Dr. Elvin Leonard

I obtained my Bachelor's degree in zoology from Loyola College, Chennai, India, and a Master's in molecular biology from the University of Madras. During my Master's dissertation, I studied the psychoactive and teratogenic effect of ethanol on zebrafish. Later I worked at CSIR-IGIB, Delhi, studying noncoding RNAs regulating cardiovascular development. 

To further my understanding of vascular biology, I joined the Siekmann Lab as a Ph.D. student at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Muenster, Germany, in 2014. My project focusses on studying mural cell recruitment to the blood vessels during development and regeneration in zebrafish. I use high-resolution confocal imaging combined with genetic and molecular biology methods to elucidate signalling pathways involved in the differentiation and recruitment of mural cells. In 2020, I started as a postdoc in UPenn to continue the project.

Selected Publications:

Leonard E.V., Figueroa R.J., Bussmann J., Lawson N.D., Amigo J.D., Siekmann A.F. (2022). Regenerating vascular mural cells in zebrafish fin blood vessels are not derived from pre-existing mural cells and differentially require Pdgfrb signalling for their development. Development. 149(7) PMID: 35297968.

Sugden, W.W., Meissner, R., Aegerter-Wilmsen, T., Tsaryk, R., Leonard, E.V., Bussmann, J., Hamm, M.J., Herzog, W., Jin, Y., Jakobsson, L., Denz, C., Siekmann, A.F. (2017). Endoglin controls blood vessel diameter through endothelial cell shape changes in response to haemodynamic cues. Nat Cell Biol. 19, 653-665. PMCID:PMC5455977

Kaushik K, Leonard VE, Kv S, Lalwani MK, Jalali S, Patowary A, Joshi A, Scaria V, Sivasubbu S. (2013). Dynamic expression of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in adult zebrafish. PLoS One. 2013 Dec 31;8(12):e83616. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0083616. eCollection 2013. PMID: 24391796

Haque S, Kaushik K, Leonard VE, Kapoor S, Sivadas A, Joshi A, Scaria V, Sivasubbu S. (2014). Short stories on zebrafish long noncoding RNAs. Zebrafish Dec;11(6):499-508. doi: 10.1089/zeb.2014.0994. PMID: 25110965