Title:
Associate Professor

Institute:
McGill University

Department:
Medicine

Province:
Quebec

Training:
Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
PhD, Department of Cell Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA
BA, Department of Natural Sciences, Assumption College, Worcester, MA, USA

Research interests:
Vesicular trafficking, cell signaling, and development

Recognitions and awards:
Salary award (Junior 2), Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ)
Canada Research Chair in Signaling and Development

Career highlights:
Elucidation of a novel Wnt/MAPK cell polarity pathway.
Discovery of an endogenous small RNA pathway in the regulation of Ras/MAPK signaling.
Identification of TBC-2 as a Rab5 GTPase activating protein and new regulator of endosome maturation.

Research Projects

Project title:
Analysis of new negative regulators/candidate tumor suppressors in EGFR/Ras/MAPK signaling

Funding period: 
2011-2013

Program:
Operating Grant (basic research)

Summary:
Cancer arises when a cell gains the ability to inappropriately proliferate.  The EGFR/Ras/MAPK signaling pathway transmits growth signals that regulate cell proliferation, and mutations that inappropriately activate this pathway are among the most commonly found in human cancers.  The EGFR/RasMAPK pathway is evolutionarily conserved between humans and the nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans.  Our lab uses C. elegans as a genetic model organism to study the genes and cellular mechanisms that regulate EGFR/Ras/MAPK signaling.  Pioneering studies in C. elegans have identified new fundamental mechanisms of EGFR/Ras/MAPK regulation that are conserved in humans.  We identified two novel mutations that enhance EGFR/Ras/MAPK signaling in C. elegans.  Funding from the Cancer Research Society will make it possible for us to identify the genes and mechanisms by which these mutations regulate signaling, leading to the identification of new tumor suppressive targets for the development of anti-cancer therapeutics.