George Coukos
VerifiedUniversity of Pennsylvania · Rehabilitation Medicine
Active 1988–2024
Research topics
- Biology
- Immunology
- Computational biology
- Virology
Selected publications
Cell Reports Medicine · 2021 · 178 citations
- Biology
- Computational biology
- Immunology
CD8+ T cell recognition of peptide epitopes plays a central role in immune responses against pathogens and tumors. However, the rules that govern which peptides are truly recognized by existing T cell receptors (TCRs) remain poorly understood, precluding accurate predictions of neo-epitopes for cancer immunotherapy. Here, we capitalize on recent (neo-)epitope data to train a predictor of immunogenic epitopes (PRIME), which captures molecular properties of both antigen presentation and TCR recognition. PRIME not only improves prioritization of neo-epitopes but also correlates with T cell potency and unravels biophysical determinants of TCR recognition that we experimentally validate. Analysis of cancer genomics data reveals that recurrent mutations tend to be less frequent in patients where they are predicted to be immunogenic, providing further evidence for immunoediting in human cancer. PRIME will facilitate identification of pathogen epitopes in infectious diseases and neo-epitopes in cancer immunotherapy.
Structural dissimilarity from self drives neoepitope escape from immune tolerance
Nature Chemical Biology · 2020 · 79 citations
- Biology
- Computational biology
- Immunology
Cell · 2020 · 524 citations
- Biology
- Computational biology
- Immunology
Recent grants
NIH · $1.5M · 2009
NIH · $4.3M · 2015
NIH · $696k · 2013
A "complement therapeutics toolbox" for tailored & targeted immunomodulation
NIH · $32.4M · 2007–2020
NIH · $1.5M · 2011
Frequent coauthors
- 460 shared
Lana E. Kandalaft
- 314 shared
Alexandre Harari
University of Lausanne
- 309 shared
Michal Bassani‐Sternberg
University of Lausanne
- 258 shared
David Gfeller
SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
- 212 shared
Melita Irving
Ludwig Cancer Research
- 206 shared
Denarda Dangaj
Ludwig Cancer Research
- 175 shared
Olivier Michielin
University Hospital of Geneva
- 166 shared
Julien Racle
SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
Education
- 1990
PhD , Department if Obstetrics and Gynecology
University of Patras School of Medicine
- 1987
M.D. (Cum Laude)
University of Modena School of Medecine
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