Leslie Parent, MD - Penn State Cancer Institute
Researcher Profile
Leslie Parent, MD
Vice Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, Penn State College of Medicine
Professor, Department of Medicine
Division of Infectious Diseases
Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Center for Cannabis and Natural Product Pharmaceuticals (CCNPP)
Professor, Department of Medicine
Division of Infectious Diseases
Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Center for Cannabis and Natural Product Pharmaceuticals (CCNPP)
Scientific Program:Mechanisms of Carcinogenesis
Research Interests
Dr. Leslie Parent's research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the assembly of retrovirus particles. Her laboratory members uses genetic, biochemical, biophysical and live-cell imaging approaches to dissect the viral and cellular factors that mediate the trafficking of retroviral proteins and genomic RNA complexes in infected cells. Their investigation of the host factors involved in transport of retroviral proteins and RNAs throughout the cell is at the interface of virology and cellular biology.
Recent work in Dr. Parent's laboratory has focused on studying the mechanism by which retroviruses recognize their RNA genomes and select them for incorporation into virions. She has adopted a comparative retrovirology approach by comparing and contrasting the replication strategies of Rous sarcoma virus, mouse mammary tumor virus and human immunodeficiency virus. Members of her laboratory discovered that the Gag protein of Rous sarcoma virus undergoes nuclear trafficking, which is required for efficient incorporation of genomic RNA into virions. This work challenges the current dogma of how retroviruses select and incorporate their genomic RNA into virus particles.
In addition to her research, Dr. Parent is a standing member of the NIH study section HVCD (HIV Molecular Virology, Cell Biology and Drug Discovery).
- gag Gene Products
- Rous sarcoma virus
- RNA
- Virion
- Retroviridae
- HIV-1
- Viral RNA
- Proteins
- Cell Membrane
- Product Packaging
- Cell Nucleus Active Transport
- Virus Assembly
Recent Publications
2023
Chang, J & Parent, LJ 2023, 'HIV-1 Gag co-localizes with euchromatin histone marks at the nuclear periphery', Journal of virology, vol. 97, no. 12. https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.01179-23
Monette, A, Niu, M, Maldonado, RK, Chang, J, Lambert, GS, Flanagan, JM, Cochrane, A, Parent, LJ & Mouland, AJ 2023, 'Influence of HIV-1 Genomic RNA on the Formation of Gag Biomolecular Condensates', Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 435, no. 16, 168190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2023.168190
Chau, BA, Chen, V, Cochrane, AW, Parent, LJ & Mouland, AJ 2023, 'Liquid-liquid phase separation of nucleocapsid proteins during SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1 replication', Cell Reports, vol. 42, no. 1, 111968. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111968
Kaddis Maldonado, R, Lambert, GS, Rice, BL, Sudol, M, Flanagan, JM & Parent, LJ 2023, 'The Rous sarcoma virus Gag Polyprotein Forms Biomolecular Condensates Driven by Intrinsically-disordered Regions', Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 435, no. 16, 168182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2023.168182
Mouland, AJ, Parent, L, Weber, SC & Holehouse, AS 2023, 'Virus Induced Membraneless Organelles and Biomolecular Condensates', Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 435, no. 16, 168213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2023.168213
2022
Dovat, S, Gowda, C, Mailman, RB, Parent, LJ & Huang, X 2022, 'Clinician-Scientist Faculty Mentoring Program (FAME) – A New Inclusive Training Model at Penn State Increases Scholarly Productivity and Extramural Grant Funding', Advances in Medical Education and Practice, vol. 13, pp. 1039-1050. https://doi.org/10.2147/AMEP.S365953
Dahal, S, Clayton, K, Been, T, Fernet-Brochu, R, Ocando, AV, Balachandran, A, Poirier, M, Maldonado, RK, Shkreta, L, Boligan, KF, Guvenc, F, Rahman, F, Branch, D, Bell, B, Chabot, B, Gray-Owen, SD, Parent, LJ & Cochrane, A 2022, 'Opposing roles of CLK SR kinases in controlling HIV-1 gene expression and latency', Retrovirology, vol. 19, no. 1, 18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12977-022-00605-4
Ssentongo, P, Ssentongo, AE, Voleti, N, Groff, D, Sun, A, Ba, DM, Nunez, J, Parent, LJ, Chinchilli, VM & Paules, CI 2022, 'SARS-CoV-2 vaccine effectiveness against infection, symptomatic and severe COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis', BMC Infectious Diseases, vol. 22, no. 1, 439. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07418-y
2021
Huang, X, Dovat, S, Mailman, RB, Thiboutot, DM, Berini, D & Parent, LJ 2021, 'Building a System to Engage and Sustain Research Careers for Physicians', Academic Medicine, vol. 96, no. 4, pp. 490-494. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000003886
Nyland, JE, Raja-Khan, NT, Bettermann, K, Haouzi, PA, Leslie, DL, Kraschnewski, JL, Parent, LJ & Grigson, PS 2021, 'Diabetes, Drug Treatment, and Mortality in COVID-19: A Multinational Retrospective Cohort Study', Diabetes, vol. 70, no. 12, pp. 2903-2916. https://doi.org/10.2337/db21-0385
Kumar, R, Christensen, ND, Kaddis Maldonado, RJ, Bewley, MC, Ostman, A, Sudol, M, Chen, EC, Buchkovich, NW, Gontu, A, Surendran Nair, M, Nissly, RH, Minns, AM, Kapur, V, Rossi, R, Kuchipudi, SV, Lindner, SE, Parent, LJ, Flanagan, JM & Buchkovich, NJ 2021, 'Monoclonal antibodies to s and n sars-cov-2 proteins as probes to assess structural and antigenic properties of coronaviruses', Viruses, vol. 13, no. 10, 1899. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13101899
Chen, EC, Kaddis Maldonado, RJ & Parent, LJ 2021, 'Visualizing rous sarcoma virus genomic rna dimerization in the nucleus, cytoplasm, and at the plasma membrane', Viruses, vol. 13, no. 5, 903. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13050903
2020
Tuffy, KM, Kaddis Maldonado, RJ, Chang, J, Rosenfeld, P, Cochrane, A & Parent, LJ 2020, 'Hiv-1 gag forms ribonucleoprotein complexes with unspliced viral rna at transcription sites', Viruses, vol. 12, no. 11, 1281. https://doi.org/10.3390/v12111281
Rice, BL, Lochmann, TL & Parent, LJ 2020, 'RNA-binding domains of heterologous viral proteins substituted for basic residues in the RSV gag NC domain restore specific packaging of genomic RNA', Viruses, vol. 12, no. 4, 370. https://doi.org/10.3390/v12040370
Liu, S, Maldonado, RK, Rye-McCurdy, T, Binkley, C, Bah, A, Chen, EC, Rice, BL, Parent, LJ & Musier-Forsyth, K 2020, 'Rous sarcoma virus genomic RNA dimerization capability in vitro is not a prerequisite for viral infectivity', Viruses, vol. 12, no. 5, 568. https://doi.org/10.3390/v12050568
Rice, BL, Stake, MS & Parent, LJ 2020, 'TNPO3-mediated nuclear entry of the rous sarcoma virus gag protein is independent of the cargo-binding domain', Journal of virology, vol. 94, no. 17, e00640-20. https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.00640-20
Maldonado, RJK, Rice, B, Chen, EC, Tuffy, KM, Chiari, EF, Fahrbach, KM, Hope, TJ & Parent, LJ 2020, 'Visualizing association of the retroviral gag protein with unspliced viral RNA in the nucleus', mBio, vol. 11, no. 2, e00524-20. https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00524-20