Leonid A. Pobezinsky

Leonid A. Pobezinsky, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Office: 

427G ISB

Mailing address: 

661 North Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01003

Office phone: 

413-545-2393

Fax: 

413-545-6326

Ph.D.: Cancer Research Center, Moscow, Russia, 2003
Postdoctoral Training: Experimental Immunology Branch, NCI/NIH

Classes: 

ANIMLSCI 572 - Infection & Immunity

ANIMLSCI 581/697C - Cancer Biology

ANIMLSCI 794A - Immunology Journal Club

Lab website

Co-Investigator - Research Assistant Professor - Elena Pobezinskaya, PhD

Research Interests

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.

Lab Personnel

Name Email Phone Office
Ameadaji, Ilemona
Research Fellow
iameadaji [at] umass.edu ISB 470
Hioki, Kaito
Graduate Student - MCB
khioki [at] umass.edu ISB 470
Liang, Xueting (Darren)
Graduate Student - ABBS
xuetingliang [at] umass.edu ISB 470
Lynch, Adam
Graduate Student - ABBS
aclynch [at] umass.edu ISB 470
Roberts, Eugenia
Undergraduate Student
emroberts [at] umass.edu ISB 470

Publications