Senior Scientist, Boston Biomedical Research Institute

EDUCATION

B.S. University of Notre Dame, Biology, 1966

Ph.D. Physiology, Tufts University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 1971

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Protein-protein interactions in thin filament regulation of skeletal and cardiac muscle contraction

SUMMARY OF RESEARCH

Cancer cells share some of the characteristics of undifferentiated embryonic cells. Although they may arise from differentiated adult cells, they regress to a more primitive form reminiscent of embryonic cells that tend to multiply with high frequency. But whereas the growth of embryonic cells is ultimately arrested by factors secreted by the embryo, these factors are not produced by the adult organism, and tumors therefore can grow out of control until they overwhelm the body. Intrigued by the parallels between embryonic and cancer cells, our laboratory is investigating wheather factors secreted by embryonic cells to control their own growth might not also be able to control proliferation of cancer cells. Several factors derived from embryonic liver and brain have been partially purified and shown to affect the growth of a number of cancer cell types in vitro including breast, kidney, ovarian and cervical cancers while not affecting the growth of primary cell cultures. We are currently aiming to purify enough of these factors to allow their characterization and synthesis for larger scale studies of their efficacy in vivo.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Liu, R., Leavis, P.C., & J.A. Badwey (1996) In vitro activation of a 60-70 kDa histone H4 protein kinase from neutrophils by limited proteolysis. Biochim. Biophys. Acta., 1295, 89-95.

• Kobayashi, T., Leavis, P.C., & J.H. Collins (1996) Interaction of a troponin I inhibitory peptide with both domains of troponin C. Biochim. Biophys. Acta., 1294, 25-30.

• Jha, P.K., Du, Y., Leavis, P.C., & S. Sarkar (1995) Overexpression and rapid purification of human fast skeletal §troponin T using escherichia coli expression vectors: Functional differences between a and § isoforms. Gene 155, 225-230.

• Rubin, H.N., Halim, M.N. & P.C. Leavis (1994) A poly (A) binding protein-specific sequence motif: MRTENGKSKGFGFVC binding to mRNA Poly (A) and polynucleotides and its role upon mRNA translation, Biochemistry and Molec Biol. Int., 33, 575-590.

• Wu, Q-L., Jha, P.K., Raychowdhury, M.K., Du, Y., Leavis, P.C. & S. Sarkar (1994) Isolation and characterization of human fast skeletal b Troponin T cDNA: Comparative sequence analysis of isoforms and insight into the evolution of members of a multigene family, DNA and Cell Biology, 13, 217-233.

• Coppin, C.M. & P.C. Leavis (1992) Quantitation of liquid crystalline ordering in F-actin solutions, Biophys. J. 63, 794-807.

• Tao, T., Gong, B.L. & P.C. Leavis (1990) Troponin I as a molecular switch in skeletal muscle regulation, Science, 247, 1339-1340.

• Wang, C.-L. A. & P.C. Leavis (1990) Distance measurements in cardiac troponin C, Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 276, 236-241.

• Tao, T., Gowell, E., Strasburg, G.M., Gergely, J. & P.C. Leavis (1989) Ca2+-dependence of the distance between Cys-98 of troponin-C and Cys-133 of troponin-I in the ternary complex. Resonance energy transfer measurements, Biochemistry, 28, 5902-5908.

• Leszyk, J., Collins, J.H., Leavis, P.C. & T. Tao. (1988) Cross-linking of rabbit skeletal muscle troponin subunits: Labeling of cysteine-98 of troponin C with 4-maleimidobenzophenone and analysis of products formed in the binary complex with troponin T and the ternary complex with troponins I and T, Biochemistry, 27, 6983-6987.

• Tao, T., Gergely, J., & P.C. Leavis (1986) Studies on the Interactions between the Subunits of Skeletal Muscle Troponin Using Fluorescence Quenching, Photochemical Crosslinking, and Excitation Energy Transfer Techniques, Biophys. J. 49, 142-143.

• Leavis, P.C.& J. Gergely (1984) Thin Filament Proteins and Thin Filament-Linked Regulation of Vertebrate Skeletal Muscle Contraction, CRC Critical Rev. Biochem. 16, 235-305.