Dr Malcolm G. Pluskal, Principal Analytical Biotechnology Services.

Since 1976, Dr Pluskal has worked in the Biotechnology field in the Boston area with a wide range of experience gained in Proteomics, chromatography, molecular biology, electrophoresis, synthesis of macromolecules and development of devices and hardware for analysis and sample preparation. Former positions included, Executive Vice President of New Technology and Business Development based in the Proteome Systems, Inc facility in Woburn, MA; Director of Bioseparations and Production for Unisyn Technologies, Inc; Director of Custom DNA and PNA Synthesis group in the Biosearch Division of Millipore Corporation: Senior Consulting Scientist in Corporate R&D at Millipore Corporation; Senior Scientist in Chemical R&D Waters Division of Millipore Corporation. Dr. Pluskal received his Ph.D. in 1976 and was a Muscular Dystrophy Post-Doctoral Fellow at MIT in the area of aging influence’s on muscle protein synthesis. In his next research position, Dr. Pluskal was supported by NIH as a Staff Scientist at Boston Biomedical Research Institute to investigate regulation of gene expression in developing muscle at the level of translational control. On leaving academia for a career at Millipore Corporation, Dr. Pluskal has developed key technology in PVDF based blotting membranes, 2D-gel electrophoresis hardware, pre-cast gel technology, carbohydrate analysis by electrophoresis and applications of membranes in MALDI-MS. He has published extensively in sample preparation, Proteomics, chromatography and synthetic chemistry areas. Dr Pluskal maintains an active Biotech R&D consulting business (www.pluskalbiotechconsulting.com) and can be contacted at consulting@analyticalbiotechservices.com for consultation.

Selected publications;

1) Lopez MF, Pluskal MG. Protein micro- and macroarrays: digitizing the proteome. J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci. (2003) Apr 5;787(1):19-27.
2) Pluskal MG, Bogdanova A, Lopez M, Gutierrez S, Pitt AM : Multiwell in-gel protein digestion and microscale sample preparation for protein identification by mass spectrometry. Proteomics (2002) Feb;2(2):145-50
3) Malcolm G. Pluskal. Microscale sample preparation: The demand for microscale analysis has stimulated the development of new solid phase formats in sample preparation. Nature Biochemistry 18 Vol. 1, 104-105 (2000)
4) Michael A. Mansfield, Masaharu Mabuchi, Constance G. MacDonald and Malcolm G. Pluskal. Immobilon-Ny+ Nucleic acid blotting membrane: An advanced nylon membrane optimized for superior fixation and reprobing. BioTechniques 27: 1253-1257 (1999)
5) P. Jackson, M.G. Pluskal and W.M. Skea. (1994) The Use of Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis for the Analysis of Acidic Glycans Labeled with the Fluor 2-Aminocridone. In Electrophoreses 15, pg. 896-902.
6) W.R. Patton, M.G. Pluskal, W.M. Skea, J.L. Buecker, M.F. Lopez, R. Zimmermann, L.M. Belanger and P.D. Hatch (1990) Development of a Dedicated Two-Dimensional Gel Electrophoresis System that Provides Optimal Pattern Reproducibility and Polypeptide Resolution. Biotechniques 8:518-527.
7) Edgar Lauritzen and Malcolm G. Pluskal. (1988) Improved HIV Antiglycoprotein Antibody Detection by Immunoblotting on a Hydrophobic Membrane. Journal Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. 1:333-339.
8) Malcolm G. Pluskal, Michelle B. Przekop, Mark R. Kavonian, Charles Vecoli and David A. Hicks (1986) Immobilon PVDF Transfer Membrane: A new Membrane Substrate for Western Blotting of Proteins. Biotechniques 4:272-283.
9) M.J. Gemski, B.P. Doctor, M.K. Gentry, M.G. Pluskal and M.P. Strickler. (1985) Single Step Purification of Monoclonal Antibody from Murine Ascites and Tissue Culture Fluids by Anion Exchange High Performance Liquid Chromatography. Biotechniques 3:378-384.



Dr Paul Leavis, Principal Analytical Biotechnology Services.

Dr. Leavis received his Ph.D. from TuftsUniversity in Boston where he studied the physico-chemical properties of fibrinogen. He then pursued a post-doctoral fellowship at Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI) where he carried out spectroscopic studies on the structure and interactions of muscle proteins. During this time re received  fellowships from the Muscular Dystrophy Assocation and NATO. His work was supported by an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association and from grants from NIH. He has remained at BBRI for over 35 years where he has become expert in protein characterization, and in the design, synthesis, purification and characterization of peptides for research.  In 1992 Dr. Leavis founded Analytical Biotechnology Services (ABS), a service company that specialized in helping both small startups and large biotech/pharmaceutical companies develop diagnostic and therapeutic products and providing analytical services (protein sequencing, amino acid analysis, circular dichroism, fluorescence spectroscopy, etc.) for academia. In addition to his activities with ABS, Dr. Leavis is a Senior Scientist at BBRI and runs their protein peptide core facility and is an Associate Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, Sackler Scool of Graduate Biomedical Sciences and the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts.  Dr Leavis can be contacted at PLeavis@analyticalbiotechservices.com

Selected publications:

1) Lehrer, S.S. and Leavis, P.C., Solute Quenching of Protein Fluorescence, Methods in Enzymology, Part G, 222, 1978

Leavis, P.C., Gowell, E. and Tao, T., Fluorescence Lifetime and Acrylamide Quenching Studies of the Interactions between Troponin Subunits, Biochemistry 23; 4156-4161, 1984

2) Tao, T., Gong, B.L. and Leavis, P.C., Troponin I as a molecular switch in skeletal muscle regulation, Science, 247; 1339-1340, 1990.

3) Kobayashi, T., Leavis, P.C. and Collins, J.H., Interaction of a troponin I peptide with both domains of troponin C,  Biochem. Biophys. Acta. 1294; 25-30 (1996)

4) Jha, P.K., Leavis, P.C., Sarkar, S., Interaction of delection mutants of TroponinsI and T: COOH-terminal truncation of troponin T abolishes troponin I binding and reduces Ca2+ sensitivity of the reconstituted regulatory system., Biochemistry 35; 16573-16580 (1996)

5) Leinweber, B., Parissenti, A. M., Gallant, C., Gangopadhyay, S.S., Kirwan-Rhudes, A., Leavis, P.C., and  Morgan, K.M.  Regulation of protein kinase C by the cytoskeletal protein calponin., J. Biol. Chem. 275: 40329-40336, 2000.

6)Gonzalez, R. R. and Leavis, P. C..  Leptin upregulates b-3 integrin expression and interleukin-1b upregulates leptin and leptin receptor expression in human endometrial epithelial cell cultures. Endocrine, 16; 21-28, 2001

7) Uzzo, R. G., Leavis, P.C., Hatch, W., Gabai, V. L., Dulin, N., Zvartau, N. and Kolenko, V. M., Zinc inhibitis nuclear factor-kappabeta activation and sensitizes trostate cancer cells to cytotoxic agents, Clinical Cancer Research  8; 3579-3583 (2002)

8) Gonzalez, R.R., Leary, K., Petrozza, J.C. and Leavis, P.C., Leptin regulation of the interleukin-1 system in human endometrial cells, Molecular Human Reproduction 9;151-158 (2003)

9) Gonzalez, R. R. and Leavis, P.C., A peptide derived from the human leptin molecule is a potent inhibitor of the leptin receptor function in rabbit endometrial cells, Endocrine  21; 185-195 (2003)

10) Je, H. D., Gallant, C., Leavis, P. C., Morgan, K. G. Caveolin-1 Regulates Contractility in Differentiated Vascular Smooth Muscle. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol  286: H91-H98 (2004).