Gustavo W. Leone, PhD

Professor; Director, MCW Cancer Center; Senior Associate Dean of Cancer Research

Locations

CCC C5317

Contact Information

gleone@mcw.edu

Education

Post-doctoral Training, Duke University Medical Center, 1994-1998
PhD, Virology, University of Calgary, 1994
BS, Biochemistry, University of Calgary, 1988

Biography

Gustavo W. Leone, PhD, started in his role as Director of the MCW Cancer Center, Senior Associate Dean of Cancer Research, and Professor of Biochemistry on April 15, 2020. Prior to his arrival at MCW, Dr. Leone served as the Director of the NCI-designated Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina from March 2017 to April 2020. Dr. Leone’s past research includes graduate work in biochemical and biophysical approaches to study protein function and virology (reovirus), with a specific emphasis on mechanisms of viral mediated entry into host cells. As a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University, he had the seminal finding linking Cyclin Dependent Kinases to the control of E2F transcription factors and regulation of the cell cycle.

Research Interests

Currently, Dr. Leone has an active research program that utilizes genetic models (cell-based systems, worms, and mice) to study Rb/E2F & PTEN signaling in the context of cell cycle control, endoreduplication, developmental biology and cancer (endometrial, liver, pancreatic, and breast cancers), as well as the genetics and biology of PTEN and the tumor microenvironment. Dr. Leone’s research group has made seminal contributions in two broad areas of research, one in the role of the Rb/E2F pathway in development and cancer, and the other in signaling between cells within the tumor microenvironment.

Stromal Platelet-Derived Growth Factor Receptor-β Signaling Promotes Breast Cancer Metastasis in the Brain.

(Thies KA, Hammer AM, Hildreth BE 3rd, Steck SA, Spehar JM, Kladney RD, Geisler JA, Das M, Russell LO, Bey JF 4th, Bolyard CM, Pilarski R, Trimboli AJ, Cuitiño MC, Koivisto CS, Stover DG, Schoenfield L, Otero J, Godbout JP, Chakravarti A, Ringel MD, Ramaswamy B, Li Z, Kaur B, Leone G, Ostrowski MC, Sizemore ST, Sizemore GM.) Cancer Res. 2020 Apr 23 PMID: 32327406 PMCID: PMC7581545 04/25/2020
PTEN in the Stroma.

(Thies KA, Lefler JE, Leone G, Ostrowski MC.) Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2019 10 01;9(10) PMID: 31427286 PMCID: PMC6771362 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85072848926 08/21/2019
Loss of PTEN Accelerates NKX3.1 Degradation to Promote Prostate Cancer Progression.

(Bowen C, Ostrowski MC, Leone G, Gelmann EP.) Cancer Res. 2019 08 15;79(16):4124-4134 PMID: 31213464 PMCID: PMC6753942 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85070602387 06/20/2019
Modeling Human Cancer-induced Cachexia.

(Talbert EE, Cuitiño MC, Ladner KJ, Rajasekerea PV, Siebert M, Shakya R, Leone GW, Ostrowski MC, Paleo B, Weisleder N, Reiser PJ, Webb A, Timmers CD, Eiferman DS, Evans DC, Dillhoff ME, Schmidt CR, Guttridge DC.) Cell Rep. 2019 08 06;28(6):1612-1622.e4 PMID: 31390573 PMCID: PMC6733019 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85069958981 08/08/2019
Abrupt involution induces inflammation, estrogenic signaling, and hyperplasia linking lack of breastfeeding with increased risk of breast cancer.

(Basree MM, Shinde N, Koivisto C, Cuitino M, Kladney R, Zhang J, Stephens J, Palettas M, Zhang A, Kim HK, Acero-Bedoya S, Trimboli A, Stover DG, Ludwig T, Ganju R, Weng D, Shields P, Freudenheim J, Leone GW, Sizemore GM, Majumder S, Ramaswamy B.) Breast Cancer Res. 2019 07 17;21(1):80 PMID: 31315645 PMCID: PMC6637535 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85070057466 07/19/2019
Sex-specific regulation of stress-induced fetal glucocorticoid surge by the mouse placenta.

(Wieczorek A, Perani CV, Nixon M, Constancia M, Sandovici I, Zazara DE, Leone G, Zhang MZ, Arck PC, Solano ME.) Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2019 07 01;317(1):E109-E120 PMID: 30990748 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85068546357 04/17/2019
Cyclin F Controls Cell-Cycle Transcriptional Outputs by Directing the Degradation of the Three Activator E2Fs.

(Clijsters L, Hoencamp C, Calis JJA, Marzio A, Handgraaf SM, Cuitino MC, Rosenberg BR, Leone G, Pagano M.) Mol Cell. 2019 06 20;74(6):1264-1277.e7 PMID: 31130363 PMCID: PMC6588466 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85067232482 05/28/2019
Two Distinct E2F Transcriptional Modules Drive Cell Cycles and Differentiation.

(Cuitiño MC, Pécot T, Sun D, Kladney R, Okano-Uchida T, Shinde N, Saeed R, Perez-Castro AJ, Webb A, Liu T, Bae SI, Clijsters L, Selner N, Coppola V, Timmers C, Ostrowski MC, Pagano M, Leone G.) Cell Rep. 2019 06 18;27(12):3547-3560.e5 PMID: 31130414 PMCID: PMC6673649 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85067252067 05/28/2019
The broken cycle: E2F dysfunction in cancer.

(Kent LN, Leone G.) Nat Rev Cancer. 2019 06;19(6):326-338 PMID: 31053804 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85065291001 05/06/2019
Periostin/β1integrin interaction regulates p21-activated kinases in valvular interstitial cell survival and in actin cytoskeleton reorganization.

(Ghatak S, Misra S, Moreno-Rodrigue RA, Hascall VC, Leone GW, Markwald RR.) Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj. 2019 05;1863(5):813-829 PMID: 30742951 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85061665625 02/12/2019
Capturing variations in nuclear phenotypes

(Raman S, Singh S, Pécot T, Caserta E, Huang K, Rittscher J, Leone G, Machiraju R.) Journal of Computational Science. September 2019;36 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85071611725 09/01/2019
Disruption of stromal hedgehog signaling initiates RNF5-mediated proteasomal degradation of PTEN and accelerates pancreatic tumor growth.

(Pitarresi JR, Liu X, Avendano A, Thies KA, Sizemore GM, Hammer AM, Hildreth BE 3rd, Wang DJ, Steck SA, Donohue S, Cuitiño MC, Kladney RD, Mace TA, Chang JJ, Ennis CS, Li H, Reeves RH, Blackshaw S, Zhang J, Yu L, Fernandez SA, Frankel WL, Bloomston M, Rosol TJ, Lesinski GB, Konieczny SF, Guttridge DC, Rustgi AK, Leone G, Song JW, Wu J, Ostrowski MC.) Life Sci Alliance. 2018 Oct;1(5):e201800190 PMID: 30456390 PMCID: PMC6238420 11/21/2018

Gustavo W. Leone, PhD