Olga Strelkova

In my career, I tried to get various skills to investigate my projects from different sides. My background is mostly in cell biology and microscopy, including my work at the Nikon Centre of Excellence. Learning different microscopy techniques helped me to apply these skills on the novel project, related to live-cell imaging with correlative transmission electron microscopy analysis. It helped me to find large-scale chromatin domains, which are visible and retained in the different cell cycle stages. It was essential for the field, as genome folding determines gene accessibility and cell fate in general, which overall could cause inherited gene mutation or cancer. I made my first postdoc in the Harvard-affiliated lab and again applied my skills to investigate gene mutation, that causes Usher 1F syndrome. I tested a new gene therapy approach to rescue hearing phenotype in mice, that potentially could be used in clinical research. However, I always wanted to include molecular biology expertise to microscopy and cell biology skills, so I’m making my second postdoc in the molecular biology lab. Currently, my research interest is in sperm chromatin gene organization, where I apply all my skills, but also learn new technological methods, such as a high-throughput genomic and epigenetic technique to investigate gene organization in the cells.