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IMS Affiliated Faculty

Faculty are hired by their respective departments, to which they owe primary responsibility; however, the institute continues to be involved in the identification of hiring and faculty needs of the cross-disciplinary marine program through active involvement in new faculty searches and in support of departmental recommendations. Affiliated faculty and researchers are those individuals that utilize any of the ORU’s resources (space, seawater, equipment, etc) and/or individuals whose research falls within one of the seven research clusters supported by IMS. IMS only appoints affiliates in the ORU based on the individual researchers request to be associated with the ORU.
Karen M Ottemann
  • Pronouns she/hers
  • Title
    • Professor and Chair
  • Division Physical & Biological Sciences Division
  • Department
    • Microbiology & Environmental Toxicology Department
  • Phone
    831-459-3482 (Office), 831-459-4780 (Lab)
  • Email
  • Website
  • Office Location
    • Biomedical Sciences, 238
  • Mail Stop METX
  • Mailing Address
    • 1156 High Street, METX
    • Santa Cruz CA 95064
  • Faculty Areas of Expertise Microbiology, Disease and Immunity, Human Biology
  • Courses METX119L, METX200, METX245A
  • Advisees, Grad Students, Researchers Xiaolin Liu, , , , , Yasmine Osama Elshenawi, Angela Evet Lane,

Summary of Expertise

Helicobacter pylori

Bacterial infection

Bacterial chemotaxis

Biography, Education and Training

My research uses molecular biology approaches to understand how the ulcer-causing bacterium Helicobacter pylori survives in the hostile mammalian stomach and causes disease.

• B.S, University of California, Davis (Bacteriology)
• Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard University (with John Mekalanos)
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley in Biochemistry (with Daniel E. Koshland, Jr.)

Teaching Interests

Bacteriology
Molecular microbiology