Robert Lehrer, M.D.

Professor of Medicine

Dr. Lehrer is interested in both phagocyte function and innate immunity. In recent years, he has worked primarily on defensins and other antimicrobial peptides expressed by leukocytes and epithelial cells.  His lab is “old fashioned” in the sense that it uses biochemistry, biophysics, physiology, and intuition as its major tools. His current projects include studying how alpha-defensins inactivate bacterial exotoxins and how alpha and theta-defensins block viruses from entering host cells.

Selected recent publications:

Cole, A.M., Hong, T., Boo, L.M., Nguyen, T., Zhao, C., Bristol, G., Zack, J.A., Waring, A.J., Yang, O.O., and Lehrer, R.I. 2002. Retrocyclin: a primate peptide that protects cells from infection by T- and M-tropic strains of HIV-1. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 99: 1813-1818.

Wang, W., Cole, A.M., Hong, T., Waring, A.J., and R.I. Lehrer. 2003. Retrocyclin, an antiviral theta-defensin, is a lectin. J. Immunol. 170: 4708-4716.

Gidalevitz, D., Ishitsuka, Y., Muresan, A.S., Konovalov, O., Waring, A.J., Lehrer, R.I., Lee, KY. 2003. Interaction of antimicrobial peptide protegrin with biomembranes. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 100: 6302-6307.

Tincu, J.A., Menzel L.P., Azimov, R., Sands, J., Hong, T., Waring, A.J., Taylor, S.W., Lehrer, R.I. 2003. Plicatamide, an antimicrobial octapeptide from Styela plicata hemocytes. J Biol Chem. 278:13546-53.

Ding, L., Yang, L., Weiss, T.M., Waring, A.J., Lehrer, R.I. and Huang, H.W. 2003. Interaction of antimicrobial peptides with lipopolysaccharides. Biochemistry. 42:12251-9.

Yasin, B., Wang, W., Pang, M., Cheshenko, N., Waring, A.J., Herold, B.C., Wagar, E.A., and Lehrer, R.I. 2004. q-defensins protect cells from infection by herpes simplex virus by inhibiting viral adhesion and entry. J. Virol. 78:5147-5156

Wang, W., Owen, S.N., Rudolph, D.L., Cole, A.M., Hong, T., Waring, A.J., Lal, R.B. and Lehrer, R.I. 2004. Activity of alpha and theta defensins against primary isolates of HIV-1. J. Immunol, 173:515-520.

Leikina,E., Delanoe-Ayari,H., Melikov,K., Cho,M.S., Chen,A., Waring,A.J., Wang,W., Xie,Y., Loo,J.A., Lehrer,R.I. et al. 2005. Carbohydrate-binding molecules inhibit viral fusion and entry by crosslinking membrane glycoproteins. Nature Immunology 6:995-1001

Wang,W., Mulakala,C., Ward,S.C., Jung,G., Luong,H., Pham,D., Waring,A.J., Kaznessis,Y., Lu,W., Bradley,K.A. et al. 2006. Retrocyclins kill bacilli and germinating spores of Bacillus anthracis and inactivate anthrax lethal toxin. J.Biol.Chem. on-line

Gallo,S.A., Wang,W., Rawat,S.S., Jung,G., Waring,A.J., Cole,A.M., Lu,H., Yan,X., Daly,N.L., Craik,D.J. et al. 2006. theta -Defensins prevent HIV-1 env-mediated fusion by binding gp41 and blocking 6-helix bundle formation. J.Biol.Chem. on-line