Professor

Bridgeside Point, 100 Technology Drive
Room 559, BRIDG
Pittsburgh, PA 15219-3130
Phone: (412) 383-5305
Email: gleikauf@pitt.edu

Personal Web Page

Research Interests
Publications
Education

Research Interests

Investigate the functional genomics of acute lung injury, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Molecular mechanisms by which air pollutants exacerbate or cause lung diseases are being studied by various strategies including (genetic linkage and microarray) analyses and transgenic/gene-targeted murine systems. A major research interest is uncovering the genetic basis of increased susceptibility to pulmonary epithelial injury and repair. In addition, recent studies are examining on transcriptional regulation of molecular targets (e.g. surfactant proteins) altered by exposure to ozone, aldehydes, and particulate matter.

Publications

• Hardie W. D., Korfhagen T. R., Sartor M.A., Prestridge A., Medvedovic M., Le Cras T.D., Ikegami M., Tomlinson C.R., Nichols W., Dietsch M.A., Wesselkamper S.C., Whitsett J.A. Leikauf G.D.
  Genomic Profile of Matrix and Vasculature Remodeling in TGF alpha -induced Pulmonary Fibrosis.
  Am. J. Respir. Cell Mol. Biol. 2007 May 11; PMID: 17496152
• Raj J.; Aliferis C.; Caprioli R., Cowley Jr A., Davies P., Duncan M., Erle D., Erzurum S.C., Finn P., Ischiropoulos H., Kaminski N., Kleeberger S., Leikauf G., Loyd J., Martin T., Matalon S., Moore J., Quackenbush J. Sabo-Attwood T., Shapiro S., Schnitzer J., Schwartz D., Schwiebert L., Wurfel, M., Weiss S., Ware L., Sheppard D., Matthay M.,Whitsett J.
  Genomics and Proteomics of Lung Disease.
  Am J Physiol: Lung Cell Mol. Physiol. 293:L45-51, 2007. PMID: 17468134
• Prows DR, Hafertepen AP, Winterberg AV, Gibbons Jr WJ, Wesselkamper SC, Singer JB, Hill AE, Nadeau JH, Leikauf GD.
  Reciprocal Congenic Lines of Mice Capture the Aliq1 Effect on Acute Lung Injury Survival Time.
  Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2007 Jul 26; PMID: 17656683
• Ganguly K, Stoeger T., Wesselkamper S.C. Reinhard C., Sartor M.A., Medvedovic A., Tomlinson C.R., Bolle I., Mason J.M., Leikauf G.D., Schulz H.
  Candidate genes controlling pulmonary function: transcript profiling and predicted protein structure.
  Physiol Genomics. 2007 Sep 5; PMID: 17804602
• Borchers MT, Wesselkamper SC, Harris NL, Deshmukh H, Beckman E, Vitucci M, Tichelaar JW, Leikauf GD.
  CD8(+) T cells contribute to macrophage accumulation and airspace enlargement following repeated irritant exposure.
  Exp Mol Pathol. 2007 Sep 26. PMID: 17950725
• Tichelaar JW, Wesselkamper SC, Chowdhury S, Yin H, Berclaz PY, Sartor MA, Leikauf GD, Whitsett JA.
  Duration-dependent cytoprotective versus inflammatory effects of lung epithelial fibroblast growth factor-7 expression.
  Exp Lung Res. 2007 Oct;33(8):385-417. PMID: 17994369
• Deshmukh HS, Shaver C, Case LM, Dietsch M, Wesselkamper SC, Hardie WD, Korfhagen TR, Corradi M, Nadel JA, Borchers MT, Leikauf GD.
  Acrolein-activated Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 Contributes to Persistent Mucin Production.
  Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2007 Nov 15. PMID: 18006877
• Hardie WD, Davidson C, Ikegami M, Leikauf GD, Le Cras TD, Prestridge A, Whitsett JA, Korfhagen TR
  EGFR- tyrosine kinase inhibitors diminish transforming growth factor-alpha induced pulmonary fibrosis
  Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2008 Apr 18; PMID: 18424623
• Mongan M, Tan Z, Chen L, Peng Z, Dietsch M, Su B, Leikauf G, Xia Y.
  Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase 1 protects against nickel-induced acute lung injury.
  Toxicol Sci. 2008 May 7. PMID: 18467339
• Sartor MA, Leikauf GD, Medvedovic M.
  LRpath: A logistic regression approach for identifying enriched biological groups in gene expression data.
  Bioinformatics. 2008 Nov 27. PMID: 19038984
• Nemec AA, Leikauf G, Pitt BR, Wasserloos KJ, Barchowsky A.
  Nickel Mobilizes Intracellular Zinc to Induce Metallothionein in Human Airway Epithelial Cells.
  Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2008 Dec 18. PMID: 19097988
• Bein K, Wesselkamper SC, Liu X, Dietsch M, Majumder N, Concel VJ, Medvedovic M, Sartor M, Henning LN, Venditto C, Borchers MT, Barchowsky A, Weaver TE, Tichelaar JW, Prows DR, Korfhagen TR, Hardie WD, Bachurski CJ, Leikauf GD.
  Surfactant Associated Protein B is Critical to Survival in Nickel-induced Injury in Mice.
  Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2009 Jan 8. PMID: 19131640
• Knoell DL, Julian MW, Bao S, Besecker B, Macre JE, Leikauf GD, Disilvestro RA, Crouser ED.
  Zinc deficiency increases organ damage and mortality in a murine model of polymicrobial sepsis*
  Crit Care Med. 2009 Feb 24. PMID: 19242332
• Koustav Ganguly, Martin Depner, Cheryl Fattman, Kiflai Bein, Tim D. Oury, Scott C. Wesselkamper, Michael Thomas Borchers, Martina Schreiber, Fei Gao, Erika von Mutius, Michael Kabesch, George D. Leikauf, and Holger Schulz.
  Superoxide dismutase 3, extracellular (SOD3) variants and lung function.
  Physiol. Genomics. 2009 May 13;37(3):260-7. Epub 2009 Mar 24. PMID: 19318538
• Di Giuseppe M, Gambelli F, Hoyle GW, Lungarella G, Studer SM, Richards T, Yousem S, McCurry K, Dauber J, Kaminski N, Leikauf G, Ortiz LA.
  Systemic inhibition of NF-kappaB activation protects from silicosis.
  PLoS ONE. 2009 May 25;4(5):e5689. PMID: 19479048
• Deshmukh HS, McLachlan A, Atkinson JJ, Hardie WD, Korfhagen TR, Dietsch M, Liu Y, Di PY, Wesselkamper SC, Borchers MT, Leikauf GD. Matrix metalloproteinase-14 mediates a phenotypic shift in the airways to increase mucin production. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2009 Nov 1;180(9):834-45. Epub 2009 Aug 6. PMID: 19661247
• Stark JM, Barmada MM, Winterberg AV, Majumber N, Gibbons WJ Jr, Stark MA, Sartor MA, Medvedovic M, Kolls J, Bein K, Mailaparambil B, Krueger M, Heinzmann A, Leikauf GD, Prows DR. Genomewide association analysis of respiratory syncytial virus infection in mice. J Virol. 2009 Dec 16. PubMed PMID: 20015999.
• Borchers M.T., Wesselkamper S.C., Deshmukh H., Beckman E., Medvedovic M., Sartor M., Leikauf G.D.
  The role of T cells in the regulation of acrolein-induced pulmonary inflammation and epithelial-cell pathology.
  Res. Rep. Health Eff. Inst. 146:5-29, 2009. PMID: 20218173
• Johansson E., Wesselkamper S.C., Shertzer H.G., Leikauf G.D., Dalton T.P., Chen, Y.
  Glutathione deficient C57BL/6J mice are not sensitized to ozone-induced lung injury.
  Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 2010. Pubmed PMID: 20417186
• Jang AS, Concel VJ, Bein K, Brant KA, Liu S, Pope-Varsalona H, Dopico Jr. RA, Di YP, Knoell DL, Barchowsky A, Leikauf GD.
  Endothelial Dysfunction and Claudin 5 Regulation during Acrolein-induced Lung Injury.
  Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2011 Apr;44(4):483-90. Epub 2010 Jun 4. PubMed PMID: 20525806
• Leikauf G.D., Pope-Varsalona H., Concel V.J., Liu P., Bein K., Brant K.A., Dopico R.A. Jr, Di Y.P., Jang A-S., Dietsch M., Medvedovic M., Li Q., Vuga L.J., Kaminski N., You M., Prows D.R.
  Functional genomics of chlorine-induced acute lung injury in mice.
  Proc. Am. Thorac. Soc. 2010 Jul;7(4):294-6. PubMed PMID: 20601635
• Li H, Su X, Yan X, Wasserloos K, Chao W, Kaynar AM, Liu ZQ, Leikauf GD, Pitt BR, Zhang LM.
  Toll-like Receptor 4-Myeloid Differentiation Factor 88 Signaling Contributes to Ventilator-induced Lung Injury in Mice.
  Anesthesiology. 2010 Jul 29. PMID: 20683250
• Bein K, Leight H, Leikauf GD.
  JUN-CCAAT/Enhancer Binding Protein (C/EBP) Complexes Inhibit Surfactant Associated Protein B Promoter Activity.
  Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2010 Dec 10. PubMed PMID: 21148742
• Leikauf GD, Concel VJ, Liu P, Bein K, Berndt A, Ganguly K, Jang AS, Brant KA, Dietsch M, Pope-Varsalona H, Dopico Jr RA, Di YP, Li Q, Vuga LJ, Medvedovic M, Kaminski N, You M, Prows DR.
  Haplotype Association Mapping of Acute Lung Injury in Mice Implicates Activin A Receptor, Type 1.
  Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2011 Feb 4. PubMed PMID: 21297076
• Lukinskiene L, Liu Y, Reynolds SD, Steele C, Stripp BR, Leikauf GD, Kolls JK, Di YP.
  Antimicrobial Activity of PLUNC Protects against Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection.
  J Immunol. 2011 Jul 1;187(1):382-90. Epub 2011 Jun 1. PubMed PMID: 21632717: PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3119743.
• Fabisiak JP, Medvedovic M, Alexander DC, McDunn JE, Concel VJ, Bein K, Jang AS, Berndt A, Vuga LJ, Brant KA, Pope-Varsalona H, Dopico RA Jr, Ganguly K, Upadhyay S, Li Q, Hu Z, Kaminski N, Leikauf GD.
  Integrative metabolome and transcriptome profiling reveals discordant energetic stress between mouse strains with differential sensitivity to acrolein-induced acute lung injury.
  Mol Nutr Food Res. 2011 Aug 8. doi: 10.1002/mnfr.201100291. PubMed PMID: 21823223
• Bein, K. and Leikauf, G.D. (2011).
  Acrolein – a pulmonary hazard.
  Molecular Nutrition & Food Research (September 2011), 55 (9), pg. 1342-1360. Article first published online: 17 AUG 2011. DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.201100279 2011. Sep;55(9):1342-1360. PubMed PMID: 21994168
• Leikauf GD, Pope-Varsalona H, Concel VJ, Liu P, Bein K, Berndt A, Martin TM, Ganguly K, Jang AS, Brant KA, Dopico RA Jr, Upadhyay S, Di YP, Li Q, Hu Z, Vuga LJ, Medvedovic M, Kaminski N, You M, Alexander DC, McDunn JE, Prows DR, Knoell DL, Fabisiak JP.
  Integrative Assessment of Chlorine-induced Acute Lung Injury in Mice.
  Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2012 Mar 23. PubMed PMID: 22447970

Education

• 1973 A.B. (Biological Sciences), University of California, Berkeley, CA
• 1978 M.S. (Environmental Health Sciences), New York University, New York, NY
• 1981 Ph.D. (Environmental Health Sciences), New York University, New York, NY