Rate My Professor Anupam Patgiri

Anupam Patgiri, PhD, serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at Emory University School of Medicine, where he launched his independent Patgiri Lab in September 2021. He is also a member of the Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute. Patgiri obtained his B.Sc. from Gauhati University, India, M.Sc. in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India, and Ph.D. in chemical biology from New York University under the supervision of Prof. Paramjit S. Arora. His doctoral research focused on developing chemical inhibitors of therapeutically relevant protein-protein interactions, culminating in the discovery of the first orthosteric inhibitor of the Ras-Sos interaction (Nature Chemical Biology, 2011). He then pursued postdoctoral training at Rockefeller University with Prof. Tarun Kapoor, followed by Harvard Medical School with Prof. Vamsi K. Mootha, where he engineered LOXCAT, a lactate-oxidizing enzyme to alleviate systemic reductive stress in mitochondrial disease models (Nature Biotechnology, 2020).

The Patgiri Lab studies the mechanisms by which mutations in mitochondrial and metabolic genes cause neuromuscular disorders, with no current FDA-approved therapies available. Using small molecule and enzyme engineering, the lab aims to restore mitochondrial homeostasis and metabolic balance in cellular and animal disease models by correcting biochemical defects such as redox imbalances and bioenergetics, and selectively eliminating toxic mitochondria. Another research avenue explores modulating metabolism in the tumor-immune microenvironment to enhance cytotoxicity of T cells and macrophages as anticancer therapeutics. Patgiri's contributions to chemical biology and mitochondrial therapeutics are evidenced by over 3,200 citations on Google Scholar. Notable publications include 'Hepatic NADH reductive stress underlies common variation in metabolic traits' (Nature, 2020), 'Mitochondrial protein synthesis and the bioenergetic cost of neurodevelopment' (iScience, 2022), 'Systemic proteome phenotypes reveal defective metabolic flexibility in Mecp2 mutants' (Human Molecular Genetics, 2023), and 'Adaptive protein synthesis in genetic models of copper deficiency and childhood neurodegeneration' (Molecular Biology of the Cell, 2025). His accolades include the Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellowship (2013-2016), Tosteson & Fund Medical Discovery Fellowship (2017), and Keystone Symposia Future of Science Fund Scholarship (2020).