Gottfried Otting

Gottfried Otting is a Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow at the Australian National University's Research School of Chemistry. He leads the Otting Group, which focuses on developing innovative NMR methods for protein structure analysis and drug discovery under near-physiological conditions. Previously, he served as Professor of Molecular Biophysics at the Karolinska Institute (1992-2002) and as an ARC Federation Fellow at ANU (2002-2007).

His educational background includes:

• Diploma of Chemistry from the University of Freiburg (1977-1984)
• PhD in biomolecular NMR at ETH-Zürich under Nobel Laureate Kurt Wüthrich (1984-1987)

Professor Otting's research centers on developing NMR spectroscopy methods to assess structural changes of proteins in response to other molecules in aqueous solution. His group specializes in using cell-free protein synthesis and unnatural amino acids for site-specific protein modification with tags that allow rapid determination of binding sites, orientations, and structures of ligand molecules. Current projects include developing methods for 'molecular GPS' to identify protein binding sites, studying protein conformational changes (including for targets like the COVID-19 main protease), and advancing solid-state NMR techniques.

His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on paramagnetic NMR techniques, fluorinated amino acids for protein labeling, lanthanide-binding tags, and innovative approaches to protein structure determination. The work spans fundamental method development to applications in drug discovery, with particular emphasis on fragment-based approaches and analyzing protein-ligand interactions in solution.

His scientific achievements have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards:

• ETH silver medal for PhD thesis (1987)
• Latsis Prize of the ETH-Zürich (1992)
• FEBS Anniversary Prize (1993)
• Wallmarkska Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1996)
• Foreign member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences (2005)
• Humboldt Research Award (2010)
• ANZMAG Medal (2013)
• ISMAR Fellow (2016)
• ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship (2017-2022)

Professor Otting actively supervises research students and leads multiple major projects including 'Protein Structure and Dynamics by Electron/Nuclear Paramagnetic Resonance', 'Non-Canonical Amino Acids for Protein Analysis and Peptide Inhibitors', and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science. His group includes postdoctoral fellows and PhD candidates working on cutting-edge protein analysis techniques. With over 191 research outputs and more than 20,000 citations, his work has had significant impact in the fields of structural biology and biophysical chemistry.

The Otting Group operates within the Research School of Chemistry at ANU, utilizing advanced NMR and EPR instrumentation including world-leading prototype equipment for solid-state NMR spectroscopy. The group collaborates extensively with researchers both within Australia and internationally, particularly with Prof. Daniella Goldfarb in Israel for EPR studies.