Rate My Professor Emmanuel Skordalakes

Emmanuel Skordalakes, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, where he is affiliated with the Massey Cancer Center. He earned his B.Sc. in 1990 from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK, M.Sc. in 1992 from University College London, Ph.D. in 2000 from Imperial College and the Medical Research Council in London, UK, and completed postdoctoral training in 2006 at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining VCU, Skordalakes served as an Associate Professor in the Gene Expression and Regulation Program at The Wistar Institute from 2012 to 2023 and as Assistant Professor there from 2007 to 2011. His research employs structural biology, biochemistry, and cell-based methods to investigate protein-nucleic acid assemblies involved in the replication and maintenance of telomeres, the protective caps at eukaryotic chromosome ends. Telomere dysfunction and telomerase reactivation are hallmarks of cancer, while telomere shortening contributes to aging and senescence.

Skordalakes' laboratory focuses on telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein reverse transcriptase that elongates telomeres, elucidating its catalytic mechanism, regulation by shelterin proteins such as POT1-TPP1, and interactions with accessory factors for length homeostasis. Current efforts include developing small-molecule inhibitors of telomerase and its regulators to target cancers like melanoma, breast, prostate, and lung, which rely on telomerase for proliferation or alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT). His contributions to the field include pioneering structural insights into telomerase components and telomere capping complexes, with research cited over 5,200 times and an h-index of 35. Key publications encompass 'Telomere dysfunction implicates POT1 in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis' (J. Exp. Med., 2022), 'Structural and functional analysis of the human POT1-TPP1 telomeric complex' (Nat. Commun., 2017), 'Structural basis for telomerase catalytic subunit TERT binding to RNA template and telomeric DNA' (Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol., 2010), 'Telomouse—a mouse model with human-length telomeres generated by a single amino acid change in RTEL1' (Nat. Commun., 2023), and 'Structural Basis of Telomerase Inhibition by the Highly Specific BIBR1532' (Structure, 2015). In 2024, he delivered a seminar at VCU on 'Discovery of Cancer Therapeutics Targeting Telomeric Complexes.'