Avi Samelson

Assistant Professor, Neurology, University of California Los Angeles

Assistant Professor, Biological Chemistry, University of California Los Angeles

UC Profile
Samelson Lab Website

Education and Training

University of California, San FranciscoPostdoc2025Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases
University of California, BerkeleyPhD2017Molecular and Cell Biology
Northwestern UniversityBA2010Biological Sciences

Awards and Honors

  • Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00), NIH, 2023.
  • Tau Leadership Fellow, Rainwater Foundation, 2021.

Publications

  1. Li E, Benitez C, Boggess SC, Koontz M, Rose IVL, Martinez D, Dräger N, Teter OM, Samelson AJ, Pierce N, Ullian EM, Kampmann M. CRISPRi-based screens in iAssembloids to elucidate neuron-glia interactions.. Neuron, 2025.
  2. Li E, Benitez C, Boggess SC, Koontz M, Rose IVL, Martinez D, Draeger N, Teter OM, Samelson AJ, Pierce N, Ullian EM, Kampmann M. CRISPRi-based screens in iAssembloids to elucidate neuron-glia interactions.. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2024.
  3. Samelson AJ, Ariqat N, McKetney J, Rohanitazangi G, Bravo CP, Bose R, Travaglini KJ, Lam VL, Goodness D, Dixon G, Marzette E, Jin J, Tian R, Tse E, Abskharon R, Pan H, Carroll EC, Lawrence RE, Gestwicki JE, Eisenberg D, Kanaan NM, Southworth DR, Gross JD, Gan L, Swaney DL, Kampmann M. CRISPR screens in iPSC-derived neurons reveal principles of tau proteostasis.. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2024.
  4. Mohl GA, Dixon G, Marzette E, McKetney J, Samelson AJ, Serras CP, Jin J, Li A, Boggess SC, Swaney DL, Kampmann M. The disease-causing tau V337M mutation induces tau hypophosphorylation and perturbs axon morphology pathways.. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2024.
  5. Parra Bravo C, Giani AM, Madero-Perez J, Zhao Z, Wan Y, Samelson AJ, Wong MY, Evangelisti A, Cordes E, Fan L, Ye P, Zhu D, Pozner T, Mercedes M, Patel T, Yarahmady A, Carling GK, Sterky FH, Lee VMY, Lee EB, DeTure M, Dickson DW, Sharma M, Mok SA, Luo W, Zhao M, Kampmann M, Gong S, Gan L. Human iPSC 4R tauopathy model uncovers modifiers of tau propagation.. Cell, 2024.
  6. Bravo CP, Giani AM, Perez JM, Zhao Z, Samelson A, Wong MY, Evangelisti A, Fan L, Pozner T, Mercedes M, Ye P, Patel T, Yarahmady A, Carling G, Lee VMY, Sharma M, Mok SA, Luo W, Zhao M, Kampmann M, Gong S, Gan L. Human iPSC 4R tauopathy model uncovers modifiers of tau propagation.. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2023.
  7. Samelson AJ, Tran QD, Robinot R, Carrau L, Rezelj VV, Kain AM, Chen M, Ramadoss GN, Guo X, Lim SA, Lui I, Nuñez JK, Rockwood SJ, Wang J, Liu N, Carlson-Stevermer J, Oki J, Maures T, Holden K, Weissman JS, Wells JA, Conklin BR, TenOever BR, Chakrabarti LA, Vignuzzi M, Tian R, Kampmann M. BRD2 inhibition blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection by reducing transcription of the host cell receptor ACE2.. Nature cell biology, 2022.
  8. Samelson AJ, Tran QD, Robinot R, Carrau L, Rezelj VV, Mac Kain A, Chen M, Ramadoss GN, Guo X, Lim SA, Lui I, Nunez J, Rockwood SJ, Wang J, Liu N, Carlson-Stevermer J, Oki J, Maures T, Holden K, Weissman JS, Wells JA, Conklin BR, TenOever BR, Chakrabarti LA, Vignuzzi M, Tian R, Kampmann M. BRD2 inhibition blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection by reducing transcription of the host cell receptor ACE2.. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2021.
  9. Nuñez JK, Chen J, Pommier GC, Cogan JZ, Replogle JM, Adriaens C, Ramadoss GN, Shi Q, Hung KL, Samelson AJ, Pogson AN, Kim JYS, Chung A, Leonetti MD, Chang HY, Kampmann M, Bernstein BE, Hovestadt V, Gilbert LA, Weissman JS. Genome-wide programmable transcriptional memory by CRISPR-based epigenome editing.. Cell, 2021.
  10. Jensen MK, Samelson AJ, Steward A, Clarke J, Marqusee S. The folding and unfolding behavior of ribonuclease H on the ribosome.. The Journal of biological chemistry, 2020.
  11. Wolff AM, Young ID, Sierra RG, Brewster AS, Martynowycz MW, Nango E, Sugahara M, Nakane T, Ito K, Aquila A, Bhowmick A, Biel JT, Carbajo S, Cohen AE, Cortez S, Gonzalez A, Hino T, Im D, Koralek JD, Kubo M, Lazarou TS, Nomura T, Owada S, Samelson AJ, Tanaka T, Tanaka R, Thompson EM, van den Bedem H, Woldeyes RA, Yumoto F, Zhao W, Tono K, Boutet S, Iwata S, Gonen T, Sauter NK, Fraser JS, Thompson MC. Comparing serial X-ray crystallography and microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) as methods for routine structure determination from small macromolecular crystals.. IUCrJ, 2020.
  12. Lawrence RE, Fromm SA, Fu Y, Yokom AL, Kim DJ, Thelen AM, Young LN, Lim CY, Samelson AJ, Hurley JH, Zoncu R. Structural mechanism of a Rag GTPase activation checkpoint by the lysosomal folliculin complex.. Science (New York, N.Y.), 2019.
  13. Samelson AJ, Bolin E, Costello SM, Sharma AK, O'Brien EP, Marqusee S. Kinetic and structural comparison of a protein's cotranslational folding and refolding pathways.. Science advances, 2018.
  14. Samelson AJ, Jensen MK, Soto RA, Cate JH, Marqusee S. Quantitative determination of ribosome nascent chain stability.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016.
  15. Chou S, Upton H, Bao K, Schulze-Gahmen U, Samelson AJ, He N, Nowak A, Lu H, Krogan NJ, Zhou Q, Alber T. HIV-1 Tat recruits transcription elongation factors dispersed along a flexible AFF4 scaffold.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2012.
  16. Fraser JS, van den Bedem H, Samelson AJ, Lang PT, Holton JM, Echols N, Alber T. Accessing protein conformational ensembles using room-temperature X-ray crystallography.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2011.