News and Events:

December 3, 2024
My Nguyen and Saheem Zaidi contributed design and modeling studies to the paper “Structure-guided design of a peripherally restricted chemogenetic system” published in Cell. Congratulations to Saheem and My! Read the paper>>
December 3, 2024
Jordy (co-1st author) and Anastasiia contributed comprehensive docking and MD simulations to the structure-function study of GPR6 orphan receptor in collaboration with Cherezov lab, published in Science Signaling. Structural studies also used stabilizing mutants by Petr Popov. Congratulations Jordy, Anastasiia, and Petr. Read the paper>>
November 10, 2024
The group enjoyed a beach stroll and lunch before the QCB retreat in Ventura, see in photo gallery>>
September 22, 2024
We received a new Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) for “Computational approaches to discover ligands with new chemotypes and functional properties” from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Congrats to the whole team!
September 5, 2024
Antonina and Jordy contributed to the study “A bitopic agonist bound to the dopamine 3 receptor reveals a selectivity site”, in Nature Com, helping to reveal the mechanism of interaction for the subtype-selective bitopic ligand designed by our lab. Read the paper>>
July 11, 2024
Our lab research on potential new treatments for pain and drug abuse was featured in the Dornsife Magazine Spring/Summer 2024 Health and Well-Being Issue. Read more>>
June 24, 2024
Jordy successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation “HIGH PERFORMANCE CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS IN STRUCTURAL BIOINFORMATICS” in the CBB Ph.D. Program. Jordy will stay in the lab as a postdoc after graduation. Congratulations Dr. Lam!
June 15, 2024
Our lab, in collaboration with Washington University, received a NIDA grant titled “Development of PAC1 receptor antagonists for the treatment of Headache Disorders”. The project will employ V-SYNTHES and rational design to discover new compounds for migraine disorders. View the grant>>
April 24, 2024
Jordy published a first-author on the paper “Scalable computation of anisotropic vibrations for large macromolecular assemblies” in Nature Communications, developing a new INCHING algorithm for scaling up NMA calculations with GPU. Read the paper>>
April 20, 2024
Jordy is named a Recipient of the Michael S. Waterman Award in Quantitative and Computational Biology. Congratulations Jordy!
April 18, 2024
Jordy Lam’s abstract application was selected as a winner for the Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award, to be presented at the Fall 2024 ACS national meeting.
April 10, 2024
Anastasiia co-first authored a paper “Virtual Screening of a Chemically Diverse Superscaffold Library Enables Ligand Discovery for a Key GPCR Target” in ACS Chemical Biology. This collaboration with Fokin Lab expanded on-demand virtual screening space with two new click reactions and yielded novel lead compounds for CB2. Read more>>
April 4, 2024
Antonina won the best poster competition award (again!) at Drug Discovery Chemistry for her Frangement-Based V-SYNTHES work! Congratulations Antonina! Photo gallery>>
April 3, 2024
Anastasiia and Antonina were both selected to give plenary talks at Drug Discovery Chemistry meeting in San Diego, in “AI/ML for Early Drug Discovery” and “Fragment Based Drug Discovery” tracks, respectively. Great new directions for V-SYNTHES expansion!
April 3, 2024
The long-awaited publication of our study on predicting autism-promoting mutations is finally out in Molecular Autism. Kudos to co-first author Anastasiia, who contributed to the concept and performed all the modeling.
April 2, 2024
Jordy’s paper on the GPU-accelerated algorithm for NMA has been officially accepted to Nature Communications. Congratulations Jordy!
March 28, 2024
Jordy Homing Lam was awarded a prestigious Croucher Fellowship for Postdoctoral Research. Congratulations Jordy!!
February 23, 2024
Drug Discovery Innovation Workshop organized by CNT3D, Bridge, and MESH was a great success with more than 240 registered participants, great talks, discussions and networking! MORE>> Photo gallery>>
February 22, 2024
Enjoyed the visit by AI-in-Chemistry wizard Olexandr Isayev from CMU, and his talk for the ChemBio/CNT3D joint seminar. Photo gallery>>
February 8, 2024
Our collaborative study with Yunje Cho lab on GPR156, a lipid-bound class C orphan, is published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. Congratulations to Jordy, who performed important MD simulations to assess its constitutive activity!
February 1, 2024
The paper on AT agonists in collaboration with Muscha Steckelings lab has been published. Congratulations to Antonina who did the virtual screening!
January 8, 2024
Warm welcome to our new undergraduate researchers Dora Meiwes and Ava Abramowich joining the group!
December 12, 2023
Our traditional Holiday outing at LA Live was a huge success, taking the lab ice skating skills to a new level! Photo gallery>>
November 30, 2023
Excited to host Dr. Alex Tropsha, world expert in Machine Learning and AI driven drug discovery, who gave an exciting lecture for our joint ChemBio and CNT3D series! Photo gallery>>
November 13, 2023
Dr. Katritch was promoted to full professor at USC. Congratulations!
November 12, 2023
The lab attended the QCB Retreat in Ventura, where Anastasiia and Jordy delivered exciting talks. See some photos from this outing in the photo gallery and here>>
October 16, 2023
Save the date for 2nd Drug Discovery Innovation Workshop on Feb 23rd 2024! Organized by the Center for New Technologies for Drug Discovery and Development (CNT3D).
October 16, 2023
Please welcome Dr. Woojin Lee, joining Katritch lab with PhD from UC Los Angeles.
October 2, 2023
Please welcome Dr. My Nguyen, who joins our lab with PhD from UC Santa Barbara.
September 18, 2023
The preprint of Jordy’s INCHING algorithm for GPU implementation of NMA is published online as Under Review in Nature Portfolio
July 19, 2023
The follow up paper on structure-based optimization of MOR/D3R bivalent ligands with Amy Newman team is published in JMC! Congratulations Antonina and Saheem!
July 11, 2023
Our V-SYNTHES collaboration with Dr. Steve Kay team has been funded by Ming Hsieh Institute (MHI) for Research on Engineering Medicine for Cancer.
June 28, 2023
Dr Katritch gave a seminar @Chemspace on V-SYNTHES and its new developments. You can find recording here>>
June 27, 2023
Design and development of GPCR bitopic ligands has been funded as a part of multi-PI R01 team led by Dr. Sush Majumdar! MORE>>
June 5, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Antonina Nazarova, who received the Wiley Computers in Chemistry Outstanding Postdoc Award! MORE>>
May 3, 2023
Another paper in Nature in collaboration with Tao Che at WashU. Congratulations to Antonina and Jordy who did the MD simulations! MORE>>
May 2, 2023
End-of-semester lunch celebrated the recent breakthroughs in the lab, Barbara’s visit, and our ready-to-graduate seniors Joseph, Anshuman and Tessa. Photo>>
April 26, 2023
Our review on computational drug discovery highlighting structure based tools like V-SYNTHES and AI methods has been published in Nature! Congratulations Anastasiia! Also covered in USC News.
April 26, 2023
Our review on computational drug discovery highlighting structure based tools like V-SYNTHES and AI methods has been published in Nature. Congratulations Anastasiia! MORE>>
April 4, 2023
Antonina recieved the Gilead award on Physical Sciences Industry Days for her V-SYNTHES2 poster. Congratulations!
December 15, 2022
The paper on 5HT2A non-hallucinogenic agonist Ariadne co-authored by Antonina and Dali Sames group is out in ACS Chem. Neurosci MORE>>
Novermber 30, 2022
Paper on bitopic derivatives of fentanyl designed to target GPCR sodium pocket and showing beneficial in vivo profile – it is out in Nature! Congrats to Saheem and the whole team! Also featured in USC News and Washington University School of Medicine News.
November 7, 2022
Warmest welcome to Dr. Yazan Meqbil, who joins Katritch lab fresh after PhD at Purdue University.
October 18, 2022
Anastasiia gave an invited talk on V-SYNTHES at Discovery on Target Cambridge Healthtech meeting in Boston! MORE>>
September 30, 2022
The lab received Notice of Award for R01 targeting further development and application of V-SYNTHES technology! MORE>>
August 23, 2022
Antonina gave a presentation at the ACS Fall2022 conference. Congrats Antonina! MORE>>
July 5, 2022
Anastasiia has been promoted to a staff scientist position – congratulations!
June 26, 2022
Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN) published article on giga chemical space and its screening, covering @Chem_space, @EnamineLtd and V-SYNTHES. MORE>>
June 22, 2022
The proposal for the Dornsife Center for New Technologies in Drug Discovery & Development (CNT3D), co-directed by Drs. Katritch and Mckenna, has been approved by the college!
June 8, 2022
Our collaboration with Cornelius Gati lab on Structural basis of GABA reuptake inhibition is published in Nature. Congratulations to Jordy who performed MD simulations for this study.
May 26, 2022
Our lab was represented at LABEST meeting, with a faculty highlights presentation by Seva and a posters by Anastasiia and Antonina. Antonina’s poster got a 2nd prize – congratulations!
April 19, 2022
Our lab participated in Drug Discovery Chemistry meeting in San Diego with a talk by Seva and poster by Anastasiia. The poster was selected as a finalist and presented at the plenary session – congratulations Anastasiia!
April 4, 2022
Our editorial on V-SYNTHES is out in Clinical and Translational Medicine – congratulations Antonina!
February 10, 2022
The paper in collaboration with Herring lab, assessing the effect of mutations in Sap97 in Schizophrenia is published in Nature Communications. Congrats Anastasiia!
February 2, 2022
The V-SYNTHES paper was discussed in detail by the prominent Science Magazine blog “In the Pipeline” by Derek Lowe.
January 21, 2022
Today is the last day of Saheem’s very productive tenure in the lab. Congratulations Saheem on the new adventure in big pharma (J&J) and thank you for your hard work and mentoring new generation of students in the lab!
January 20, 2022
The V-SYNTHES paper led by Anastasiia and Arman will appear in Nature January 20th issue, also featured in Nature News&Views , Nature Reviews Drug Discovery Highlights, and SingularityHub Breakthroughs of 2021.
December 15, 2021
Our new paradigm in drug discovery, V-SYNTHES, is published in Nature, enabling fast virtual screening of Giga-scale REAL Space libraries and detection of new selective cannabinoid ligands! Congratulations to the first authors Anastasiia and Arman Sadybekov! MORE>>>
November 19-20, 2021
Grad students and postdocs from Katritch lab participated in QCB retreat in Ventura. Kudos to Jordy and Antonina who gave excellent plenary talks! >>>
October 26, 2021
Rational design of chiral cyclic aliphatic linkers as building blocks for selective dopamine D2 or D3 receptor agonists published in J.Med. Chem. Congratulations Saheem! MORE>>>
May 20, 2021
Structure of hBLT1 and docking assessment of its utility for drug discovery of anti-inflammatory drugs is published in Nature Comm. Congratulation to Anastasiia and Petr! MORE>>>
May 20, 2021
Rational design of bifunctional μ-Opioid/Dopamine D3 ligands as potential non-addictive painkillers, published in J.Med. Chem. Congratulations Saheem! MORE>>>
May 14, 2021
Bryson received Google QCB Alumni Award and Interdisciplinary Award in the Life Sciences at 23rd Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium! Congratulations Bryon!
March 23, 2021
Congratulations to Bryson on receiving Goldwater scholarship, which is one of the most prestigious awards for undergraduate research in US!
March 3, 2021
Dr. Katritch was promoted to Associate Professor of Quantitative and Computational Biology and Chemistry with Tenure. Congratulations to Seva on this well-deserved recognition!
February 13, 2021
Anastasiia is back, now as a postdoctoral associate - congratulations and welcome back!
February 8, 2021
Our paper on structure-based rational design of functional selectivity in GPCRs is out in eLIfe - congratulations to Saheem! MORE>>>
February 3, 2021
Congrats to Saheem, promoted to Staff Scientist in our lab!
January 21, 2021
Warm welcome to our new postdoc Pavel Rehak, fresh with Ph.D. from University of Illinois at Chicago!
January 1, 2021
Great start to the year as we welcome our new postdoc Antonina Nazarova, fresh with Ph.D. from USC!
December 7, 2020
Structure-based discovery of new potent ligands for CysLT receptors from >100M Enamine libraries, published in Biomolecules. Congratulations to Arman and Anastasiia! MORE>>>
September 10, 2020
Welcome to Samantha Riemann, our new ChemBio student!
June 17, 2020
Structure and activation mechanism of GABAB heterodimer is out in Nature. Great job Jordy in conformational MD and NMA analysis! MORE>>>
June 10, 2020
Welcome to our first BME MS student, Yun “Caroline” Cheng!
June 1, 2020
Great to start the summer (and end the lockdown) with our two major ligand discovery projects (angiotensin AT2 inhibitors and opioid photoswitchables) being funded by NIH!
May 13, 2020
Congratulations to Dr. Anastasiia Sadybekov with excellent thesis defense capping 5 years of hard work and great achievements!
April 17, 2020
Our preview summarizing recent breakthroughs and remaining challenges for Angiotensin AT2 receptor field is out in Structure. Congrats Anastasiia! MORE>>>
March 2, 2020
Discovery of new agonists for melatonin receptors by structure-based VLS – the paper is out in eLife. Congratulations to Nil and Jessica! MORE>>>
January 13, 2020
Congrats to Bryson for the 2020 Provost fellowship!
January 3, 2020
Experimenting with new publication format: an HSTalk on Conserved allosteric sodium in class A GPCRs is now available in 2 Parts here and here
December 6, 2019
CysLT2 structure is out in Nature Communications. Congrats to Petr and Nil for comprehensive SAR and MD modeling. MORE>>>
December 2, 2019
Congratulations to Dr. Nil Patel with excellent thesis defense!
November 1, 2019
Activate-state structure for Delta Opioid Receptor published in Science Advances. Congrats to Nil for his contribution to the analysis of small molecule and peptide binding! MORE>>>
October 9, 2019
The CysLT1 structural paper showing new functional mechanism and ligand access model is published in Science Advances. Congrats to Petr and Nil! MORE>>>
September 25, 2019
Pharmacological Review on ions in GPCRs got on the cover! Congrats to Saheem and Barbara! MORE>>>
September 12, 2019
Congratulations to Bryson with the Provost’s Research Fellowship!
August 22, 2019
Congratulations to Anastasiia on receiving Burg Foundation Graduate Student Teaching Fellowship!
August 21, 2019
Congratulations to Barbara with starting a faculty position at Vrije University. Happy sailing to Amsterdam!
August 16, 2019
The paper with Matt Pratt group on class B GPCR peptides O-GlcNAc engineering is out in JACS. Congrats to Barbara who built the ligand-receptor interaction models. MORE>>>
August 1, 2019
Google Education publishes a cases study on our recent virtual screening efforts for opioid receptors. MORE>>>
May 10, 2019
Happy Graduation to our most amazing honor students Natalie and Austen! Dream big and have all the success and joy in your lives!
May 9, 2019
Structural insights into function and pharmacology of two sleep hormone Melatonin receptors MT1 and MT2 published in Nature. Congrats to Nil and Jessica! MORE>>>
April 23, 2019
Congratulations to Anastasiia on receiving WiSE Merit Award for Current Doctoral Students!
April 11, 2019
Nil presented his large-scale Virtual Screening work at Google Next conference in San Francisco>>
April 10, 2019
Congratulations to Austen on 1st place in the Life Sciences category at the USC Undergraduate Research Symposium!
January 10, 2019
Cannabinoid Receptor 2 (CB2) structure solved with CompoMug mutations! MORE>>>
January 1, 2019
Congratulations to Petr on starting a faculty position at prestigious Skoltech! MORE>>>
December 3, 2018
Prostaglandin receptor EP3 structure was solved with CompoMug mutations! Congratulations Petr and Barbara! MORE>>>
November 27, 2018
Clarivate Analytics names Dr. Katritch among Highly Cited Researchers 2018 in two categories (Biology & Biochemistry and Pharmacology & Toxicology): MORE>>>
August 22, 2018
Structure of apo FZD4, first class F receptor stabilized with CompoMug predicted mutations. Congrats to Petr and the iHuman team! MORE>>>
June 21, 2018
Our CompoMug methodology for computational design of stabilizing mutations in GPCRs published in eLife, congratulations Petr! MORE>>>
eLife>>
June 7, 2018
Computer modeling helps to identify a missense mutation in Rac1 that prevents LTP induction and leads to intellectual disability. Congratulations to Anastasiia and our collaborator Bruce Herring and his lab!
February 8, 2018
New CompoMug approach helped to solve two structures of serotonin 5HT2C receptor! Congratulations Petr! MORE>>>
Cell>>
January 8, 2018
We moved to our new home, Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience. Please visit our new space on the 3rd floor!
January 4, 2018
Cell paper on structure and computational analysis of ligand binding to active state kappa-Opioid Receptors is out. Congratulations Saheem! MORE>>
USC news>>
January 2, 2018
Computational analysis of Na+ intracellular passage in class A GPCRs, in collaboration with Ulrich Zachariae is published, congrats Saheem! MORE>>>
Cell>>
December 25, 2017
The study on autism mutations in TRIO gene was named one of the “12 Amazing Medical Breakthroughs of 2017” by Readers’ Digest! MORE>>
December 20, 2017
Study on photoswitchable THC derivatives designed to optically control Cannabinoid Receptor signaling is out in JACS. Congratulations Jessica! MORE>>
September 19, 2017
Congratulations to Anastasiia for passing Qual Exam!
September 19, 2017
Discovery of a key hotspot for Autism mutations in the TRIO gene and its structure-based analysis is finally out in Nature Com. Congratulations Anastasiia! MORE>>
ScienceDaily>>
USC news>>
September 7, 2017
R33 grant from NIH funded for opioid bifunctional and allosteric ligand discovery.
August 7, 2017
Welcome to Dr. Jessica Grandner who joined the lab fresh from Ph.D. at UCLA!
August 4, 2017
Natalie gave an excellent talk at BUGs symposium, congrats to her and Barbara!
August 3, 2017
The paper on full length class B GPCR structural model and activation mechanism is out in eLife. Congratulations Barbara and Saheem!
July 17, 2017
The paper on antibody-GPCR selective recognition is out in PNAS, congratulations Nil!
May 24, 2017
Congratulations to Natalie on receiving 2017 BUGS summer research fellowship from the Trudi Berwin Student Support Fund!
April 5, 2017
Nature paper on Angiotensin AT2 receptor structure-function and drug target properties is out. Congratulations to Anastasiia and Nil! MORE>>
ScienceDaily>>
USC news>>
Nature | News&Views>>
Science Signaling | Papers of Note>>
March 27, 2017
The paper on computer-assisted discovery of novel kappa-Opioid antagonists and biased agonists is out in J. Med. Chem. Congrats to Zhong and Saheem!
November 18, 2016
Congratulations to Dr. Katritch on being named a 2016 Thompson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers!
November 6, 2016
Congratulations to Barbara and Nil for getting the first and third place awards at iHuman Forum poster competition in Shanghai. Well done!!!
October 1, 2016
Great news on receiving BRAIN initiative funding for discovery of new optogenetics tools. The study will be performed in collaboration with Andrew Hires, John Lin and Vadim Cherezov labs.
June 28, 2016
Congratulations to Barbara Zarzycka on receiving Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research 2-year Rubicon Grant! Title: Insight into angiotensin receptor structure and function, and design of receptor and pathway specific modulators to study their role in cardiovascular diseases.
February 26, 2016
Welcome Dr. Barbara Zarzycka! Barbara has joined the group as a new Research Associate. She has recently finished her Ph.D. at Maastricht University in Netherlands.
February 9, 2016
Congratulations to Nil on being awarded the 2016 Bridge Institute Graduate Fellowship for Innovation! MORE>>
December 25, 2015
A warm welcome to Dr. Saheem Zaidi! Saheem is joining the group as a Research Associate having just finished his Ph.D. at Virginia Commonwealth University.
December 12, 2015
Analysis of ligand binding and crystallizability for Nociceptin receptor complexes is published in Structure. MORE>>
September 29, 2015
Study of structural and functional selectivity of Angiotensin Receptor 1 (AT1) receptor is published in JBC. MORE>>
July 22, 2015
Crystal structure of Rhodopsin bound to Arrestin solved by femtosecond X-ray laser is published in Nature. Using the crystal structure, our group (Dr. Zhong Zheng) predicted interactions of flexible C-terminal of Rhodopsin with activated Arrestin, highlighting details of arrestin mediated signaling. MORE>>
June 18, 2015
Analysis of species selectivity of Kappa Opioid Receptor is published in collaboration with Bryan Roth group at USC, employing our models of KOR-deltorphn binding. MORE>>
April 23, 2015
A Structure of the Angiotensin Receptor 1 and models of its binding to anti-hypertensive drugs are published in Cell. MORE>>
March 15, 2015
Dr. Katritch receives R21/R33 research grant award from NIH NIDA. The project will employ structure-based approach to discover new analgesics with reduced tolerance liability. MORE>>
March 2, 2015
The Bridge@USC brochure is now available online
Please GO TO >>
February 16, 2015
A new structure of the human delta-opioid receptor in complex with a bifunctional peptide ligand were published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology MORE>>
January 6, 2015
Cherezov, Katritch, and Stevens 2014 Nature paper on δ-opioid and sodium signaling noted as one of the Science Signaling Breakthroughs of the Year. MORE>>
January 1, 2015
Cherezov, Hicks, Katritch, Kuhn and Stevens Labs move to the University of Southern California to start up a NEW convergent biosciences institute MORE>>