Melanie Oakes

Melanie L. Oakes, Ph.D., is a Project Scientist in the Department of Biological Chemistry and the Facilities Manager of the UCI Genomics High Throughput Facility (GHTF). As manager of the UCI Genomics High Throughput Facility, she brings the latest technologies to the UCI campus research community. She supervises a staff of five research associates in applications including current Affymetrix microarrays, next generation sequencing using the Illumina HiSeq 2500 and 4000 and Pacific Biosciences Sequel sequencers, Nanostring RNA analysis and BioNano Irys genome mapping system. Additionally, her team at the GHTF supports single cell gene expression with the Fluidigm C1 single cell auto prep system and the 10x Genomics Chromium platform. Her team tests and develops custom approaches to assist users in optimal applications of emergent technologies. Her research focused on using yeast as a model system to explore regulation of cellular growth with a specific focus on the regulation of transcription of ribosomal RNA. During the course of the work, she identified and characterized polymerase I transcription factors and took advantage of yeast genetics to create mutants and subsequently analyze ribosomal RNA synthesis, nucleolar structure and cell growth.