The University of Texas Health Science Center

The Leach laboratory is located in the Department of Cellular and Structural Biology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas.

Here are our ongoing projects. Click on any of the highlighted topics in order to receive more information.

The Chromosome 3 Mapping Project.

We are part of a Genome Center here at the Health Science Center. The Center is headed by Susan Naylor, Ph.D. from the Department of Cellular and Structural Biology. We also work with Peter O'Connell, Ph.D. from the Department of Pathology. The work is funded by PO1-HG00470 from the National Center for Human Genome Research.

Studies on Bone-Specific Gene Expression.

We are studying the regulation of osteoblast-specific gene expression using a somatic cell hybridization approach. We are particularly interested in studying the regulation of liver/bone/kidney alkaline phosphatase plus other osteoblast markers including osteopontin, osteocalcin and matrix Gla protein. This work is funded by R29 AR40689 from the National Institue of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. In addiiton, we are working with the laboratories of G. David Roodman, M.D., Ph.D. and Jolene Windle, Ph.D. in an attempt to obtain immortalized osteoclasts using transgenic mice (RO1 AR41336).

Chromosome 8 Projects

We have localized a gene for benign neonatal epilepsy to the long arm of human chromosome 8. We are fine mapping this region and studying addition families. These studies are in collaboration with Stephen Ryan, M.D. from the Department of Pediatrics and Peter O'Connell, Ph.D. from the Pathology Department. In addition, we are performing functional assays for tumor suppressors using microcell-mediated chromosome transfer. In collaboration with Rob Bookstein,M.D. from Canji, Inc., we are studying the short arm of chromosome 8 which is involved in prostate cancer (R01 CA58127).

Studies of 18q- Deletion Syndrome

We are involved in a large multidisciplinary project to study individuals with deletions of the long arm of chromosome 18 called the 18q- syndrome. The goal of our laboratory's part of this project is to identify key genes involved in producing the features found in individuals with this syndrome. We are also utilizing animal models to study the actions of these genes. We expect this knowledge to provide the insight necessary to develop treatment strategies for these individuals. Concurrent with the search for the key genes, is a complete clinical evaluation of individuals with this syndrome.
Personnel in the molecular analysis project are:

• Robin J. Leach, PhD - Principle Investigator (leach@uthscsa.edu)
• Barbara G. DuPont, PhD - Cytogeneticist (barb@mars.uthscsa.edu)
• Zoran Brkanac, MD - Postdoctoral Fellow (zoran@mars.uthscsa.edu)
• Jessica Pierce, PhD - Postdoctoral Fellow (piercej@uthscsa.edu)
• Jannine D. Cody - Graduate Student (cody@uthscsa.edu)
• Donna Buley - Graduate Student (buley@uthscsa.edu)

Other key personnel on the 18q- project are:

• Celia I. Kaye, MD, PhD - Clinical geneticist and Director of the Clinical Evaluation Core
• Peter T. Fox, MD - Neuroradiologist & Project Leader for the Neurodevelopment Project
• Charles T. Gay, MD - Pediatric neurologist
• Jean Hardies, PhD - Senior investigator at the Research Imaging Center
• Nora Thompson, PhD - Neuropsychologist
• Daniel Hale, MD - Pediatric endocrinologist & Project Leader of the Endocrine Project
• Peter O'Connell, PhD - Molecular geneticist & Project Leader of the Mouse Model Project
• Patricia Ghidoni, MD - Clinical geneticist
• Tod Sloan, MD - Anesthesiologist
• Ron Rauch, MD - Neuroradiologist
• Rosemarie Plaetke, PhD - Statistician
• David Galbreath - Clinical Coordinator

Please read our letter to families about participating in the study and visit the Home page of The Chromosome 18 Registry & Research Society, a support group for families with chromosome 18 abnormalities.

This research is supported by a private donation with matching funds from Microsoft.

Our recent publications	On-line Genetic Tools : BLAST, MOTIF, PSORT, primer design and analysis, etc.
Information provided by other Genome Centers	Search Various Genetic Databases
Human Genome News Calendar	Software for Genetic Research

Links to the San Antonio Net Servers

Links to a variety of Network servers in San Antonio, as well as to servers at UTHSCSA.

Useful Scientific Databases

Links to numerous information centers, including genome-related and general science databases.

Popular WWW Servers

Generally non-scientific in nature, but useful in other ways.

Popular FTP Sites

Links to our favorite FTP localities, mostly non scientific.

Software distributers

Requests for further information mail to Robin Leach at leach@uthscsa.edu
or use our mail form if you want.

Go to The Genome Center Home Page

This page is maintained by Vladimir Pekkel. Mailto: vladimir@mars.uthscsa.edu

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