Leonid A. Pobezinsky
Associate Professor
427G ISB
Mailing address:
661 North Pleasant Street
Amherst, Mass 01003
Fax: 413-545-6326
Education
Ph.D.: Cancer Research Center, Moscow, Russia, 2003
Postdoctoral Training: Experimental Immunology Branch, NCI/NIH
Research Interests
Co-Investigator - Research Assistant Professor - Elena Pobezinskaya, PhD
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.
Classes
ANIMLSCI 572 - Infection & Immunity
ANIMLSCI 581H/640 - Cancer Biology
ANIMLSCI 658 - Frontiers in Biotechnology
ANIMLSCI 670 - Advanced Immunology
ANIMLSCI 794A - Immunology Journal Club
Lab Personnel
- Ilemona Amedaji, Research Fellow
- Kaito Hioki, Graduate Student - MCB
- Xueting (Darren) Liang, Graduate Student - ABBS
- Adam Lynch, Graduate Student - ABBS
- Eugenia Roberts, Undergraduate Student