Melissa Laird Smith, Ph.D.

Education: 

B.A., History, cum laude, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA; June 2001
B.S., Microbiology, cum laude, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA; June 2001
Ph.D., Virology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; September 2008
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France; 2008-2012
Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA; 2012-2014

Curriculum Vitae 

Current Positions: 

Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics, University of Louisville
Associate Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Louisville
Member, James Graham Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville

Contact Information: 

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics
Baxter II Research Building, Room 221A
University of Louisville
580 S. Preston Street
Louisville, KY 40202
Phone:  502-852-7495 

Email:  ml.smith@louisville.edu

Research Description: 

The Smith Laboratory specializes in the genomics of complex variants and populations, with proven success in applying molecular, biochemical and high throughput, next-generation and single cell sequencing methods to translational research questions and novel assay development, with a particular focus on immunology and virology research.  Smith is equally effective working independently, or as part of a interdisciplinary team., and has broad experience in fostering academic and industry collaborations, obtaining research funding, teaching, managing profitable genomics core facilities, and scientific writing. 

Literature Cited: 

  1.  Rodriguez OL, Gibson WS, Parks T, Emery M, Powell J, Strahl M, Deikus G, Auckland K, Eichler EE, Marasco WA, Sebra R, Sharp AJ, Smith ML, Bashir A, Watson CT.  A novel framework for characterizing genomic haplotype diversity in the human immunoglobulin heavy chain locus.  Frontiers in Immunology 2020 Sep 23;11:2136.  doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.02136.  PMID: 33072076.  PMCID: PMC7539625.
  2. Watson CT, Kos JT, Gibson WS, Newman L, Deikus G, Busse CE, Smith ML, Jackson KJ, Collins AM.  A comparison of immunoglobulin IGHV, IGHD and IGHJ genes in wild-derived and classical inbred mouse strains.  Immunology & Cell Biology 2019 Nov;97(10):888-901.  doi: 10.1111/imcb.12288.  Epub 2019 Oct 6.  PMID: 31441114.
  3. Cirelli KM, Carnathan DG, Nogal B, Martin JT, Rodriguez OL, Upadhyay AA, Enemuo CA, Gebru EH, Choe Y, Viviano F, Nakao C, Pauthner MG, Reiss S, Cottrell CA, Smith ML, Bastidas R, Gibson W, Wolabaugh AN, Melo MB, Cossette B, Kumar V, Patel NB, Tokatlian T, Menis S, Kulp DW, Burton DR, Murrell B, Schief WR, Bosinger SE, Ward AB, Watson CT, Silvestri G, Irvine DJ, Crotty S.  Slow delivery immunization enhances HIV neutralizing antibody and germinal center responses via modulation of immunodominance.  Cell 2019 May 16;177(5):1153-1171.e28.  doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.04.012.  Epub 2019 May 9.  Erratum in: Cell 2020 Jan 9;180(1):206.  PMID: 31080066.  PMCID: PMC6619430.
  4. Sheynkman G, Tuttle K, Laval F, Tseng E, Underwood J, Yu L, Dong D, Smith M, Sebra R, Willems L, Hao T, Calderwood M, Hill D, Vidal M.  ORF Capture-Seq as a versatile method for targeted identification of full length isoforms.  Nature Commications 2020;11(1):2326.  PMID: 32393825.
  5. Gonzalez-Reiche AS, Hernandez MM, Sullivan M, Ciferri B, Alshammary H, Obla A, Fabre S, Kleiner G, Polanco J, Khan Z, Alburquerque B, van de Guchte A, Dutta J, Francoeur N, Melo BS, Oussenko I, Deikus G, Soto J, Sridhar SH, Wang Y-C, Twyman K, Kasarskis A, Altman DR, Smith M, Sebra R, Aberg J, Krammer F, Garcia-Sastre A, Luksza M, Patel G, Paniz-Mondolfi A, Gitman M, Sordillo EM, Simon V, van Bakel H.  Introductions and early spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the New York City area.  Science 2020;369(6501):297-301.  PMID: 32471856.
  6. Gallitto M, Cheng He R, Inocencio JF, Wang H, Zhang Y, Deikus G, Wasserman I, Strahl M, Smith M, Sebra R, Yong RL.  Epigenetic preconditioning with decitabine sensitizes glioblastoma to temozolomide via induction of MLH1.  Journal of Neurooncology 2020;147(3):557-566. PMID: 32193690.
  7. Stoesser N, Phan HTT, Seale AC, Aiken Z, Thomas S, Smith M, Wyllie D, George R, Sebra R, Mathers AJ, Vaughan A, Peto TEA, Ellington MJ, Hopkins KL, Crook DW, Orlek A, Welfare W, Cawthorne J, Lenney C, Dodgson A, Woodford N, Walker AS; TRACE Investigators’ Group.  Genomic epidemiology of complex, multi-species, plasmid- borne blaKPC carbapenemase in enterobacterales in the UK, 2009-2014.  Antimicrobial Agents & Chemotherapy 2020;64(5):e02244-19.  PMID: 32094139.
  8. Lacaze P, Ronaldson K, Zhang E, Alfirevic A, Shah H, Newman L, Strahl M, Smith M, Bousman C, Francis B, Morris AP, Wilson T, Rossello F, Powell D, Vasic V, Sebra R, McNeil J, Pirmohamed M.  Genetic associations with clozapine-induced myocarditis in patients with schizophrenia.  Translational Psychiatry 2020;10(1):37.  PMID: 32066683.
  9. Seiden AH, Richter F, Patel N, Rodriguez OL, Deikus G, Shah H, Smith M, Roberts A, King EC, Sebra RP, Sharp AJ, Gelb BD.  Elucidation of de novo small insertion/deletion biology with parent-of-origin phasing.  Human Mutation 2020;41(4):800-806.  PMID: 31898844.
  10. Vasan N, Razavi P, Johnson JL, Shao H, Shah H, Antoine A, Ladewig E, Gorelick A, Lin TY, Toska E, Xu G, Kazmi A, Chang MT, Taylor BS, Dickler MN, Jhaveri K, Chandarlapaty S, Rabadan R, Reznik E, Smith ML, Sebra R, Schimmoller F, Wilson TR, Friedman LS, Cantley LC, Scaltriti M, Baselga J.  Double PIK3CA mutations in cis increase oncogenicity and sensitivity to PI3Ka inhibitors.  Science 2019;366:714.  PMID: 3169932.
  11. Watson CT, Kos JT, Gibson WS, Newman L, Deikus G, BusseCE, SmithML, Jackson KJ, Collins AM.  A comparison of immunoglobulin IGHV, IGHD, IGHD and IGHJ genes in wild-derived and classical inbred mouse strains.  Immunology & Cell Biology 2019;97(10):888-901.  PMID: 31441114.
  12. Wang YC, Olson ND, Deikus G, Shah H, Wenger AM, Trow J, Xiao C, Sherry S, Salit ML, Zook JM, Smith M, Sebra R.  High-coverage, long-read sequencing of Han Chinese trio reference samples.  Scientific Data - Nature 2019;6:91. PMID 31201313.
  13. Cirelli KM, Carnathan DG, Nogal B, Martin JT, Rodriguez OL, Upadhyay AA, Enemuo CA, Gebru EH, Choe Y, Viviano F, Nakao C, Pauthner MG, Reiss S, Cottrell CA, Smith ML, Bastidas R, Gibson W, Wolabaugh AN, Melo MB, Cosette B, Kumar V, Patel N, Tokatlian T, Menis S, Kulp DW, Burton DR, Murrell B, Schief WR, Bosinger SE, Ward AB, Watson CT, Silvestri G, Irvine DJ, Crotty S.  Slow delivery immunization enhances HIV neutralizing antibody and germinal center responses via modulation of immunodominance.  Cell 2019;177:1153-1171.  PMID: 31080066.
  14. Yang X, Yuan T, Ma R, Chacko KI, Smith M, Deikus G, Sebra R, Kasarskis A, van Bakel H, Franzblau SG, Sampson NS.  Mce3R Stress-resistance pathway is vulnerable to small-molecule targeting that improves tuberculosis drug activities.  ACS Infectious Diseases 2019;5:1239-1251.  PMID: 31012313.
  15. Matthews BJ, Dudchenko O, Kingan S, Koren S, Antoshechkin I, Crawford JE, Glassford WJ, Herre M, Redmond SN, Rose NH, Weedall GD, Wu Y, Batra SS, Brito-Sierra CA, Buckingham SD, Campbell CL, Chan S, Cox E, Evans BR, Fansiri T, Filipovic I, Fontaine A, Gloria-Soria A, Hall R, Joardar VS, Jones AK, Kay RGG, Kodali V, Lee J, Lycett GJ, Mitchell SN, Muehling J, Murphy MR, Omer A, Partridge FA, Peluso P, Aiden AP, Ramasamy V, Rasic G, Roy S, Saavedra-Rodriguez K, Sharan S, Sharma A, Smith ML, Turner J, Weakley AM, Zhao Z, Akbari OS, Black IV WC, Cao H, Darby AC, Hill C, Johnston JS, Murphy TD, Raikhel AS, Sattelle DB, Sharakhov IV, White BJ, Zhao L, Aiden EL, Mann RS, Lambrechts L, Powell JR, Sharakhova MV, Tu Z, Robertson HM, McBride CS, Hastie AR, Korlach J, Neafsey DE, Phillippy AM, Vosshall LB.  Improved Aedes aegypti mosquito reference genome assembly enables biological discovery and vector control.  Nature 2018;(563):501-507.  PMID: 30429615.