Department of Biochemistry

Congratulations to Eric Ortlund, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair of Biochemistry, on earning the Therapeutic Advancement Award from the Emory Center for New Medicines.

Congratulations to Eric Ortlund, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair of Biochemistry at Emory School of Medicine, and John Calvert, PhD, Associate Professor of Surgery and Biochemistry at Emory School of Medicine, for their recent Biolocity Award, “Targeting HpEF with Urearetics”.

Roberts Lab featured in Bruker short documentary profile about the neofleX MALDI-TOF Benchtop in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and ALS research. 

Biochemistry welcomes 2024 Emory Biochemistry Summer Undergrad Research program (BSURE) students!

Congratulations to the Ortlund lab on their publication, "Temporal dynamics of the multi-omic response to endurance exercise training," in Nature. This paper was part of a group of papers released May 1 in Nature discussing the findings of the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC). The work was also featured on the journal's May 2 cover and in a Nature news feature.

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Dr. Eric Ortlund, Professor and Vice Chair of Biochemistry, was honored with the "Deal of the Year" award from the Office of Technology Transfer at Emory University. Dr. Ortlund licensed small molecule modulators targeting the Liver Receptor Homologue 1 to Allonix Therapeutics for the treatment of IBD, Metabolic Diseases and Cancer.

Biochemistry welcomes Charles Bou-Nader, PhD, as Assistant Professor effective November 1, 2023. Dr. Bou-Nader was previously a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Dr. Jinwei Zhang, NIH NIDDK.

Dr. Bou-Nader's lab will focus on understanding mechanistically how RNA and R-loop structures control gene expression and genomic integrity in the context of viral infection and neurological disorders. His lab will mainly use cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM), X-ray crystallography and biochemical approaches to define important molecular mechanisms of nucleic acid recognition by proteins. You can reach him at cbounad@emory.edu or on Twitter/X @CharlesBNader.

Congratulations to Dr. Sohail Khoshnevis for receiving a Biological Discovery Through Chemical Innovation (BDCI) Accelerator grant to develop a new class of antifungals.

The Biological Discovery through Chemical Innovation (BDCI) initiative is a robust network of Emory investigators collaborating at the key intersection of chemistry, biology, and human health in both scientific discovery and training of new researchers. We deepen and facilitate the rapidly developing synergy that already exists at Emory among these three areas and aim to accelerate the development of the next generation of research tools, diagnostic agents, and safe & effective drugs.

Congratulations to Dr. Bo Liang for his new sub-award under UNAPP in collaboration with the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) and Novartis, "Functions and structures of the Nipah virus polymerase."

Congratulations to the Liang Lab for their publication in the Journal of Medical Virology titled “Structural basis of the American mink ACE2 binding by Y453F trimeric spike glycoproteins of SARS-CoV-2”.

Elizabeth (Lizzy) Draganova received an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award from the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. The project title is, "Under Pressure: Biophysical Mapping of Herpesvirus Capsid Assembly and Genome Packaging". Congratulations, Lizzy!

Congratulations to Dr. Homa Ghalei for her promotion to Associate Professor of Biochemistry, effective September 1, 2023. 

Congratulations to Dr. Sohail Khoshnevis for receiving a 5-year NIH grant, "Post-transcriptional regulation of cell plasticity."

Congratulations to Sam Druzak, Suzanne Mays, Mireille El-Bejjani, Kristal Maner-Smith, Thomas Bowen, Lee Cato, Matt Tillman, and Eric Ortlund on their recent publication, "Ligand dependent interaction between PC-TP and PPARδ mitigates diet-induced hepatic steatosis in male mice," in Nature Communications, June 2023.

Congratulations to Alejandro Oviedo, BCDB graduate student from the Conn laboratory, for receiving the 2023 Excellence in Biochemistry DEI Award!

Published by Oxford University Press, NAR Cancer thanks its editors, authors, and readers in getting off to a great start, with release this week of an impact factor of 5.1. Dr. William Dynan, Professor in the Emory School of Medicine departments of Radiation Oncology and Biochemistry, is the founding Editor-in-Chief and Emory University faculty member Alexander Orthwein is also an Editorial Board Member. The journal publishes at the intersection of the nucleic acids and cancer fields, with sections including DNA repair; epigenetics, chromatin, and gene regulation; and cancer-specific RNAs and RNA processing.

The Liang Lab Published "Microorganisms" Paper titled, "In Silico Identification and In Vitro Validation of Repurposed Compounds Targeting the RSV Polymerase”. 

Dr. Homa Ghalei has made extensive contributions to graduate education at Emory. In addition to providing outstanding mentorship to trainees in her research lab, Dr. Ghalei is the director of the major course taken by 1st year Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology graduate students and has taught extensively in this course, developing several minicourses that emphasize scientific discussions, critical thinking, hypothesis design and testing, and application of techniques in modern biochemistry.

The Ortlund Lab shows how #COVID variants can escape immune detection with their publication, "Molecular basis of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant evasion from shared neutralizing antibody response," in Structure.

Nick Seyfried, PhD, and colleagues appear on PBS's Your Fantastic Mind discussing their research of proteomics, the study of proteins in humans, and its potential to unlock the secrets of neurodegenerative diseases.