George Georgiou

About

George Georgiou is the Dula D. Cockrell Centennial Chair Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has served on the faculty since 1986. He holds appointments in the Departments of Chemical Engineering, Molecular Biosciences, and Biomedical Engineering. He received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Manchester, UK, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and Molecular Biology from Cornell University in 1987. His early research focused on the biogenesis of secreted proteins in bacteria and protein engineering technologies. Starting in 2007, his research shifted to human immunology and the discovery and preclinical development of protein therapeutics. He co-invented and led the early development of four protein therapeutics, one of which has been approved, with three in clinical development. Georgiou invented methods for analyzing the human serological antibody repertoire at the molecular level, demonstrating the restricted clonality of antibody responses to infection or vaccination, and contributed significantly to antibody effector function biology and Fc engineering. He has published over 280 research papers and holds more than 170 issued and pending US patents, resulting in 28 IP suites licensed to 31 pharma and biotech companies. His entrepreneurial activities include founding and leading biotech companies, with one acquired by Maxygen and others listed on NASDAQ. His contributions have been recognized through numerous awards,…

Research topics

• Biology
• Immunology
• Genetics
• Biochemistry
• Virology
• Chemistry
• Computational biology
• Cell biology
• Cancer research
• Medicine

Selected publications

• Cysteine depletion induces pancreatic tumor ferroptosis in mice

  Science · 2020 · 1231 citations

  , induced tumor-selective ferroptosis and inhibited PDAC growth. This was replicated through the administration of cyst(e)inase, a drug that depletes cysteine and cystine, demonstrating a translatable means to induce ferroptosis in PDAC.

  DOI

• Prevalent, protective, and convergent IgG recognition of SARS-CoV-2 non-RBD spike epitopes

  Science · 2021 · 291 citations

  The molecular composition and binding epitopes of the immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies that circulate in blood plasma after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection are unknown. Proteomic deconvolution of the IgG repertoire to the spike glycoprotein in convalescent subjects revealed that the response is directed predominantly (>80%) against epitopes residing outside the receptor binding domain (RBD). In one subject, just four IgG lineages accounted for 93.5% of the…

  PublisherDOI

• Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells and Type I Interferon Promote Extrafollicular B Cell Responses to Extracellular Self-DNA

  Immunity · 2020 · 186 citations

  DOI

• Enzyme-mediated depletion of serum <scp>l</scp> -Met abrogates prostate cancer growth via multiple mechanisms without evidence of systemic toxicity

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 54 citations

  Extensive studies in prostate cancer and other malignancies have revealed that l-methionine (l-Met) and its metabolites play a critical role in tumorigenesis. Preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated that systemic restriction of serum l-Met, either via partial dietary restriction or with bacterial l-Met-degrading enzymes exerts potent antitumor effects. However, administration of bacterial l-Met-degrading enzymes has not proven practical for human therapy because of problems with immun…

  DOI

• Prevalent, protective, and convergent IgG recognition of SARS-CoV-2 non-RBD spike epitopes in COVID-19 convalescent plasma

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2020 · 52 citations

  our data reveal a class of shared IgG antibodies that are readily observed in convalescent plasma and underscore the role of NTD-directed antibodies in protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01CA189623

  NIH · $2.9M · 2020

• NIH Grant R01GM073089

  NIH · $1.7M · 2010

• NIH Grant R01CA139059

  NIH · $989k · 2013

Frequent coauthors

• Brent L. Iverson

  The University of Texas at Austin

  112 shared

• Everett Stone

  The University of Texas at Austin

  86 shared

• Gregory C. Ippolito

  The University of Texas at Austin

  58 shared

• Andrew D. Ellington

  The University of Texas at Austin

  42 shared

• Thomas Valerius

  33 shared

• Edmund K. Moon

  32 shared

• Jiwon Lee

  Dartmouth College

  31 shared

• Neil T. Sullivan

  31 shared

Labs

• Translational Protein Therapeutics LabPI

  Not provided

Education

• Ph.D., Chemical Engineering

  Cornell University

  1987

• M.S., Chemical Engineering

  Cornell University

  1983

• B.S., Chemical Engineering

  University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST)

  1981

Awards & honors

• William H. Walker Award for Excellence in Contributions to C…
• Billy & Claude R. Hocott Distinguished Centennial Engineerin…
• National Academy of Inventors member (2015)
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) fellow (2015)
• Inventor of the Year – The University of Texas at Austin (20…

Similar researchers at University of Texas at Austin

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• James Chelikowskyh-87
• Hal Alperh-66