Texas Tech University

Dr. Elka Georgieva

Georgieva

Title: Assistant Professor

Education: Ph.D. in Chemistry from Bulgarian Academy of Sciences with Prof. Nicola Yordanov

Postdoctoral Training:

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University with Prof. Astrid Gräslund.
  2. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University with Prof. Jack Freed.

Research Area: Georgieva's group uses multidisciplinary approaches to learn the structure, conformational dynamics, and function of membrane proteins at the molecular level. Particularly, we are interested to understand the structure and functional mechanisms of:

  1. Viral protein in cellular membranes with emphasis on proteins from oncoviruses.
  2. Membrane exporters from pathogenic bacteria with emphasis on Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb).
  3. Lipid-interacting human proteins linked to cancer.

Office: Experimental Sciences II, 402F

Phone: 806-834-8166

Email: elgeorgi@ttu.edu

Webpage: Georgieva Group

Principal Research Interests

  • Protein engineering
  • Mechanisms of membrane proteins
  • Molecular mechanisms of virus-host interactions
  • Membrane proteins in drug development

Selected Publications

Research Articles

High-yield production in E. coli and characterization of full-length functional p13II protein from human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (2020), Prot Expr Purif, 173:105659 Elka R. Georgieva**, Peter P. Borbat, Christina Fanouraki, Jack H. Freed.

Structural basis for membrane anchoring and fusion regulation of the Herpes Simplex Virus fusogen gB (2018) Nat Struct Mol Biol, 25, 416-424. Rebecca S. Cooper, Elka R. Georgieva, Peter P. Borbat, Jack H. Freed, Ekaterina E. Heldwein.

Conformational response of influenza A M2 transmembrane domain to amantadine drug binding at low pH (pH 5.5) (2016) Frontiers in Physiology, 7:317. Elka R. Georgieva*, Peter P. Borbat, Kirill Grushin, Svetla Stoilova-McPhie, Nichita J. Kulkarni#, Zhichun Liang, Jack H. Freed*.

Mechanism of influenza A M2 transmembrane domain assembly in lipid membranes (2015) Sci Rep, 5, 11757. Elka R. Georgieva*, Peter P. Borbat, Haley D. Norman# and Jack H. Freed*.

Conformational ensemble of the sodium coupled aspartate transporter (2013) Nat Struct Mol Biol, 20, 215–22. Elka R. Georgieva, Peter P. Borbat, Christopher Ginter, Jack H. Freed, Olga Boudker.

Membrane-bound alpha-Synuclein forms an extended helix: Long-distance pulsed ESR measurements using vesicles, bicelles and rod-like micelles (2008) J Am Chem Soc, 130, 12856-7. Elka R. Georgieva, Trudy F. Ramlall, Peter P. Borbat, Jack H. Freed, David Eliezer.

Review Articles

Protein Conformational Dynamics upon Association with the Surfaces of Lipid Membranes and Engineered Nanoparticles: Insights from Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (2020) Molecules, 25(22), 5393. (Invited) Elka R. Georgieva** Texas Tech Publication

Non-structural proteins from human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 in cellular membranes—Mechanisms for viral survivability and proliferation (2018), Int J Mol Sci, 19, pii: E3508. Elka R. Georgieva**.

Nanoscale lipid membrane mimetics in spin-labeling and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy studies of protein structure and function (2017) Nanotechnology Reviews, special issue on "Lipid nanotechnologies for macromolecular structure determination", 6, 75–92. (Invited) Elka R. Georgieva**

** Corresponding author

Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

  • Address

    1204 Boston Avenue, Lubbock, TX 79409-1061
  • Phone

    806.742.3067