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DR. MEIKE DITTMANN
Associate Professor
Robert-Koch Postdoctoral Prize
NIAID Pathway to Independence (K99)
Christina Fleischmann Award for Young Women Investigators
The NYU Langone 2021 Outstanding Postdoctoral Mentor Award
Associate Professor, since 2023
Assistant Professor, 2016-2023
The Dittmann lab is interested in the molecular mechanisms or how interferons inhibit viruses. The lab uses a combination of classical and molecular virology, cell biology, and immunology to study where individual interferon-stimulated genes block certain stages of viral life cycles. Identifying specific steps targeted by the innate immune response can teach us about weak spots in virus life cycles, which may in turn inform novel strategies to develop antiviral drugs.
Doctoral Thesis, 2007-2010
As a graduate student working in Dr. Thomas Mertens’ laboratory, Meike's main focus was the characterization of human cytomegalovirus resistance mutations. In collaboration with clinicians and bioinformaticians, she developed a web-based tool containing phenotypic information on all published human cytomegalovirus resistance mutations. The tool is now routinely used by laboratories worldwide, improving diagnostics for an individualized antiviral therapy of human cytomegalovirus infections.
Postdoc, 2011-2016
During her postdoc in the group of Charles M. Rice, Nobel Laureate 2020, Meike established a high-content microscopy screening platform for interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs). She identified ISGs specific for glycoprotein maturation of influenza A virus, which is the latest possible step in a virus life cycle, and a novel mechanism for innate immune effectors. Another project, in collaboration with the laboratory of Sun Hur at Harvard, revealed that RIG-I and MDA5 have direct antiviral mechanisms in addition to their role as pattern recognition receptors.
The Robert Koch Postdoctoral Prize 2015
In 2015, Meike was awarded the Robert Koch Postdoctoral Prize, which the Robert Koch Foundation in Berlin, Germany, bestows on the "best young scientists currently working in their fields in Germany or abroad”.
The Christina Fleischmann Award 2019
In 2019, Meike was awarded the Christina Fleischmann Award in Vienna, Austria. This award honors young women investigators working in the field of cytokines and interferons.
Joining SAVE in 2021
Meike and team join the NIH SARS-CoV-2 Assessment of Viral Evolution (SAVE) Program. SAVE provides a comprehensive real-time risk assessment of emerging mutations in SARS-CoV-2 that could impact transmissibility, virulence, and susceptibility to infection- or vaccine-induced immunity.