Alexandros Georgakilas

Dr. Alexandros Georgakilas is an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department of the National Technical University of Athens and the director of the Biophysics/DNA damage and Repair Lab. He received his bachelor’s degree in Physics with Honors at the University of Athens, Athens, Greece in 1992. He pursued post-graduate studies in molecular and cellular biology at the Institute of Biology, NCSR “Demokritos” in 1993. Following post-graduate studies, Dr. Georgakilas received his Doctorate in Radiation Biology with Honors on the “Effects of a-Particles radiation on mammalian DNA”, Biology Department at the University of Athens, Greece in 1999. Subsequently, Dr. Georgakilas was a post-doctoral research associate in the Institute of Biology, NCSR “Demokritos” (1999-2000) and in the Department of Physics, Health and Medical Physics Group, Athens, Greece (2000-2001). Additionally, at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Dr. Georgakilas completed post-doctoral research as an associate in the Biology Department from 2001-2003 under the supervision of Dr. Betsy Sutherland. Over recent years, Dr. Georgakilas’ has developed a reliable methodology for the study of clustered DNA lesions at the cellular or tissue level using human or bacterial DNA repair enzymes based on the pioneering work of Dr. B. Sutherland. There are limited data on the use of the DNA damage molecular assays for the detection of bistranded non-double strand break (DSB) oxidative clustered DNA lesions (OCDLs) in vitro or in vivo. Dr. Georgakilas's work has provided a novel adaptation of neutral single cell gel electrophoresis (Comet assay) or pulsed-field gel electrophoresis to measure these unique types of lesion and their repair. Thus far, Dr. Georgakilas’ research has contributed to the identification of novel DNA repair pathways for OCDLs, as well as uncovering different strategies that these mutagenic and repair resistant lesions are processed by the cell or human tissue. His work has been published in more than 80 peer-review high-impact papers and he has more than 4000 citations. In this way, meaningful insights can be discovered for the biological and clinical application of DNA damage clusters. His interests are in the fields of biophysical analysis of DNA damage, biopolymers, oxidative stress, and the role of clustered DNA damage in carcinogenesis.