Scientific Advisory Board
GEORGE GEORGIOU
George Georgiou is a Professor at the University of Texas, Austin, USA. He received his B.Sc. from the University of Manchester, U.K. and Ph.D. from Cornell. His research is focused on the preclinical development of enzyme and antibody therapeutics for cancer and for inborn errors of metabolism and the understanding the serological antibody repertoire in human health and disease and on the discovery. Professor Georgiou was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (2005), National Academy of Medicine (2011) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2016). He is also a Fellow of the American Institute for Biological and Medical Engineers (AIMBE), the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is the author of >260 research publications and co-inventor of 87 issued or pending US patents, more than 65% of which (comprising 24 distinct technology suites) have been licensed to 27 pharma & biotech companies. He founded GGMJD (1999; acquired by Maxygen in 2000), Aeglea Biotherapeutics (2013-Present; NASDAQ: AGLE) and Kyn Therapeutics Inc. (now Ikena Oncology; 2015-Present) and currently serves as a Director and Chairman of the SAB for both companies. In 2013, Georgiou was selected as one of the top 20 Translational Researchers by Nature Biotechnology. He is inventor of the FDA-approved drug Anthim (obiltoxaximab) to treat inhalational anthrax.
KOSTAS VEKRELLIS
Kostas Vekrellis received his BSc in Neuroscience from University College London Medical School/Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, with First Class Honours in 1993. He obtained his PhD in Neuroscience in 1997 from the same university working on the regulation and function of the bcl-2 family of genes and their role in neuronal survival in laboratory of Jonathan Ham and Lee. L Rubin. He then received a research fellowship from Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, to work in Dennis Selkoe's laboratory in the Center for Neurologic Diseases. His research focused on the degradation mechanisms of amyloid-β peptide (Αβ), as a cause and effect of Alzheimer's disease. His work identified Insulin Degrading Enzyme (IDE) as a major Αβ-degrading protease in neurons. In 1999, he was offered an Instructor position at Harvard Medical School, Department of Neurology. Since 2002 Dr. Vekrellis is a Researcher in the Division of Basic Neurosciences at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens (BRFAA), where he currently holds the rank of Research Associate Professor. Dr. Vekrellis is highly experienced in cellular and animal models of neurodegeneration, as well as human histopathology. His lab interests lie in the role of protein oligomerization, misfolding and aggregation, with respect to neurodegenerative disease. Since 2012, he has been a visiting professorship at the University of Oxford, Division of Experimental Medicine, Nuffield Department of Medicine.