Lukasz Jaremko, PhD Associate Professor

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Sealy Institute for Drug Discovery
Tel:  | Mail route:  | Email: lukjarem@utmb.edu | Office:
Google Scholar | Research Lab

Biography

Research

Lukasz Jaremko’s MD3 (Molecular Diagnostics and Drug Discovery) lab deciphers disease‑causing molecular mechanisms, primarily in cancer, at atomic and sub‑atomic resolution to enable therapeutic intervention and translational innovation. Moving beyond static structures, we link protein architecture, interactions, and dynamics to function and use those mechanistic insights to assess draggability and guide ligand development. The MD3 team pursues targeted drug design with innovative experimental and AI‑augmented structure‑dynamics approaches to capture alternative states and cryptic, dynamics‑dependent pockets, identify and validate disease‑relevant targets, and design rational probes, lead compounds, and therapeutics for challenging targets, including protein-protein interfaces. We also develop high‑sensitivity spectroscopy and targeted metabolomics to support biomarker and natural‑product discovery and small‑molecule screening, and we collaborate with academic and industry partners to advance assays, curate compound collections, and expand the druggable genome.

Representative Recent Publications

  1. Kharchenko, V.; Al-Harthi, S.; Ejchart, A.; Jaremko, Ł.* Pitfalls in measurements of R1 relaxation rates of protein backbone 15N nuclei.
    J. Biomol. NMR (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10858-024-00449-4.
  1. Jeong, J.; Hausmann, S.; Dong, H.; Szczepski, K.; Flores, N. M.; Garcia Gonzalez, A.; Shi, L.; Lu, X.; Lempianinen, J.; Jakab, M.; Zeng, L.; Chasan, T.; Bareke, E.; Dong, R.; Carlson, E.; Padilla, R.; Husmann, D.; Thompson, J.; Shipman, G. A.; Zahn, E.; Barnes, C. A.; Khan, L.; Albertorio-Sáez, L. M.; Brill, E.; Kumary, V. U. S.; Marunde, M. R.; Maryanski, D. N.; Szany, C. C.; Venters, B. J.; Windham, C. L.; Nowakowski, M. E.; Czaban, I.; Jaremko, M.; Keogh, M.-C.; Le, K.; Soth, M. J.; Garcia, B. A.; Jaremko, Ł.*; Majewski, J.*; Mazur, P. K.*; Gozani, O.* NSD2 inhibitors rewire chromatin to treat lung and pancreatic cancers.
    Nature (2025), advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09299-y.
  1. Al-Harthi, S.; Li, H.; Szczepski, K.; Alyssa, W.; Deng, J.; Grembecka, J.; Cierpicki, T.; Jaremko, Ł.*
    MRG15 activates histone methyltransferase activity of ASH1L by recruiting it to the nucleosomes.
    Structure (2023), 31, 1200–1207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.str.2023.07.001.
  1. Kharchenko, V.; Linhares, B. M.; Borregard, M.; Czaban, I.; Grembecka, J.; Jaremko, M.; Cierpicki, T.; Jaremko, Ł.* Increased slow dynamics define ligandability of BTB domains.
    Nat. Commun. (2022), 13, 6989. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34599-6.
  1. Yuan, G.; Flores, N. M.; Hausmann, S.; Lofgren, S. M.; Kharchenko, V.; Angulo-Ibanez, M.; Sengupta, D.; Lu, X. Y.; Czaban, I.; Azhibek, D.; Vicent, S.; Fischle, W.; Jaremko, M.; Fang, B. L.; Wistuba, I. I.; Chua, K. F.; Roth, J. A.; Minna, J. D.; Shao, N. Y.; Jaremko, Ł.*; Mazur, P. K.*; Gozani, O.* Elevated NSD3 histone methylation activity drives squamous cell lung cancer.
    Nature (2021), 590, 504–508. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03170-y.
  1. Kharchenko, V.; Nowakowski, M.; Jaremko, M.; Ejchart, A.; Jaremko, Ł.* Dynamic 15N{1H} NOE measurements: a tool for studying protein dynamics.
    J. Biomol. NMR (2020), 74, 707–716. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10858-020-00346-6.