RESEARCH PROFILE

My research group studies various aspects of adenovirus cell and molecular biology. Our current research aims are:

• to understand the interactions of adenovirus with its host cell at the molecular level, particularly the innate responses of the cell to infection
  
• to gain insight into the normal workings of the host cell nucleus
  
• to understand how adenovirus late gene expression is controlled
  
• to use our knowledge of adenoviruses to generated improved adenovirus vectors for gene therapy and recombinant vaccine delivery

More detailed descriptions of our work are available on my Research Page.
or, for a explanation of our work without the detail and jargon, view my Research for a General Audience page.

BACKGROUND

After gaining my first degree in Biochemistry from Oxford, U.K., I began my research career studying for a PhD with Dr Lionel Crawford, working in the labs of what was then the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK) at Lincolns Inn Fields, London. This work focused on the then newly discovered cellular tumour suppressor protein, p53, which was being studied in the context of SV40 infection. From there I moved to a postdoctoral position with Prof Tom Shenk, first at SUNY Stony Brook and then at Princeton. There I learned the adenovirus genetic system that I have worked on ever since. I left Princeton in 1988 to take up a lectureship in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, where I am now an Associate Professor (Reader).

I have a broad interest in adenovirus molecular and cell biology and my work has made several major contributions to this field. A particular focus has been the functions of the proteins encoded by the viral E1B and E4 genes, and most recently the L4 gene, in controlling viral gene expression and the biology of the host cell. My studies of E4 proteins have led me into a exploring the diversity and function of host cell PML proteins. A further significant strand of recent work has been in the development of adenovirus as a vector for gene delivery.

I have co-authored a successful undergraduate textbook, Introduction to Modern Virology, 5th edn.(2001), 6th edn. (2006) with Prof. Nigel Dimmock and Prof. Andrew Easton.

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

• Understanding and re-engineering adenovirus late gene expression: controlling the gatekeeper to productive infection, with Mrs Catherine Parry - Biological Sciences -, Funded by: Wellcome Trust, Project Start Date: 01/06/2011 Project End Date: 31/05/2014
  
  

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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Leppard K. N., Wright J.(2011) 'Targeting of PML proteins and PML nuclear bodies by DNA tumour viruses' in The small DNA tumour viruses, 257 - 282, Editors: Gaston K (978-1-904455-99-8), Caistor Academic Press
• Morris, S.J., Farley, D.C. and Leppard, K.N.(2010) 'Generation of cell lines to complement Adenovirus vectors using recombination-mediated cassette exchange' BMC Biotechnology 10 (92), (1472-6750) [article]
• Morris, S. J., Scott, G. E. and Leppard, K. N.(2010) 'Adenovirus late-phase infection is controlled by a novel L4 promoter' Journal Of Virology 84 (14), 7096 - 7104 (0022-538X) [article]
• Morris, S. J. and Leppard, K.(2009) 'Adenovirus serotype 5 L4-22K and L4-33K proteins have distinct functions in regulating late gene expression' Journal Of Virology 83 (7), 3049 - 3058 (0022-538X) [article]
• Leppard, K. N., Emmott, E., Cortese, M. S. and Rich, T.(2009) 'Adenovirus type 5 E4 Orf3 protein targets promyelocytic leukaemia (PML) protein nuclear domains for disruption via a sequence in PML isoform II that is predicted as a protein interaction site by bioinformatic analysis' Journal Of General Virology 90 (1), 95 - 104 (0022-1317) [article]

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RESEARCH DEGREES SUPERVISED

• The development of recombinant adenoviral vaccines to target pneumovirus infection, Date of Completion: 2010
• The role of PML proteins in adenovirus type 5 infection and the type I interferon response, Date of Completion: 2010