[3] During his time at NIH, O'Malley made significant contributions to endocrinology by utilizing the chick oviduct as a model to study how female sex steroids induce the synthesis of ovalbumin and avidin proteins, thus advancing the understanding of hormone regulation in endocrine organs.
This ground-breaking work provided clarity in the field and set the stage for future research on hormone action mediated gene expression and pharmaceutical development.
[7][8] O'Malley's career took another significant turn in 1972 when he moved to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, taking on the role of the Tom Thompson Distinguished Leadership Professor and Chair of Molecular and Cellular Biology.
Throughout his career, O'Malley's contributions have been instrumental in advancing the understanding of hormone action at the molecular level, impacting both basic sciences and clinical practices.
This hypothesis led him to uncover the detailed mechanisms activating steroid nuclear receptors (NRs) through the discovery of previously unidentified coactivators necessary for receptor-dependent gene transcription.
[10] His identification of coactivators as critical elements in the regulation of the mammalian genome has significantly enhanced our molecular understanding of hormone action, including the effects of agonist and antagonist ligands and selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs).
[11] Over the course of more than 300 subsequent scholarly articles, his work underscored the crucial role of coactivators in a wide range of physiological processes and diseases, including genetics, reproduction, metabolism, inflammation, cardiovascular and central nervous system (CNS) functions, with a particular emphasis on cancer research.
Bert O'Malley's early research greatly advanced the understanding of nuclear coactivator proteins and their role in the dysfunction of transcription processes associated with metabolic diseases, degeneration of the heart and brain, and notably, cancers.
[15] This research paved the way for exploring coactivator-dependent therapies, with his laboratory discovering small molecule drugs aimed at regulating coactivators to address conditions such as cancer, metabolic diseases, stroke, and heart failure.
Yi P, Wang Z, Feng Q, Pintilie, GD, Foulds CF, Lanz, RB, Ludtke SJ, Schmid MF, Chiu W, O’Malley BW.
Mullany LK, Rohira AD, Leach JP, Kim JH, Monroe TO, Ortiz AR, Stork B, Gaber MW, Sarkar P, Silora AG, Rosengart TK, York B, Song Y, Dacso CC, Lonard DM, Martin JF, O’Malley BW.
Han SJ, Jain P, Gilad Y, Xia Y, Sung N, Park MJ, Dean AM, Lanz RB, Xu J, Dacso CC, Lonard DM, O'Malley BW.