Assoc. Prof. Dr. Georgios Karras | Protein Folding Chaperones | Best Researcher Award
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center | United States
Dr. Georgios Karras is a molecular geneticist whose research focuses on understanding cellular stress responses and genome stability mechanisms, with implications for cancer development and therapy. His work explores how cells maintain protein homeostasis and genomic integrity under physiological and pathological stress, integrating molecular genetics, biochemistry, and systems biology approaches. Through his research, Dr. Karras investigates molecular pathways that regulate proteostasis, DNA repair, and chromatin dynamics, aiming to uncover how their dysregulation contributes to tumorigenesis. His studies have advanced understanding of the molecular mechanisms that link protein quality control systems to genome maintenance, providing insights into how stress adaptation influences cancer cell survival and progression. Dr. Karras’s laboratory also develops innovative genetic and biochemical models to study these processes, combining yeast and mammalian systems to identify conserved stress response mechanisms. His research has received recognition through multiple national awards and funding programs, including support from cancer research foundations and the National Cancer Institute. By elucidating the interplay between cellular stress signaling and genome stability, Dr. Karras’s work contributes to the development of novel strategies for targeting stress-related vulnerabilities in cancer cells, offering new perspectives for precision oncology and therapeutic interventions.
Profiles: Scopus | Orcid
Featured Publications:
Gracia, B., Zhang, X. H., Montes, P., Pham, T. C., Huang, M., Chen, J., & Karras, G. I. (2024). HSP90 buffers deleterious genetic variations in BRCA1. bioRxiv [Preprint].
Karras, G. I., Colombo, G., & Kravats, A. N. (2025). Hsp90: Bringing it all together. Cell Stress & Chaperones, 30(1), 69–79.
Condic, N., Amiji, H., Patel, D., Shropshire, W., Lermi, N. O., Sabha, Y., John, B., Hanson, B., & Karras, G. I. (2024). Selection for robust metabolism in domesticated yeasts is driven by adaptation to Hsp90 stress. Science, 385(6707), eadi3048.
Gracia, B., Montes, P., Gutierrez, A. M., Arun, B., & Karras, G. I. (2024). Protein-folding chaperones predict structure-function relationships and cancer risk in BRCA1 mutation carriers. Cell Reports, 43(2), 113803.
Carter, B. Z., Mak, P. Y., Muftuoglu, M., Tao, W., Ke, B., Pei, J., Bedoy, A. D., Ostermann, L. B., Nishida, Y., Isgandarova, S., Sobieski, M., Nguyen, N., Powell, R. T., Martinez-Moczygemba, M., Stephan, C., Basyal, M., Pemmaraju, N., Boettcher, S., Ebert, B. L., … Karras, G. I. (2023). Epichaperome inhibition targets TP53-mutant AML and AML stem/progenitor cells. Blood, 142(12), 1056–1070.