Daniel Levings, PhD

Daniel is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Minnesota Medical School. In his research, Daniel endeavors to understand basic mechanisms of gene expression regulation by transcription factors. He integrates lab-generated and publicly available datasets using a variety of computational approaches, including R, Perl, BASH and Python programming, supercomputing, web applications, and more. Daniel received his BS in Biology and Chemistry in 2008, and after 2 years of biofuels research at the Lake Superior Research Institute, he enrolled in graduate school at the University of Minnesota. He received his PhD in 2016 for his work on Drosophila stem cell biology. He has computational biology training from Cold Spring Harbor Lab, having completed the Statistical Methods in Functional Genomics course (2018), and is a current member of the Developmental Biology Center (UMN) and the Genetics Society of America.

DBC Best Postdoctoral Poster Award, UMN-Twin Cities, 2019

Statistical Methods for Functional Genomics Course Grant, Cold Spring Harbor Lab, 2018

Council of Graduate Students Travel Grant, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, 2015

Summa cum laude, B.S. Biology and Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Superior, 2008

Outstanding Undergraduate Chemistry Award, University of Wisconsin-Superior, 2008

Swenson Family Trust Undergraduate Scholarship, University of Wisconsin-Superior, 2004

Twin Ports Early-Career Researchers, 2017 - present

Genetics Society of America, 2015 - present

University of Minnesota Developmental Biology Center, 2010 - present

I. Publications

• Johnson, D.M., Wells, M.B., Fox, R., Lee, J.S., Loganathan, R., Levings, D., Bastien, A., Slattery, M., & Andrew, D.J. (2020). CrebA increases secretory capacity through direct transcriptional regulation of the secretory machinery, a subset of secretory cargo, and other key regulators. Traffic, 21(9), 560-577, tra.12753.
• Levings, D.C., Shaw, K.E., & Lacher, S.E. (2020). Genomic resources for dissecting the role of non-protein coding variation in gene-environment interactions. Toxicology, 441, 152505, j.tox.2020.152505.
• Levings, D.C., Wang, X., Kohlhase, D., Bell, D.A., & Slattery, M. (2018). An NRF2 hyperactivation signature shared across cancers is composed of genes with strong and ubiquitously accessible antioxidant response elements. Redox Biology, 19, 235-249, j.redox.2018.07.026.
• Lacher, S.E., Levings, D.C., Freeman, S., & Slattery, M. (2018). Identification of a functional antioxidant response element at the HIF1A locus. Redox Biology, 19, 401-411, j.redox.2018.08.014.
• Levings, D.C. & Nakato, H. (2017). Loss of heparan sulfate in the niche leads to tumor-like germ cell growth in the Drosophila testis. Glycobiology, 28(1), 32-41, glycob.cwx090.
• Levings, D.C., Arashiro, T., & Nakato, H. (2016). Heparan sulfate regulates the number and centrosome positioning of Drosophila male germline stem cells. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 27(6), 888-896, mbc.E15-07-0528.
• Dejima, K., Kanai, M.I., Akiyama, T., Levings, D.C., & Nakato, H. (2011). Novel contact-dependent bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling mediated by heparan sulfate proteoglycans. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 286(19), 17103-17111, jbc.M110.208082.
• Lane, J. W., Hukriede, K., Jersett, A., Koirala, D., Levings, D., Stewart, A., & Waxman, M. A. (2012). Synthesis and Characterization of New Biodiesels Derived From Oils of Plants Growing in Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society, 89(4), 721-725, s11746-011-1963-0.