Speaker Profile
Sophia N. Karagiannis

Sophia N. Karagiannis MS, PhD

Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Immunology and Microbiology
London, England, United Kingdom

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Dr. Sophia Karagiannis is a Reader in translational cancer immunology and heads a cancer antibody discovery group focused on designing novel treatments for skin, ovarian and breast carcinomas. BA and MS degrees were gained at Rutgers University, USA, under a number of scholarship awards and a teaching assistantship (1987, 1991). She gained a PhD at King’s College London in Biochemistry under SERC and SmithKline Beecham-funded scholarships (1995). She has initiated and developed immunotherapy strategies for cancer and inflammatory diseases and led functional and toxicological studies for biological drug development and clinical trial programs in academic and biotechnology environments in London and Cambridge as a postdoctoral associate and scientific investigator; she was appointed as NIHR/BRC Senior Research Fellow in 2007.

The Karagiannis group is presently focused on dissecting humoral immunity in cancer, elucidating the tumor-targeting and immune effector cell activating mechanisms of IgE and IgG antibodies against cancer antigens and developing a pipeline of antibodies with improved ability to destroy tissue cancers and as diagnostic tools. Sophia co-founded and presently co-chairs the International Task Force on AllergoOncology (a recognized Task Force under the auspices of the European Academy for Allergy and Clinical Immunology since 2014). She has pioneered IgE therapeutics for solid tumors. Her group is undertaking a key research, development and clinical translation initiative on the first IgE class antibody for cancer therapy conducted in close collaboration with clinical and academic groups at King's College London (J Spicer, H Gould, C Corrigan) and the CR-UK Centre for Drug Development.
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