Laura Solt, Ph.D.

Laura A. Solt, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology in Jupiter, Florida (formerly Scripps Florida). She received her B.A. from Boston College, her Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Pennsylvania, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Scripps Research Institute’s Jupiter, Florida campus (Scripps Florida). She started her independent laboratory at Scripps Florida in 2013 to gain further insight into the transcriptional regulation of nuclear receptors and their ligand(s) to better understand signaling pathways that govern Th17 cell homeostasis vs. pathogenicity and disease development. Her lab also works in close collaboration with medicinal chemists to design and develop small molecule ligands to nuclear receptors to further probe their functions and evaluate their therapeutic potential. Using these approaches, her lab has described roles for RORa and the REV-ERBs in Th17 cell development and developed synthetic ligands to these receptors to target Th17-mediated chronic inflammation and autoimmunity. Insight into the transcriptional regulation of nuclear receptors and their ligand(s) function is essential to comprehend the signaling pathways that govern Th17 cell homeostasis vs. pathogenicity as well as the rational design of therapeutics for specific disease indications.

The underlying theme of the research performed in the Solt laboratory is to understand the biologically relevant roles of nuclear receptors, a superfamily of ligand regulated transcription factors, in the immune system. Our lab uses a combination of molecular biology, genetic, and chemical biology approaches coupled with mouse models of autoimmunity and chronic inflammation to study how different nuclear receptors’ expression, function, and activity affects disease. As ligand-regulated transcription factors, nuclear receptors are excellent therapeutic targets for the treatment of a variety of diseases. Therefore, we also work in collaboration with medicinal chemists to develop small molecule ligands to these receptors to further probe their function in vitro and in vivo. Each receptor is unique and can have ligand- and/or tissue-specific effects. Thus, we aim to gain a better understanding of nuclear receptor activity in tissue and disease-specific contexts to determine their therapeutic potential and for more rational drug design.