Egon Ogris studied medicine at the University of Vienna, worked at the Institute of Molecular Biology in the laboratory of Erhard Winterberger, received his MD in 1987, and went to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, as a Schrödinger Postdoctoral Fellow. In 1995 he started his independent research work and habilitated in biochemistry in 2000.
The Ogris lab investigates the biogenesis and regulation of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), a highly conserved enzyme family with tumor-suppressive properties. Various PP2A complexes composed of three subunits exist in a cell, each of which is specifically involved in the regulation of a distinct cellular process. The analysis of this complex enzyme family requires highly specific tools such as monoclonal antibodies, which the Ogris group develops, licenses and also patents. The current model of PP2A biogenesis, which is based to a large extent on the research results of the Ogris group, represents an important prerequisite for the development of novel drugs whose goal is the reactivation of PP2A in cancer cells and whose mechanisms of action Ogris and his team investigate.