GRA George Delidakis recently attended the EMBO Antibody and Complement: Effector functions, Therapies and Technologies Conference in Girona, Spain and was awarded one of two Poster Awards.

The Conference was attended by an international group of faculty, students, and scientists from the biotech industry who work on understanding the diverse and complex roles of antibodies in the context of the broader immune system. In his poster, he presented our lab’s work on generating a panel of engineered antibodies which -unlike wildtype antibody- display unique specificity to each member of the Fc gamma receptor family, a family of receptors that are critical in linking the innate and adaptive branches of immunity. For his presentation, he was awarded one of the two Poster Awards, along with a cash prize.

The research was sponsored by the Clayton Foundation for Research.

Congratulations George!

Congratulations to Dr. Joseph Dekker who has accepted a position as Sr. Scientist in Immunology at Molecular Templates in Austin, TX.

Jason Cantor joins Morgridge Institute, UW-Madison

Congratulations Dr. Cantor on your new position at the Morgridge Institute!

Congratulations to Dr. Everett Stone, Emerging Inventor of the Year!

On November 2, 2017, the UT Austin Office of Technology Commercialization hosted the 7th Annual Inventor Award Ceremony & Reception. The prestigious Inventor of the Year Award, honors a researcher whose discoveries have made a significant impact, and the Emerging Inventor of the Year Award, acknowledges a researcher who has made substantial contributions early in their career.

https://cns.utexas.edu/news/stone-named-emerging-innovator-of-the-year?

 

Dr. Georgiou was selected to deliver the Prestigious 2017 Global Distinguished Lecture in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST.

His lecture Discovery, Preclinical and Clinical Development of Therapeutic Treatment for Cancer Therapy focused on the pioneering methods he has developed to engineer therapeutic enzymes capable of degrading specific amino acids related to disease pathology, studies that have led to one protein therapeutic that is currently being evaluated in 3 Phase I clinical trials and two preclinical stage therapeutics that will enter human trials in 2018. In addition, he discussed his development of improved therapeutic antibodies that have been engineered for enhanced killing of target pathogenic cells and other properties that are critical for the pharmacology of antibody drugs.

His lecture What’s in your Blood? Molecular Analysis of the Serum Antibody Repertoire for Developing Better Vaccines and Therapeutics discussed the diverse ensemble of antibody proteins (immunoglobulins) that circulate in all physiological fluids and play a central role in protection against disease. His lab has developed an integrated technology workflow that combines high mass accuracy LC-MS/MS proteomics, with microfluidics and bioinformatics tools for the molecular-level deconvolution of the identities, relative amounts and functions of antibodies in human blood and also for the delineation of the relationships between antibody production and the relevant B cell immunological mechanisms.

About “The KAIST CBE Global Distinguished Lectureship”
The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST proudly presents the 7th KAIST CBE Global Distinguished Lectureship series. The lectureship is an annual event in which an internationally leading researcher in chemical and biomolecular engineering at a foreign institution is selected and invited to give a series of lectures. The lectures are open to students and faculty as well as alumni and friends. The visiting lecturer, in addition to giving the seminars on recent trends and advances in his / her field is asked to participate in informal discussions with KAIST faculty and students.

Previous lecturers include Bill Koros (GT), Manfred Morari (ETH), Gregory Stephanopoulos (MIT), Rakesh Agrawal (Purdue), and Ignacio Grossmann (CMU).

While visiting Korea, Dr. Georgiou was delighted to reconnect with several Georgiou Lab Alumni.

Left to Right: Assoc. Prof. Ki Jun Jeong (KAIST), Assoc. Prof. Tae Hyeon Yoo (Ajou Univ.), Dr. George Georgiou, Asst. Prof. Xin Ge (UC Riverside), Assoc. Prof. Sang Taek Jung (Kookmin Univ.), Dr. Tae Hyun Kang (Sr. Researcher, CJ HealthCare), Dr. Daechan Park (Sr. Research Scientist, KIST).