Nikolaos Sgourakis

Nikolaos Sgourakis is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, with additional affiliations at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). His research integrates structural biology, protein engineering, and computational approaches to advance cancer immunotherapy, particularly through understanding the MHC-I antigen presentation pathway.

• Graduate Group Affiliations: Cell and Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Immunology, Pharmacology

His research focuses on the structural mechanisms of MHC-I molecules and their role in immune surveillance, with applications in targeting intracellular oncoproteins in pediatric cancers. He develops engineered chaperones and stabilized MHC-I systems to enhance peptide exchange and immunogenicity in 'cold' tumors like neuroblastoma.

The most recent publications highlight a strong trend in structural immunology, particularly in understanding antigen presentation, T cell receptor recognition, and engineering novel immunotherapies such as peptide-centric CARs and bispecific T cell engagers. His work frequently employs cryo-EM, computational modeling, and protein design to tackle challenges in personalized cancer therapy.

• Selected for Cancer Grand Challenges consortium (2022)
• Selected for Cancer Grand Challenges consortium (2025)

Dr. Sgourakis' lab is supported by major collaborative grants through the Cancer Grand Challenges program, enabling international, interdisciplinary research aimed at developing next-generation T cell-based therapeutics. His lab trains graduate students and postdoctoral researchers through affiliations with multiple graduate groups. He has developed molecular tools that are advancing high-throughput T cell screening and antigen discovery.

His lab operates at CHOP and is part of a larger collaborative ecosystem at the Penn Autoimmunity Center of Excellence and the Cancer Immunology program. The Sgourakis Lab leverages structural insights to engineer solutions for immune evasion in cancer, positioning it at the forefront of translational immunology.