Liapakis George
May 27, 2025 2025-05-27 11:58Liapakis George

Liapakis George
Professor of Pharmacology
Medical School, University of Crete, P.C. 71003 Heraklion, Crete

George Liapakis is Professor of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine, University of Crete, and his research interests focus on studying the structure and function of the G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), which are targets for approximately 35% of commercially available drugs. He has been working on families A and B GPCRs since he started his PhD. After the completion of his PhD he joined the Department of Pharmacology of the Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) in Philadelphia, USA, as a postdoctoral fellow, where using a variety of experimental approaches he obtained information on the structure and function of somatostatin receptors and pharmacologically characterized novel somatostatin receptor subtype-selective analogs. After 2.5 years, he joined the Center for Molecular Recognition at Columbia University in New York, USA, where he obtained information on the structure and function of adrenergic receptors. In 2000, he joined the Department of Pharmacology of the School of Medicine at the University of Crete as an Assistant Professor, where he obtained structural and functional information for the type 1 receptor (CRF1R) for the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF). From 09/12 το 08/13, he was an adjunct professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, USA. In addition, Dr. Liapakis, in collaboration with medicinal chemists and molecular modelers, pharmacologically characterized many novel analogs, which target the CRF, angiotensin, and gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptors. His research work has been funded by several different funding organizations and has been published in numerous high-profile international scientific journals.
Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki, Greece B.S. 07/86 Pharmacy
School of Medicine, University of Crete, Greece Ph.D. 06/94 Pharmacology
School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Postdoctoral 01/97 Pharmacology
Center for Molecular Recognition, Columbia University
Research Scientist 05/00 Pharmacology
My scientific interests are focused on elucidating the mode of interaction of ligands with G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) and particularly those which bind the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), gonadotropin-releasing hormone, and angiotensin. Furthermore, I am studying the activation-associated conformational changes in these receptors. In addition, in collaboration with medicinal chemists and molecular modelers, we designed and synthesized novel molecules targeting these receptors. These studies will provide us with valuable structural/functional information that could lead to the rational design of receptor-selective compounds with predetermined efficacy, among them, proteolytically stable non-peptide agonists and/or antagonists.
PUBLICATIONS SITED IN PUB MED
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=liapakis+g.
PUBLICATIONS NON-SITED IN PUB MED
Gelain A., Rizzi L., Legnani L., Pacini A., Spyridaki K., Karageorgos V., Liapakis G. and Villa S. (2015). Novel peptidomimetics related to gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH).
Med. Chem. Commun., 6: 1656-65.
Kellici T.F., Ntountaniotis D., Liapakis G., Tzakos A.G., Mavromoustakos T. (2019). The dynamic properties of angiotensin II type 1 receptor inverse agonists in solution and in the
receptor site. Arabian Journal of Chemistry, 12: 5062-5078
Hellenic Society for Neuroscience
Society for Neuroscience
Greek Society of Pharmacology