George Coukos (born December 23, 1961) is a physician-scientist in tumor immunology, professor and director of the Ludwig Cancer Research Lausanne Branch and director of the Department of Oncology UNIL-CHUV of the University of Lausanne and the Lausanne University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland.[1] He is known for his work on the mechanisms by which tumors suppress anti-cancer immune responses, and the role of the tumor vasculature in that suppression.[2] In addition to his work in ovarian cancer, the combinatorial immune therapies proposed by Professor Coukos have been successfully tested and approved for lung, liver and kidney cancers.[3]
Born and raised in Greece, George Coukos obtained his MD in 1986 at the University of Modena, Italy, and his PhD in 1991 at the University of Patras, Greece. He completed training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Modena in 1991. He then undertook a post-doctorate fellowship in cell biology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (1991–1994), where he also completed residency training in obstetrics and gynecology (1994–1997) and fellowship training in Gynecologic Oncology (1997–2000).
Career
In 2000, he became assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He became an associate professor in 2006 and a full professor in 2010. At the University of Pennsylvania, George Coukos founded (2007) and directed the Ovarian Cancer Research Center,[4] and served as associate director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology. In 2012, Coukos was recruited by the University of Lausanne to head up the Department of Oncology UNIL-CHUV, of the Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland.[5] He was appointed director of the Lausanne branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in the same year.[6]
Major accomplishments
Discovery of a spontaneous anti-tumor response in ovarian cancer, previously thought to be present only in a few tumor types, such as kidney cancer or melanoma[7]
First to propose the notion that tumor endothelial barrier actively controls the localization of T cells in tumors,[8][9] sparking major international efforts towards the development of combinations of anti-angiogenesis drugs with immune checkpoints in numerous solid tumors[10][11]
↑ Motz, Gregory T.; Coukos, George (2011-09-23). "The parallel lives of angiogenesis and immunosuppression: cancer and other tales". Nature Reviews. Immunology. 11 (10): 702–711. doi:10.1038/nri3064. ISSN1474-1741. PMID21941296. S2CID28894601.
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