruz. He is currently focused on understanding the role of a cytoplasmic chemoreceptor and its role in H. pylori pathogenesis. When not in lab, Raymond likes to hike, draw, and spend time with family. Email: rlopezma@ucsc.edu

Yasmine Elshenawi, Ph.D. Student 

Yazzy was born in Montreal but grew up in Orange County. She graduated in 2019 from UC Santa Cruz with a B.S. in Biology. She joined the Ottemann lab first as a postbac, then as a MS student in 2020, and now as a Ph.D. student in the Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology Dept. She is currently studying ribosomal silencing and chronic colonization in H. pylori. When she has free time she enjoys drawing, reading at the beach, and running. Email: yelshena@ucsc.edu

Angela Lane, Ph.D. Student 

Angela was born in Arkansas, but she grew up in Oakland, California. She completed her BA at UC Berkeley in MCB, and then from 2018-2021, she completed her MS at SFSU where she studied cell communication via the Wnt signaling pathway at the Burrus lab. Angela joined the Ottemann Lab in Spring 2022, where she will study H. pylori transcriptional responses. During her leisure time, she participates in social justice work, watches Sci-fi movies, cooks low-fat gourmet dishes, and loves reading classical literature. Email: anelane@ucsc.edu  

Sydney Smyer, Ph.D. Student

Syd joined the lab in Spring of 2022, after completing her BS at University of San Diego. She is working to develop a project focused on the role of chemotaxis and how it affects pathogenesis, with a focus on the TlpC chemoreceptor. email sysmyer@ucsc.edu

Eric Hao Lin Huang, Undergraduate

Eric was born in Goleta, Santa Barbara but grew up in Arcadia, California. He is working towards completing a B.S. in Microbiology at UCSC. In May 2022 he joined the Ottemann Lab as a Laboratory Assistant. In his free time he likes to read, play basketball, and hike the trails around campus. Email: erhhuang@ucsc.edu

Nataly Torres Meija. Undergraduate Student

Nataly grew up in the Bay Area. She is completing her B.S. in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology while dually enrolled in a M.S. program for Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology at UCSC. Nataly joined the Ottemann lab in Summer of 2023, where she studies H. pylori’s transcriptional response to lactate. During her free time, she likes hiking and spending time with her family.

Alexander Solov. Undergraduate Student

Alex was born in Santa Cruz and grew up in San Jose. He joined the Ottemann lab in 2023, and is working on his MS METX degree at UCSC. His research project is focused on chemotaxis in H pylori. Email:asolov@ucsc.edu