Omai Garner, PhD

Contact Information
Omai Garner, PhD
UCLA Path & Lab Med
10833 Le Conte Avenue, A7-149 CHS
Los Angeles, CA 90095
310-206-6329 

Academic Title
Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Bio
Dr. Omai Garner is a Clinical Professor and Director of Clinical Microbiology in the UCLA Health System. He received his PhD from UC San Diego in Biomedical Sciences. He was a Postdoctoral Clinical Microbiology CPEP Fellow in the Department of Pathology at UCLA, and a former McNair Scholar. Dr. Garner is Board Certified by the American Board of Medical Microbiology. Dr. Garner's research focuses on novel Point of Care Devices for infectious disease diagnosis in the developing world.

Dr. Garner was always taught that science, at its best, is a collaborative process. "It is collaboration, and not competition, which produces the most significant advances in biomedical research."

He also serves as the Chairman of the Board for the Social Justice Learning Institute of Inglewood, California.

Publications

Contreras DA, Fitzwater SP, Nanayakkara DD, Schaenman J, Aldrovandi GM, Garner OB, Yang S.(2019). Co-infections of two strains of NDM-1 and OXA-232 co-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae in a kidney transplant patient. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Sep 16. (Epub ahead of print).

 Culbreath K, Melanson S, Gale J, Baker J, Li F, Saebo O, Kommedal O, Contreras D, Garner OB, Yang S. (2019). Validation and retrospective clinical evaluation of a quantitative 16S rRNA.gene metagenomic sequencing assay for bacterial pathogen detection in body fluids. Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. 21(5): 913-923.

 Joung H, Ballard ZS, Ma A, Tseng DK, Teshome H, Burakowski S, Garner OB, Di Carlo D, Ozcan. A. (2019). Paper-based multi-plexed vertical flow assay for point-of-care testing. Lab on a.Chip. DOI 10.1039.

 Arboleda V, Garner OB. (2017) Ensuring the Quality of Point-of-Care (POC) testing in a large and decentralized Ambulatory Care Setting. Am J Clin Path. 148(4):336-344.

Wen JC, McCannel CA, Mochon AB, Garner OB. Bacterial dispersal associated with speech in the setting of intravitreous injections. Arch Ophthalmol. 2011 Dec;129(12):1551-4. Epub 2011 Aug 8. 

Garner OB, Bush KT, Nigam KB, Yamaguchi Y, Xu D, Esko JD, Nigam SK. Stage-dependent regulation of mammary ductal branching by heparan sulfate and HGF-cMet signaling. Dev Biol. 2011 Jul 15;355(2):394-403. Epub 2011 May 7. 

Mochon AB, Garner OB, Hindler JA, Krogstad P, Ward KW, Lewinski MA, Rasheed JK, Anderson KF, Limbago BM, Humphries RM. New Delhi metallo-ß-lactamase (NDM-1)-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae: case report and laboratory detection strategies. J Clin Microbiol. 2011 Apr;49(4):1667-70. Epub 2011 Feb 16. Erratum in: J Clin Microbiol. 2011 Jun;49(6):2386. 

Garner OB, Aguilar HC, Fulcher JA, Levroney EL, Harrison R, Wright L, Robinson LR, Aspericueta V, Panico M, Haslam SM, Morris HR, Dell A, Lee B, Baum LG. Endothelial galectin-1 binds to specific glycans on nipah virus fusion protein and inhibits maturation, mobility, and function to block syncytia formation. PLoS Pathog. 2010 Jul 15;6(7):e1000993. 

Crawford BE, Garner OB, Bishop JR, Zhang DY, Bush KT, Nigam SK, Esko JD.Loss of the heparan sulfate sulfotransferase, Ndst1, in mammary epithelial cells selectively blocks lobuloalveolar development in mice. PLoS One. 2010 May 18;5(5):e10691. 

Garner OB, Baum LG. Galectin-glycan lattices regulate cell-surface glycoprotein organization and signaling. Biochem Soc Trans. 2008 Dec;36(Pt 6):1472-7. Review. 

Garner OB, Yamaguchi Y, Esko JD, Videm V. Small changes in lymphocyte development and activation in mice through tissue-specific alteration of heparan sulphate. Immunology. 2008 Nov;125(3):420-9. Epub 2008 May 9. 

Elson-Schwab L, Garner OB, Schuksz M, Crawford BE, Esko JD, Tor Y. Guanidinylated neomycin delivers large, bioactive cargo into cells through a heparan sulfate-dependent pathway. J Biol Chem. 2007 May 4;282(18):13585-91. Epub 2007 Feb 20.