Research Program

Human beings are daily exposed to background radiation. My research has focused the last twelve years on the effects of ionizing radiation on DNA which is considered as the key target of radiation in the cell. Ionizing radiation and endogenous cellular oxidative stress can also induce closely spaced oxidatively-induced DNA lesions called 'clusters' of DNA damage or Locally Multiple Damage Sites (LMDS) as first introduced by John Ward.

I am now interested in the repair mechanisms of clustered DNA damage which is considered as the most difficult for the cell to repair. A main part of my research is devoted on evaluating the role of clustered DNA damage in the promotion of Carcinogenesis.  Currently in my laboratory I have two main ongoing projects:

1. Role of BRCA1 and DNA-PKcs repair proteins in the processing of clustered DNA damage in human breast cancer. For this project we use several tumor cell lines like the the breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and HCC1937 (BRCA1 deficient) and the human glioblastoma cells MO59J/K.

2. Possible use of DNA damage clusters as novel cancer biomarkers for prognostic and therapeutic applications. In this project human tumor and mice tissues are being used.

Education

1987-1992  : Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Physics with Honors, University  of Athens, Athens, Greece.

1991-1992 : Diploma thesis with Honors: "The Effects  of alpha-Irradiation  on  the DNA macromolecule"

1992-1993 : Post-Graduate Studies in molecular and cellular biology, Institute  of  Biology, NCSR "Demokritos"

1993-1998 : Ph.D in Biology with Honors: "Effects of alpha-Particles radiation on mammalian DNA". 

Recent Publications 

A.G. Georgakilas, P. V. Bennett and B. M. Sutherland (2002) "High efficiency detection of bistranded abasic clusters in g-irradiated T7 DNA by putrescine". Nucleic Acids Research, 30, 2800-2808.

Sutherland, B.M., Bennett, P.V., Georgakilas, A.G., and Sutherland, J.C. (2003) "Evaluation of Number Average length Analysis in Quantifying Double Strand Breaks in Genomic DNAs". Biochemistry, 42, 3375-3384.

B.M. Sutherland, A.G. Georgakilas, P.V. Bennett, J. Laval and J.C. Sutherland (2003) "Quantifying Clustered DNA Damage Induction and Repair by Gel Electrophoresis, Electronic Imaging and Number Average Length Analysis". Mutat. Res. (Review) 531, 93-107.

A.G. Georgakilas, P. V. Bennett and B. M. Sutherland (2004) "Processing of Bistranded Abasic DNA Clustered Damages inγ-Irradiated Human Hematopoietic Cells".  Nucleic Acids Res. 32, 5609-5620.

Gollapalle, E., Wong, R., Adetolu, R., Tsao, D., Francisco, D., Sigounas, G. and Georgakilas, A.G. (2007) "Detection of oxidative clustered DNA lesions in X-irradiated mouse skin tissues and human MCF-7 breast cancer cells". Radiat. Res. 167, 207-216.

Lally, B. E.; Geiger, G. A.; Kridel, S.; Arcury-Quandt, A. E.; Robbins, M. E.; Kock, N. E.; Wheeler, K.; Peddi, P.; Georgakilas, A. G.; Kao, G. D.; Koumenis, C. Identification and biological evaluation of a novel and potent small molecule radiation sensitizer via an unbiased screen of a chemical library. Cancer Res. 67:8791-8799; 2007.

Francisco, D. C.; Peddi, P.; Hair, J. M.; Flood, B. A.; Cecil, A. M.; Kalogerinis, P. T.; Sigounas, G.; Georgakilas, A. G. Induction and processing of complex DNA damage in human breast cancer cells MCF-7 and non-malignant MCF-10A cells. Free Radic. Biol. Med.44:558-569; 2008.

Georgakilas, A. G. Processing of DNA damage clusters in human cells: Current status of knowledge Mol. Biosyst.4:30-35; 2008 (Review).

Holt, S. M., Scemama, J. L., Panayiotidis, M. I., and Georgakilas, A. G. Compromised repair of clustered DNA damage in the human acute lymphoblastic leukemia MSH2-deficient NALM-6 cells. Mutat. Res., 674: 123-130, 2009.

Νowsheen, S., Wukovich, R. L., Aziz, K., Kalogerinis, P. T., Richardson, C. C., Panayiotidis, M. I., Bonner, W. M., Sedelnikova, O. A., and Georgakilas, A. G. Accumulation of oxidatively-induced clustered DNA lesions in human tumor tissues. Mutat. Res., 674: 131-136 2009

Georgakilas, A. G. A possible role of repair proteins BRCA1 and DNA-PK in the processing of oxidative DNA damage. J. Biochemical. Technology 1:9-11; 2008 (Mini Review)

Georgakilas, A. G., Aziz, K., Ziech, D., Georgakila, S., and Panayiotidis, M. I. BRCA1 involvement in toxicological responses and human cancer etiology. Toxicol. Lett., 188(2):77-83 2009 (Review).

Search for my publications relative to clustered DNA damage at PubMed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed