Dr. Leonardo Brizuela conducted his graduate research in the laboratory of Dr. David Beach at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (1985-1988). His work on the cdc2 kinase and p13 in yeast, invertebrate marine organisms and vertebrate somatic cells resulted in important publications in the field of cell cycle regulation. He then worked on his postdoctoral fellowship at Merck Sharp and Dohme Research Labs (1989-1991) where he contributed to the understanding of the mechanism of action and characterization of the binding proteins for the immunosuppressors FK506 and rapamycin. Dr. Brizuela then joined the EMBL as a Staff Scientist in 1992 working with Dr. Sara Courtneidge. His work there concentrated on the oncogenic properties of the hamster polyoma virus middle T antigen. He then joined Mitotix, Inc. in 1994, where he worked as Senior Scientist for 3 years. He was then promoted to Director of Biochemistry. Dr. Brizuela also headed the oncology drug discovery program for CDK inhibitors (in collaboration with Dupont Pharmaceuticals) from 1994 until 1998. During this period the program generated candidates for pre-clinical development and his research resulted in the generation of numerous biochemical assays and screens, as well as the publication of the atomic structures of a natural CDK inhibitor (p19) and that of CDK6 bound to p19. His other publications during this period also contributed to the understanding of the mechanism of action of p19 and p21 inhibitors, as well as the characterization of small molecular weight inhibitors currently in development and on clinic. As Director of Biochemistry he dealt with other oncology and antifungal programs. He joined the Harvard Institute of Proteomics in January 2000 as Associate Director. His research interests continued to center on the identification and biochemical characterization of proteins involved in signal transduction and cancer, as well as in the development of high-throughput protein expression, purification and detection methodologies. His efforts initiating and conducting the human kinase clone project resulted in one of the most important and widely used human gene set produced by the Institute. Likewise, Dr. Brizuela initiated and headed the efforts of the Institute on the creation and exploitation of gene repositories for relevant bacterial human pathogens. His work on this area resulted in his positioning as Director of the Proteomics Core for the “New England Research Center of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Diseases”, a Harvard based and one of the eight Centers of Excellence funded at the National level by the NIH after the 9/11 events. Dr. Brizuela is currently Director of Science and Technology /Genomics at Agilent Technologies. The main focus of this work is the further develop and identify new applications for microarray-based technologies and other genomic solutions.
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