Mart Ustav

Mart Ustav (born 12 July 1949) is an Estonian biomedical scientist.

[1] Ustav was born Cherlak, Russian SFSR to Estonian parents who had been deported by Soviet authorities.

The family were permitted to return to Estonia in 1956, following the death of Joseph Stalin and the Khrushchev Thaw.

In 1979, he defended his doctoral degree in chemistry from the board of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

His research interests have included the study of the papillomavirus, including its symbiosis with the host cell and molecular biology, the molecular basis for the episomal persistence of gene vectors in the development of a new generation of safe DNA vaccines, and the design of viruses and viral vectors.