Georgios Karras, Ph.D.
Department of Genetics, Division of Discovery Science
About Dr. Georgios Karras
Dr. Georgios Karras is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Genetics at MD Anderson Cancer Center. His research seeks to uncover fundamental principles of protein folding that promote healthy aging and to develop strategies for harnessing these principles for disease prevention and therapy. Dr. Karras received his B.S. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Democritus University of Thrace (Alexandroupoli, Greece), conducting research at EMBL (Heidelberg, Germany), where he identified the first modular “reader” of poly(ADP-ribose). He earned his Ph.D. from LMU Munich and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (Munich, Germany), where, with Dr. Stefan Jentsch, a pioneer in the ubiquitin field, he investigated mechanisms of ubiquitin-dependent DNA damage tolerance. He then pursued postdoctoral training at the Whitehead Institute/MIT (Cambridge, MA) with Dr. Susan Lindquist, a pioneer in the field of protein folding. There, his work revealed a role for the protein-folding chaperone HSP90 in shaping the phenotypic effects of human mutations and linking them to clinically relevant environmental stressors. Research in the Karras laboratory combines multidisciplinary systems approaches rooted in quantitative genetics, genomics, biochemistry, and systems biology to uncover how protein folding shapes relationships among genotype, phenotype, and the environment in aging and cancer. Dr. Karras has received numerous distinctions, including the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society, the UT Rising STARs Award, a CPRIT Recruitment Award, an NCI K22 Career Development Award, a Kleberg Innovator Award, an NCI R01, a CPRIT Individual Investigator Research Award, and an Andrew Sabin Family Fellow Award. He has also been elected a Fellow of the Cell Stress Society International.
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Associate Professor, Genetics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Faculty, Genetics and Epigenetics Graduate Program, UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Research Interests
Disease Penetrance and Expressivity; Mechanisms of Cancer Evolution; Protein Homeostasis; Genome Maintenance; Fanconi Anemia; Gene-Environment Interactions; Variants of Unknown Significance; Aging; High-Throughput Screens; Precision Medicine
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 |
Experience & Service
Faculty Academic Appointments
Assistant Professor, Genetics, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2018 - 2025
Honors & Awards
| 2027 | Nominee, 2027 Faculty Achievement Award in Research Excellence, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2026 | Andrew Sabin Family Fellow Award, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2025 | Elected Fellow of the Cell Stress Society International (FCSSI), Cell Stress Society International (CSSI) |
| 2020 | K22 Career Development Award, NCI/NIH |
| 2018 | Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) New Faculty Award, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2017 | CPRIT Scholar Award, Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas |
| 2017 | UT System Rising STARs Award, University of Texas |
| 2012 | Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Long-term fellowship, Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) |
| 2011 | Otto-Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society, Max Planck Society |
| 2011 | Director’s Fellowship Allowance, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research |
| 2011 | European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Long-term fellowship, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) |
| 2010 | Junior Research Award, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry |
Grant & Contract Support
| Date: | 2027 - 2029 |
| Title: | Modeling age-dependent HSP90 decline and genome instability in mammals |
| Funding Source: | NIA/NIH |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | R21AG103389 |
| Date: | 2026 - 2028 |
| Title: | Mechanistic Dissection of HSP90-Mediated Mutational Buffering for Precision Control of Proteostasis |
| Funding Source: | Andrew Sabin Family Foundation |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | N/A |
| Date: | 2025 - 2028 |
| 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 |
| ID: | RP250069 |
| Date: | 2025 - 2027 |
| Title: | Interrogating Environmental Determinants of HSP90-Buffered Phenotypes |
| Funding Source: | NIEHS/NIH |
| Role: | Mentor |
| ID: | T32 ES027801 - Xing-Han Zhang |
| Date: | 2024 - 2029 |
| Title: | Proteotoxic Metabolites in Genome Instability and Disease |
| Funding Source: | NCI/NIH |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | R01CA295874 |
| Date: | 2023 - 2024 |
| Title: | Targeting a New Class of Pathogenic Variations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 |
| Funding Source: | Basser Center for BRCA |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | N/A |
| Date: | 2021 - 2023 |
| Title: | Chaperone Enhancers for Healthy Aging |
| Funding Source: | Brown Foundation |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | N/A |
| Date: | 2021 - 2024 |
| Title: | Kleberg Innovator Award: HSP90 Regulators Driving Resilience to Age-Related Disease |
| Funding Source: | Kleberg Foundation |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | N/A |
| Date: | 2021 - 2024 |
| Title: | Investigating the role of HSP90 in shaping the consequences of BRCA1 mutations |
| Funding Source: | NCI/NIH |
| Role: | Mentor |
| ID: | F32CA253780 |
| Date: | 2020 - 2023 |
| Title: | How HSP90 shapes genotype-phenotype relationships to alter treatment outcome in cancer |
| Funding Source: | NCI/NIH |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | K22 CA222938 |
| Date: | 2018 - 2019 |
| Title: | New Faculty Award, Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) |
| Funding Source: | NCI/NIH |
| Role: | Principal Investigator-MDACC |
| ID: | P30CA016672 |
| Date: | 2017 - 2023 |
| Title: | Recruitment of First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty |
| Funding Source: | CPRIT |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | RR180005 |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Gracia B, Zhang XH, Montes P, Phan TC, Huang M, Chen J, Karras GI. HSP90 buffers deleterious genetic variations in BRCA1. Molecular Cell 85(23):4365-4378.e10, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 41265458.
- 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), 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 30(1):69-79, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 39889818.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified September 15, 2026