George Makhatadze

Dr. George Makhatadze is a Professor and Constellation Endowed Chair at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Department of Biological Sciences. He has held prior faculty positions at Texas Tech University (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) and Penn State University College of Medicine (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), where he directed a graduate program in Chemical Biology.

• Education: Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Institute of Protein Research (1991), B.S. in Physics/Biophysics from Georgia State University (1985)
• Research: Focuses on protein folding, stability, and interactions under extreme conditions (e.g., high pressure), amyloid fibril formation, and structural thermodynamics using experimental and computational methods.

His research combines biophysical techniques (calorimetry, NMR, SAXS/SANS) with AI/ML-enhanced simulations to study molecular adaptation mechanisms in extremophiles, amyloid detection sensors, and protein design principles. He serves on editorial boards of journals like Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences and Protein Engineering, Design and Selection, and has contributed to NIH/NSF review panels.

Key scientific achievements include:

• Pioneering pressure-perturbation calorimetry to decode protein adaptation to deep-sea conditions
• Developing GFP-based FRET sensors for amyloid detection
• Mapping collagen triple-helix bending in mannan-binding lectin

He has mentored over 20 PhD students and is affiliated with research centers such as the Center for Computational Innovations and Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies.