Georgios Karras, Ph.D.
Department of Genetics, Division of Discovery Science
About Dr. Georgios Karras
Dr. Georgios Karras is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He seeks to understand principles of protein folding underlying healthy aging and to develop tools for harnessing these principles for disease prevention and therapy. Dr. Karras received his B.S. in Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Thrace in Alexandroupoli, Greece and at the EMBL in Heidelberg, Germany, where he identified the first modular “reader” of poly(ADP-ribose). He received his PhD from the LMU of Munich and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, for work he conducted on mechanisms of ubiquitin-dependent DNA damage tolerance with Dr. Stefan Jentsch, a pioneer in the ubiquitin field. He pursued post-doctoral training at the Whitehead Institute with Dr. Susan Lindquist, a pioneer in the field of protein folding. His work revealed a role for the protein-folding chaperone HSP90 in shaping the manifestations of human mutations and linking them to clinically relevant stressors in the environment. Research in his lab employs multidisciplinary systems approaches rooted in quantitative genetics, biochemistry, and systems biology to understand how protein folding shapes relationships between genotype, phenotype and the environment in aging and cancer. Dr. Karras has received a number of distinctions, including the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society, the UT Rising STARs Award, a CPRIT Recruitment Award, a K22 Career Development Award from the NCI, a Kleberg Innovator Award, and an R01 from the NCI.
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Faculty, Genetics and Epigenetics Graduate Program, UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS), Division of Discovery Science, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2010 | Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich/ Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany, Genetics, Ph.D |
| 2004 | Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece, Molecular Biology & Genetics, B.S |
Postgraduate Training
| 2011-2018 | Postdoctoral Fellow, Systems Biology, Protein-Folding, Human Diseases, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA, USA |
| 2010-2011 | Postdoctoral Fellow, Cell Biology, Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany |
| 2004-2004 | Diploma, Protein Biophysics and Structural Biology, European Molecular Biology Laboratory - EMBL - Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany |
Honors & Awards
| Junior Research Award, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry | |
| European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Long-term fellowship, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) | |
| Director’s Fellowship Allowance, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research | |
| Otto-Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society, Max Planck Society | |
| Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Long-term fellowship, Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) | |
| UT System Rising STARs Award | |
| Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) New Faculty Award, MDACC | |
| K22 Career Development Award, NCI/NIH |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Gracia B, Montes P, Huang M, Chen J, Karras GI. HSP90 buffers deleterious genetic variations in BRCA1. bioRxiv None(None):None, 2024. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 39605638.
- Condic N, Amiji H, Patel D, Shropshire W, Lermi NO, Sabha Y, John B, Hanson B, Karras GI. Selection for robust metabolism in domesticated yeasts is driven by adaptation to Hsp90 stress. Science 385(6707):eadi3048, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39052788.
- Gracia B, Montes P, Gutierrez AM, Arun B, Karras GI. Protein-folding chaperones predict structure-function relationships and cancer risk in BRCA1 mutation carriers. Cell Rep 43(2), 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 38368609.
- Carter BZ, Mak PY, Muftuoglu M, Tao W, Ke B, Pei J, Bedoy AD, Ostermann LB, Nishida Y, Isgandarova S, Sobieski M, Nguyen N, Powell RT, Martinez-Moczygemba M, Stephan C, Basyal M, Pemmaraju N, Boettcher S, Ebert BL, Shpall EJ, Wallner B, Morgan RA, Karras GI, Moll UM, Andreeff M. Epichaperome inhibition targets TP53-mutant AML and AML stem/progenitor cells. Blood 142(12):1056-1070, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37339579.
- Economos NG, Thapar U, Balasubramanian N, Karras GI, Glazer PM. An ELISA-based platform for rapid identification of structure-dependent nucleic acid-protein interactions detects novel DNA triplex interactors. J Biol Chem 298(10):102398, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35988651.
- Pedley AM, Karras GI, Zhang X, Lindquist S, Benkovic SJ. Role of HSP90 in the Regulation of de Novo Purine Biosynthesis. Biochemistry 57(23):3217-3221, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29553718.
- Karras GI, Yi S, Sahni N, Fischer M, Xie J, Vidal M, D'Andrea AD, Whitesell L, Lindquist S. HSP90 Shapes the Consequences of Human Genetic Variation. Cell 168(5):856-866.e12, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28215707.
- Sahni N, Yi S, Taipale M, Fuxman Bass JI, Coulombe-Huntington J, Yang F, Peng J, Weile J, Karras GI, Wang Y, Kovács IA, Kamburov A, Krykbaeva I, Lam MH, Tucker G, Khurana V, Sharma A, Liu YY, Yachie N, Zhong Q, Shen Y, Palagi A, San-Miguel A, Fan C, Balcha D, Dricot A, Jordan DM, Walsh JM, Shah AA, Yang X, Stoyanova AK, Leighton A, Calderwood MA, Jacob Y, Cusick ME, Salehi-Ashtiani K, Whitesell LJ, Sunyaev S, Berger B, Barabási AL, Charloteaux B, Hill DE, Hao T, Roth FP, Xia Y, Walhout AJM, Lindquist S, Vidal M. Widespread macromolecular interaction perturbations in human genetic disorders. Cell 161(3):647-660, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 25910212.
- Nicolae CM, Aho ER, Vlahos AH, Choe KN, De S, Karras GI, Moldovan GL. The ADP-ribosyltransferase PARP10/ARTD10 interacts with proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and is required for DNA damage tolerance. J Biol Chem 289(19):13627-37, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24695737.
- Karras GI, Fumasoni M, Sienski G, Vanoli F, Branzei D, Jentsch S. Noncanonical role of the 9-1-1 clamp in the error-free DNA damage tolerance pathway. Mol Cell 49(3):536-46, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23260657.
- Taipale M, Krykbaeva I, Koeva M, Kayatekin C, Westover KD, Karras GI, Lindquist S. Quantitative analysis of HSP90-client interactions reveals principles of substrate recognition. Cell 150(5):987-1001, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22939624.
- Karras GI, Jentsch S. The RAD6 DNA damage tolerance pathway operates uncoupled from the replication fork and is functional beyond S phase. Cell 141(2):255-67, 2010. e-Pub 2010. PMID: 20403322.
- Moertl S, Karras GI, Wismüller T, Ahne F, Eckardt-Schupp F. Regulation of double-stranded DNA gap repair by the RAD6 pathway. DNA Repair (Amst) 7(11):1893-906, 2008. e-Pub 2008. PMID: 18722556.
- Karras GI, Kustatscher G, Buhecha HR, Allen MD, Pugieux C, Sait F, Bycroft M, Ladurner AG. The macro domain is an ADP-ribose binding module. EMBO J 24(11):1911-20, 2005. e-Pub 2005. PMID: 15902274.
Invited Articles
- Karras GI, Colombo G, Kravats AN. Hsp90: Bringing It all together. Cell Stress Chaperones None(None):None, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 39889818.
Grant & Contract Support
| Title: | HSP90 Capacitance: Discovery of a New Mechanism Driving Evolution of Drug Resistance in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma |
| Funding Source: | CPRIT |
| Role: | PI |
| Title: | Proteotoxic Metabolites in Genome Instability and Disease |
| Funding Source: | NCI/NIH |
| Role: | PI |
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified February 21, 2025