Welcome to the Rousseaux Lab!
Our lab seeks to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). With a focus on toxic protein mislocalization, the lab employs next generation screening technologies coupled to animal modeling to better understand the cause of protein mislocalization. Our ultimate goal is to help the patient population by identifying new therapeutic avenues for these disorders.
Our latest news
May 3, 2024 - Lab updates:
We've finally had the chance to update the lab website and here are some highlights:
Funding: Trainees including Ben, Emma, Devin, Veronica and Jenny have obtained funding to support their research from local (PRC and CNMD), provincial (OGS/QEII) and national (CIHR) levels. Congratulations!
Trainees: We are experiencing the lab's first big turnover, with Haley and Caroline recently graduating with their PhD and MSc in Neurosciences, respectively and Terry following closely suit with permission to write. We have welcomed Emma and Veronica as MSc students in Sept 2023 and Jenny as the lab's first TMM joint BSc/MSc program student at the same time. Devin will be joining the lab for her MSc after a stellar TMM Honours project and Aysha will be joining us for her Honours. Joseph will be working as a summer student in the coming months with Emma. Welcome aboard all.
Publications: We've had a productive past year with Terry publishing his study on global SUMO profiles in a novel mouse model in iScience, JL and Konrad publishing their work on CDK14 as a novel target to modulate aSyn in Cell Death and Disease and Haley and Zoe publishing an atlas of aSyn topography in NPJ Parkinson's disease in close collaboration with Mike Henderson's group at the Van Andel Institute. Cloe (in close collaboration with Ryan Russell) and Terry have also submitted their papers for peer review and deposited their manuscripts to BioRxiv (1 and 2). Congratulations to all!
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May 9, 2022 - New developments in the lab:
Funding: We were fortunate to receive funding from the ASAP CRN initiative to explore the role of alpha-synuclein in olfaction/olfactory disturbances in PD. We also received funding from ALS Canada-Brain Canada to pursue a project related to TDP-43 mislocalization. Haley also received a CIHR CGS-D fellowship, and several folks in the lab received funding from the Parkinson Research Consortium. Thank you!
Publications: Haley published the lab's first original research article in Human Molecular Genetics and JL and Konrad posted their manuscript on BioRxiv and are hoping for a smooth review process. Congrats!
New members: We welcomed Caroline, a new MSc student, to the lab in January. The lab welcomed two TMM rotation students: Kassandre Kelly and Amanda Bruce as well as a UROP student: Ariana Kokkinakis. Amanda and Ariana will stay on this summer and do their honours project in the lab in the fall. Welcome!
Lab culture: We've had a couple of lab gatherings over the year, a lab "state of the union" and the trainees have designed some new lab swag! We look forward to doing the Walk to End ALS followed by a lab BBQ in early June.
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Sept 2, 2021 - We haven't provided updates for almost a year, so here it goes: Anjali submitted her MSc thesis and will have her defence in the coming week. We are so proud of the work she's done while in the lab. Jean-Louis was accepted into uOttawa Medical School and is wrapping up one of the lab's first papers. The lab welcomes Ben Nguyen, a new PhD student who will work on gene-environment interactions and PD; as well as Trina Nguyen, Hayley Lee and Nicholas Valentino who will be conducting their Honours projects in the lab with Terry, Konrad and Haley, respectively. Max, working closely with Ryan Russell, got the uOttawa Genome Engineering and Molecular biology (GEM) core up and running. We are also writing up three (!) manuscripts which we hope to post on BioRxiv soon for some feedback from the scientific community.
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Oct 2, 2020 - The lab received some key support from the J.P. Bickell Foundation, thank you! Zoe began graduate school as an MSc student in the Neuroscience program. Terry published the lab's first review (and first article on ALS!) in Molecular Neurodegeneration.
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Jun 17, 2020 - Some rays of light during these difficult times: The lab welcomes Konrad and Zoe. Cloe was awarded a Vanier Scholarship. Haley obtained a Visiting Scholar Fellowship from the Parkinson Foundation to continue exploring the role of nuclear alpha-synuclein. She also obtained an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Meghan obtained a Summer Studentship from the Parkinson's Foundation. Michelle was accepted in the Occupational Health MSc program at uOttawa. Congratulations to all!
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Feb 3, 2020 - Some new lab developments: Haley transferred to the PhD (Neuroscience) program before the holidays. She also wrote up a commentary on an article in EBioMedicine that appeared online Jan 22. We also welcomed our first TMM rotation student of the year: Isabel Tardif-Sanchez. We were also successful in securing our first CIHR Project Grant to study the mechanism(s) by which a-Syn mediates its toxicity in Parkinson's disease. Congrats to all!
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Nov 20, 2019 - Much more to celebrate! Our paper describing the role of DCLK1 in regulating a-Syn levels was published in J Neurosci. Terry obtained a 3-year scholarship from ALS Canada/Brain Canada to study mechanisms governing TDP-43 mislocalization. Anjali obtained the Toth Family Fellowship from the Parkinson Research Consortium to study a-Syn PTMs in vivo. Jean-Louis obtained a UROP Scholarship to keep working in the lab during the year and won the best undergraduate poster prize at OHRI research day. Haley and Terry both won 2nd place in their categories (MSc and PhD) at OHRI research day. Haley also won a prize for her rapid-fire presentation at CMM/NSC research day. Well done all!
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Aug 26, 2019 - Congratulations on successfully transferring to the PhD program, Terry!
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Aug 16, 2019 - Farewell, Alex. What an incredibly productive couple of months! Welcome to our new Honours student, Michelle!
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Aug 10, 2019 - We had a great lab (Texas-style!) BBQ, co-hosted with the Simon Chen Lab. Great food, discussions and games.
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Jul 2, 2019 - Welcome to the lab, Alex and Anjali! Alex joins us as a MITACS Globalink intern and Anjali will be beginning graduate studies in the lab this fall.
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Apr 25, 2019 - Our collaborative study with the Liu lab at BCM appears online at Genome Research. Check out CRISPRCloud2 for all of your screening needs!
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Apr 8, 2019 - So much to celebrate: Congratulations to Terry for obtaining a STaR award from the CNMD! Congratulations to Jean-Louis for winning a prestigious Parkinson's Foundation-APDA summer studentship! Congratulations to Meghan for winning a PRC summer studentship! Congratulations to Emily for being accepted to Med School! Congratulations to Haley for being awarded an IBRO Travel Fellowship to attend CAN2019! Congratulations to the lab for receiving funding from the NFRF Explore competition to perform ambitious and interdisciplinary research with the labs of Drs. Dimitri Perrin, Liqun Luo and Wei-Hsiang Huang!
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Feb 26, 2019 - Welcome to the lab, Meghan! Meghan will be rotating in the lab (through uOttawa's TMM program) over the next 6 weeks.
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Feb 1, 2019 - Welcome to the lab, Cloe! Cloe will be pursuing her PhD in our lab, jointly supervised by Dr. Ryan Russell.
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Nov 13, 2018 - We are happy to receive support from the Canada Research Chairs program for the next 5 years.
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Oct 25, 2018 - Our druggable genome screen for regulators of alpha-synuclein levels appears in print at the Journal of Neuroscience and is featured on the Cover!
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Oct 18, 2018 - Congratulations to Haley for receiving the Poole Parkinson's Research Fellowship from the PRC!
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Sep 3, 2018 - The lab welcomes Emily, who will be doing her Honours project in the lab.
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June 4, 2018 - Our latest paper detailing the loss of Trim28 in adulthood can now be found in eLife. This is a follow up study from Dr. Rousseaux's earlier postdoctoral work.
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May 21, 2018 - Haley, Jean-Louis and Terry started in the lab this week!
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Apr 27, 2018 - Our collaborative study with the Liu lab at BCM is out on BioRxiv. It discusses CRISPRCloud2, a platform that offers a one-stop-shop for pooled CRISPR-Cas9 screening deconvolution. Check it out here.
Ways to give
There are many ways to help out our and others' research.
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Brain health/uOttawa: University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute
Parkinson's disease: Parkinson Research Consortium (local!), Parkinson Society Canada, Parkinson Foundation, MJFF
ALS: ALS Canada, ALS Association
Scientific outreach: Let's Talk Science