Rate My Professor George Smith

George P. Smith is the Curators’ Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He received a B.A. in biology from Haverford College in 1963 and a Ph.D. in bacteriology and immunology from Harvard University in 1970. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1970 to 1975, he joined the faculty in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri in 1975, advancing to Curators’ Distinguished Professor before retiring as emeritus.

Smith is best known for inventing phage display technology, detailed in his landmark 1985 Science publication, 'Filamentous fusion phage: novel expression vectors that display cloned antigens on the virion surface.' This innovative method uses bacteriophages to display peptides and antibodies, applying evolutionary principles through genetic variation and selection to engineer proteins with specific binding affinities. His research at the University of Missouri applied phage display to molecular imaging of cancer, identifying tumor-specific binding molecules for precise detection, such as in SPECT imaging of melanoma tumors in mouse models. The technique has revolutionized antibody discovery, vaccine development, and pharmaceutical production. In recognition of this work, Smith shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Frances H. Arnold and Gregory P. Winter 'for the phage display of peptides and antibodies,' marking the first Nobel Prize for a University of Missouri faculty member. Additional honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2020, the Promega Biotechnology Research Award from the American Society for Microbiology in 2007, election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2001, and appointment as University of Missouri Curator’s Professor in 2000. Key contributions also encompass his Nobel Lecture, 'Phage Display: Simple Evolution in a Petri Dish' (2018), and numerous papers on phage-based epitope discovery and materials.