John Leavitt

Contact: John dot Leavitt at gmail dot com

EDUCATION
University of Texas at Austin            
Bachelor of Science Biochemistry: Computational Option May 2007    

TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE
Techniques: Cell Culture, Transfection, Infection, Protein Purfication, PCR, Gel Electrophoresis, Western Blotting, NMR, GC, HPLC, FTIR, AA & UV-VIS Spec.
Programming Experience: Java, C++ and Web Development        

Research Assistant   (2007 - Current)
•    Performed cell-based assays for novel anti-viral compounds
•    Identifying protein-protein interactions between viral proteins and host factors
•    Managed laboratory accounts and purchasing

Undergraduate Research Assistant  (2004 - 2007)
Received Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the University Cooperative Society (2004 - 2006)
Gonzalez, A., Zhao, M., Leavitt, J.M., Lloyd A.M. (2008) Regulation of the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway by the TTG1/bHLH/Myb transcriptional complex in Arabidopsis seedlings. Plant J. 53, 814-827
•    Cloned siRNA constructs to generate multiple knockouts of MYB-class transcription factors for expression studies in Arabidopsis thaliana.
•    Generated protein-epitope constructs for immunoprecipitation and in vivo fluorescence expression studies.
•    Compared polymorphic microsatellites in recombinant inbred lines of Arabidopsis

Computational Biology Project   (2006)
•    Expanded the list of known bacteria which use T Box motif to regulate amino acid biosynthetic genes with the goal of generating a new secondary structure
•    Used bioinformatics tools including BLAST, Bioedit, and ClustalW to find additional sequences and align them

Welch Summer Scholar Program (2001)
Performed chemistry research at the University of Texas at Arlington, assisted by graduate students in the field of conductive polymers