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George Pavlakis
George Pavlakis Scientist Emeritus, National Cancer Institute, Visiting Scholar, Emory University Dr. Pavlakis has extensive research and development experience in molecular biology, virology, and immunology. He has directed both basic research and clinical development projects based on his pioneering research achievements. He developed the first mammalian cell production of mature Human Growth Hormone, a successful biotechnology product. This was one of the first licensed biotechnology products using mammalian cell expression technologies, together with Genentech’s TPA. He also developed important technologies and insights used widely, including: codon/RNA optimization methods that have found wide applications in biotechnology, gene therapy protocols and many vaccines, including all Adenovirus vaccines and most nucleic acid vaccines; DNA vaccines for HIV providing strong and long-lasting protective immunity in macaques; lipid formulations for nucleic acid delivery in humans; strong fluorescent GFP mutants that are in wide use in biology. He studied the molecular biology, organization and expression strategy of HIV and discovered important functions of its regulatory factors Tat and Rev. He described the first transcriptional activator on oncoretroviruses, the Tax protein of HTLV-I and the first posttranscriptional regulatory factor controlling mRNA export from the nucleus, the Rev protein of HIV-1. His studies provided new insights on the biology of several viruses. His work has also led to the development of innovative biotechnology drugs and gene therapy procedures. He presently works on cancer immunotherapies and vaccines as well as on HIV vaccines. In addition, he developed several vectors and drugs in clinical trials for AIDS vaccines and cancer immunotherapy. The latest immunotherapy drug, hetIL-15, is in clinical trials by Novartis. Recent clinical trials using cGMP materials developed in his lab include NCT02452268, NCT04261439 (cancer immunotherapy; publications PMID: 34799399, 33671252). NCT04408209 (COVID19 trial). NCT03181789 [HVTN 119], NCT03560258 [ACTG A5369], NCT04357821 (AIDS vaccine trials, recent publications PMID: 41326736, 38051788, 39088271). Dr. Pavlakis is a member of several professional societies, including the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Physicians. He is a highly cited researcher, has authored more than 250 publications and is inventor of more than 70 US and International patents licensed to more than 30 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Novartis, Wyeth, Merck, Pfizer, Sigma. Due to his patented technologies, he has been elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Doctor Honoris Causa, from his alma mater, University of Athens Medical School Order of the Phoenix Commander Gold Cross of the Hellenic Republic Corresponding Member, Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts Bibliography: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Pavlakis%2C+GN&sort=date&size=50

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