Jessica Sook Yuin Ho

Presented by Alexander Tarakhovsky
B.S., University of Wisconsin–Madison
Chromatin Control of the Antiviral Response to Influenza

Jessica Ho joined the university as part of the A*STAR program from Singapore. She entered as a “star” and never ceased to be one. Jessica contributed to the identification of a novel mechanism of influenza pathogenesis. Viruses, such as influenza, attempt to conquer cells without killing them but to use them for the benefit of virus replication. There are many ways that viruses can do this. Jessica found an influenza protein, responsible for viral pathogenesis, which can mimic the histone proteins that are at the core of cell gene expression machinery — and by doing so, can attenuate cell efforts to kill the virus. This phenomenon of histone mimicry by viruses raised questions about the possibility of viral impact on cell differentiation.

Although from Singapore, Jessica reminds me of a character from “Russian Women” written by the nineteenth century Russian poet Nikolai Nekrasov. In this poem, Nekrasov said of Russian women that they can equally well stop a galloping horse or enter a burning house to rescue a child, all while maintaining unperturbed calm, dignity and beauty. There were lots of galloping horses and burning houses and even child-like personalities, but Jessica mastered it all.