Email

berto@bcm.edu

Positions

Chancellor

Mol & Cell Biology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX US

Associate Director of Basic Research

Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Professional Interests

• Hormone action
• Coactivator function
• Eukaryotic gene expression
• Gene therapy
• Nanotechnology

Professional Statement

Dr. Bert O’Malley is the Tom Thompson Distinguished Leadership Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Chancellor at Baylor College of Medicine. He received his M.D at Pitt and residency at Duke. He then went to NIH where he became Head of the Molecular Endocrinology Section of NCI/NICHD. He then moved to Vanderbilt and finally to Baylor College of Medicine as Chair of Cell and Molecular Biology.

Bert was first to discover that nuclear receptors are transcription factors that regulate mRNA production in target cells in response to intracellular hormones. He uncovered mechanisms for activating steroid receptors, and discovered the existence of ‘coregulators’ - the coactivators and corepressors of NR-dependent gene transcription. The coactivators turned out to be the long sought ‘master regulators’ of the entirety of mammalian gene function. His work led to a molecular understanding of how hormonal antagonists/SERMs work and revealed the major importance of coactivators to diseases of reproduction, genetics, metabolism, cardiovascular function, and especially cancers. His recent publications of the first Cryo-EM structures of three NR/SRC/p300 complexes on DNA represent a major achievement in the field. He also discovered that coactivators can be drugged using small molecules. He discovered that SRC-3 coactivator controls Treg adaptive immune attack on cancer and published a new preclinical approach to permanently eradicate multiple cancers.

Dr. O’Malley is the founding father of the field of Molecular Endocrinology and a member of the ‘National Academies of: ‘Sciences’; and of ‘Medicine’; and of ‘Inventors’. He has received over 65 honors and awards for his work, including the National Medal of Science (White House, 2008). He has trained over 220 scientists and published over 750 papers and holds 32 patents in the fields of Gene Regulation, Molecular Endocrinology and Steroid Receptor, Coactivator Action and Molecular Drug Therapies.

Websites