Leonid A. Pobezinsky

Non-coding RNAs in the immune system. Our laboratory is interested in the molecular mechanisms that control differentiation and transformation programs within an organism. The immune system constantly undergoes differentiation and is prone to malignant transformation providing an excellent model to study these programs. Thus, the focus of the laboratory is to identify key regulators of genes that are critical for normal function and for tumorigenesis of the immune system. Recently, non-coding RNAs, miRNAs, have been shown to control expression of many genes at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. Specifically, we would like to understand the function of tumor suppressive and oncogenic miRNAs that are expressed in the immune cells. The Pobezinsky Lab has been awarded a $3.75 million grant from Nonpareil miRNA Accelerator LLC. With this grant, they propose to enhance the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies using a novel strategy that is based on miRNA-dependent T cell-intrinsic mechanisms of gene regulation.