Research that's Changing the World
George Georgiou’s innovative approaches to the development of protein therapeutics and seminal work on how antibodies protect us from infections have established him as one of the world’s leading translational researchers. He has invented over 25 distinct technologies for enhancing drug discovery and manufacturing and his work at the University has led to two approved drugs now in clinical use, with several more drugs in preclinical development.
What Starts Here
Georgiou is the Dula D. Cockrell Centennial Chair #2 in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering and holds joint appointments in the Departments of Molecular Biosciences and Biomedical Engineering as well as the Department of Oncology at the Dell Medical School. He is a co-inventor on over 170 U.S. patents and has created technology suites and patents licensed to multiple companies, including Fortune 500 and mid-stage biotech firms. His lab has also reported key insights that have informed vaccine design and other actions to prevent specific diseases. Georgiou founded and served as Board Director in two companies that are now publicly traded. He has supervised over 120 Ph.D. and postdoctoral trainees, more than 40 of whom now hold tenure positions at top academic institutions in the US and around the world. Additionally, 10 of his trainees rose to top positions (C-level and senior VP) in pharma and biotech companies.
Beyond the Forty Acres
Matt Winkler, Founder and Chairman of Ambion and Asuragen: "In 1986, when George joined UT Austin as an Assistant Professor, I found him to be unusual with training in both Chemical Engineering and Molecular Biology. I had never seen that before, but it has served him very well. It gives him a very powerful perspective in solving scientific problems and translating these into products and companies in human health and biotechnology. His success is reflective of his interdisciplinary background and natural intuition for problem solving."
