Leung Lab at Johns Hopkins

07/05/2023

Our team, in collaboration with Sua Myong's labs, has unveiled new facets on PAR - the enzyme product of cancer drug target PARP. We've uncovered unexpected structural properties of poly(ADP-ribose), or PAR, a crucial molecule in cellular processes and potential key to combating diseases like cancer and neurodegeneration.

Don't forget to check out the full post from Johns Hopkins Biochemistry and Molecular Biology below 👇👇👇

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department Research Highlights Check out some of the recent discoveries from our labs Skip Section Navigation AboutBMB and Public HealthDiversity ActivitiesDiversity and Inclusion CommitteeResources and ReadingsHistory2018 ReunionBMB CentennialMessage from the Chai...

04/14/2023

Hey friends!
🌟 Interested in learning about poly(ADP-ribose) & condensates? I'll be presenting two seminars in the area next week:
1️⃣: 📍 Department of Chemistry, Tufts University
🗓️: 4/19, noon
2️⃣: 📍 MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
🗓️: 4/20, 10am
Looking forward to catching up and discussing the latest research!
Hope you can join!

04/04/2023

The Dean's lecture I had the pleasure of presenting at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is now online! Delve into the journey from a vitamin-related NAD+ to tackling challenges in and .

Appreciative of Johns Hopkins Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Johns Hopkins University for providing me with the opportunity to embark on this intellectual journey.

Anthony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ik9XADPUZc

PARPs and ADP-ribosylation: From Basic Science Discovery to Pandemic Response and BeyondMarch 28, 2023Anthony K. L. Leung, PhD, MBiochProfessor, Department o...

03/14/2023

Calling Leung lab alumni and friends!

Join us on 3/28 at 4p (EDT) for Dean's lecture on PARPs and ADP-ribosylation: From Basic Science Discovery to Pandemic Response and Beyond. Join us as Anthony shares the latest research on their role in pandemic response and other diseases.

If you are in Maryland, let's celebrate and reconnect in person! The lecture will take place at Becton Dickinson Lecture Hall (W1020), Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a reception to follow in the Gallery.

For those unable to attend in person, the lecture will also be available online via Zoom. Please message us for zoom link.

Grateful for your support over the years!

12/22/2021

Excited to share our latest effort to combat COVID and future coronavirus threat!

The new high-throughput platform screens for compounds that target a protein fold in viruses that is essential to their life cycle; tool could be used to identify and develop treatments

07/03/2021

Many congratulations to PhD candidate Isabel Uribe for receiving the NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship! 🥳🎈

Looking forward to exciting discovery that you will make at Johns Hopkins Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

05/13/2021

Spread the word, please: We are recruiting a biochemist working on biomolecular condensates in viral infection and neurodegeneration, through the lens of PARP biology! As PARP is a druggable target, we aim to translate our findings to clinical use!

Our condensate work is also nicely summarized in a recent news release: https://lnkd.in/erwbV-V

Visit our new website for details:
www.leunglab.org/jobs

Come join us!

02/02/2021

Today we celebrate our lab's 10th anniversary 🎉🎈. I want to thank past and present members for making the lab a fun place to work, breaking grounds into new scientific horizons (e.g., viral biology and RNA structure), and being kind. Excited to see how the current team will shape our science for the next 10 years!

11/03/2020

[Hot off the press] Our ADPriboDB 2.0 paper is out at Nucleic Acids Research, documenting a new version of our ADP-ribosylated substrate database at ADPriboDB.leunglab.org — 48,346 entries | 9,097 proteins | 32,946 sites. In this new version, we provide a new tool to visualize structural and functional contexts surrounding the modified site. Hope this database would be useful for uncovering new PARP biology in cancer, neurodegeneration and viral infection!

Using ADPriboDB 2.0, we discovered that ADP-ribosylated substrates are significantly associated with the human interactors of proteins encoded by , which encodes a conserved protein domain called macrodomain that binds and removes ADP-ribosylation, regulating tRNA and rRNA metabolism. More details here: https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaa941

07/08/2020

We are excited to fight this pandemic together with our research! Thanks ScM graduate Jack Goodman and PhD candidate Morgan Dasovich for forging ahead a new path for the lab!

"We want to develop a drug that can be used to treat any future outbreak of coronavirus.” Learn more about the platform technology created in the lab of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Anthony Leung. https://bddy.me/2VXw4Iy

04/06/2020

Anthony discussed about our team's research on RNA and ADP-ribosylation in cancer and COVID-19 as well as our time with cancer patients and survivors with American Cancer Society.

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-deeper-understanding-rna-is-crucial-to-fighting/id1454395139?i=1000470609423

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4glNu4aS0wDkVqECMrABnT

11:16 – How the research community has been impacted in COVID-19 pandemic

15:07 – How the members of his research lab are supporting each other

18:35 – What is RNA? A really helpful analogy to help us understand why it’s so important.

21:18 – How a deeper understanding of RNA is so important to developing treatments against cancer and COVID-19

26:14 – How RNA regulation changes in stressed cells. One thing that cancer cells and cells infected by a virus such as COVID-19 have in common is that they are stressed.

29:30 – A particularly important way that protein is modified, and what that matters in cancer and COVID-19

31:58 –PARP inhibitors are currently approved by the FDA to treat multiple cancers. How do these drugs work? In which cancer types are they used?

35:30 – How the protein modification that his lab studies is important, not just in cancer, but also in coronavirus infection.

40:31 – A message he’d like to share with cancer survivors

Photo credit: Harry Giglio/Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health

Also pictured: Judy Ochs

https://twitter.com/ACS_Research/status/1247150794123739136

“There's nobody we'd rather talk w/ about fighting cancer & COVID-19 than of . An grantee who also conducts research. w/ https://t.co/xjlKtuZxLu https://t.co/xCVJClM3dZ https://t.co/UGKgUVxSkR....