George Yancopoulos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

George D. Yancopoulos born 1959 in Middle Village, New York; Chief scientific officer and president of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. Dr. Yancopoulos is widely regarded as a world leader in many fields of biology and was elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Sciences in 2004. According to a study by the Institute for Scientific Information, Dr. Yancopoulos was the eleventh most highly cited scientist in the world during the 1990's (citation rates reflect how often a scientist’s work is referred to by other scientists, and is widely regarded as the best way to rank scientists), and the only scientist from the biotechnology industry on the list.

[edit] Biography

After graduating as valedictorian of both the Bronx High School of Science and Columbia University, Dr. Yancopoulos received his MD and PhD degrees in 1987 from Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons. Following widely recognized work in the field of molecular immunology at Columbia University with Dr. Fred Alt, for which he received the Lucille P. Markey Scholar Award, Dr. Yancopoulos left academia in 1989 as a founding scientist for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Yancopoulos was awarded Columbia University’s Stevens Triennial Prize for Research and its University Medal of Excellence for Distinguished Achievement.

[edit] Key Papers

[1] Developmentally controlled and tissue-specific expression of unrearranged VH gene segments. Cell. 1985 Feb;40(2):271-81.

[2] Introduced T cell receptor variable region gene segments recombine in pre-B cells: evidence that B and T cells use a common recombinase. Cell. 1986 Jan 31;44(2):251-9.

[3] Neurotrophin-3: a neurotrophic factor related to NGF and BDNF. Science. 1990 Mar 23;247(4949 Pt 1):1446-51.

[4] ERKs a family of protein-serine/threonine kinases that are activated and tyrosine phosphorylated in response to insulin and NGF. Cell. 1991 May 17;65(4):663-75.

[5] TrkB mediates BDNF/NT-3-dependent survival and proliferation in fibroblasts lacking the low affinity NGF receptor. Cell. 1991 Jul 26;66(2):405-13.

[6] The receptor for ciliary neurotrophic factor. Science. 1991 Jul 5;253(5015):59-63.

[7] Similarities and differences in the way neurotrophins interact with the Trk receptors in neuronal and nonneuronal cells. Neuron. 1993 Feb;10(2):137-49.

[8] Ligands for EPH-related receptor tyrosine kinases that require membrane attachment or clustering for activity. Science. 1994 Nov 4;266(5186):816-9.

[9] Mice lacking the CNTF receptor, unlike mice lacking CNTF, exhibit profound motor neuron deficits at birth. Cell. 1995 Oct 20;83(2):313-22.

[10] Designer cytokines: targeting actions to cells of choice. Science. 1995 Nov 24;270(5240):1351-3.

[11] The receptor tyrosine kinase MuSK is required for neuromuscular junction formation in vivo. Cell. 1996 May 17;85(4):501-12.

[12] Agrin acts via a MuSK receptor complex. Cell. 1996 May 17;85(4):513-23.

[13] Isolation of angiopoietin-1, a ligand for the TIE2receptor, by secretion-trap expression cloning. Cell. 1996 Dec 27;87(7):1161-9.

[14] An orphan receptor tyrosine kinase family whose members serve as nonintegrin collagen receptors. Mol Cell. 1997 Dec;1(1):25-34.

[15] Ror2, encoding a receptor-like tyrosine kinase, is required for cartilage and growth plate development. Nat Genet. 2000 Mar;24(3):271-4.

[16] VEGF-Trap: a VEGF blocker with potent antitumor effects. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Aug 20;99(17):11393-8. Epub 2002 Aug 12.

[17] High-throughput engineering of the mouse genome coupled with high-resolution expression analysis. Nat Biotechnol. 2003 Jun;21(6):652-9. Epub 2003 May 5.

[18] Cytokine traps: multi-component, high-affinity blockers of cytokine action. Nat Med. 2003 Jan;9(1):47-52. Epub 2002 Dec 16