Welcome to the Ortlund Lab
Our mission is to make fundamental discoveries relating to hormone signaling, transcriptional control and host-pathogen interactions. We leverage these discoveries to pursue drug design as treatments for viral infections and chronic inflammatory diseases. We use a range of sophisticated biological techniques including cryo-electron microscopy, x-ray crystallography, mass spectrometry, deep mutational scanning and in silico simulations. Our primary research interests include lipid-mediated signaling and transport, development of LRH-1 modulators to treat metabolic disease, characterization of anti-inflammatory steroids and molecular evolution. With the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, we were well-placed to redirect our expertise to investigate detection and neutralizing antibodies using Cryo-EM, and to predict antibody escape using deep mutational scanning (DMS). Working closely with the RADx initiative, our methods have proven useful to multiple companies seeking FDA approval for their novel COVID-19 diagnostic methods. Currently we are expanding our technology to tackle other arising infectious diseases of concern.
Lab News
Congratulations to Molly Little and Eric Ortlund on their recent publication in Biochemical Society Transactions, "Structure, function, and lipid sensing activity in the thioesterase superfamily".
Biolocity Award
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”.
Therapeutic Advancement Award
Congratulations to Eric Ortlund, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair of Biochemistry, on earning the Therapeutic Advancement Award from the Emory Center for New Medicines.
"Deal of the Year" Award
New Publication in "JBC"
June 2023: Congratulations to Lee Cato, Emma D’Agostino, Racheal Spurlin, Sarah Abraham, and Eric Ortlund on their publication, "Comparison of Activity, Structure, and Dynamics of SF-1 and LRH-1 Complexed with Small Molecule Modulators," in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, June 2023.
New Publication in "Nature Communications"
June 2023: 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.
New Publication in "Structure"
May 2023: 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.
