Eric A. Ortlund, PhD
Professor and Vice Chair, Biochemistry
Principal Investigator
Contact Eric
Dr. Ortlund is a Professor of Biochemistry at Emory University School of Medicine. His lab uses structural, biochemical, and biophysical approaches to study lipid signaling, transcriptional control and host-pathogen interactions. He also is the Scientific Director of the Emory Integrated Metabolomics and Lipidomics Core and part of several National Consortia applying metabolomics and lipidomics to understand biological process.
Jen Colucci, PhD
Scientist
Contact Jen
Dr. Colucci earned her Ph.D. from Emory University's Department of Biochemistry in 2013. Her research focuses on the historical mechanisms driving ligand specificity in steroid hormone nuclear receptors.
Debipreeta Bhowmik, PhD
Research Associate
Contact Dr. Bhowmik
Debipreeta finished her PhD studies centered on alkaloid-Nucleic acid interactions from IICB, Kolkata, India. She then moved to Florida State University to perform postdoctoral studies and worked on immune evasion mechanism of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus. She joined Ortlund lab in 2023. She performs structural and mechanistic studies on the ligand-activated transcription factor, LRH-1 as part of our drug development efforts in partnership with Allonix Therapeutics and Eli Lilly.
Alasdair Keith, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Contact Dr. Keith
Liang Jing, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Contact Dr. Jing
Dr. Jing received his PhD in biochemistry from Arizona State University in 2022. His doctoral work mainly focused on structure determination of G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) using lipdic cubic phase (LCP) X-ray crystallography. He also involved the method development of LCP-micro electron diffraction technology which allows the researchers to collect electron diffraction data from sub-micron membrane protein crystals growing in LCP. He joined Professor Ortlund’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow in 2023. His research focuses on understanding the structure, function, and interaction of essential protein targes with X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy.
Meredith Proctor-Keen
Research Specialist
Contact Meredith
Meredith received her B.S in Biochemistry and in Microbiology/Cell and Molecular Biology from Oklahoma State University in 2021. She joined the Ortlund Laboratory in July 2021. Meredith’s research is focused on assessing the threat of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants’ ability to evade detection of immune recognition and rapid antigen testing.
Rickta Mallick
Research Specialist
Contact Rickta
Rickta earned her MSc in zoology from Rajshahi University, Bangladesh. She has more than 15+ years of experience as a lab technician. Outside of the lab, she enjoys spending time with her daughters and traveling.
Molly Little
Graduate Student, BCDB Program
Contact Molly
Molly received a B.S. at George Washington University with majors in Chemistry and Neuroscience and minors in psychology, astronomy, and astrophysics. Her current research focuses on structural studies of the glucocorticoid receptor.
André Cuevas
Graduate Student, BCDB Program
Contact André
André received his BS at University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. Afterwards, he joined Dr. Jordan Beach’s Lab at Loyola University Chicago as a Research Technician investigating spatiotemporal dynamics of non-muscle myosin motor proteins. André joined the BCDB program in 2019 and the Ortlund Lab in 2020. His research in the Ortlund Lab focuses on SF-1 agonist to antagonist conversion through structure-guided approaches. Outside of the lab, André enjoys fishing and various at-home projects such as making wine.
Raining Huo
MD/PhD student, Emory School of Medicine
Contact Raining
Raining received her B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Bryn Mawr College in 2021, where she conducted research in the Kung Lab investigating the structural basis of HMG-CoA reductase (HMGR) cofactor specificity. She joined Emory University’s M.D./Ph.D. Program the same year. After completing the first three years of medical school, she entered the Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology (BCDB) program in 2024. Her current research in the Ortlund Lab focuses on elucidating the structure and regulatory mechanisms of acyl-CoA thioesterase 12 (ACOT12).
Shakshi Patel
Graduate Student, MSP Program