McGill EMC: About

Mark Lathrop

Mark Lathrop is the Scientific Director of the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, and Professor in the Department of Human Genetics at McGill University. Most recently, he was the scientific director of the Centre National de Genotypage (CNG) and of the Fondation Jean Dausset Centre d’Étude du Polymorphism Humain (CEPH) in Paris, two of the major centres for large scale biological research established by the French government. The principal goal of these centres is to apply genomics and other large-scale methodologies to understanding human disease. Dr. Lathrop was one of the founders of CEPH, which pioneered international collaboration on the human genome in the 1980s and 1990s. He was co-founder of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, as well as founder of the CNG in France as the principal national centre for large-scale genetics studies in Europe. Dr. Lathrop is the author of more than 600 scientific papers in genetics, genomics and statistics. He was a major contributor to the first- and second-generation genetic maps (based respectively on RFLP and microsatellite markers), used to develop molecular and bioinformatics tools to assist with the discovery of genes responsible for many Mendelian diseases. Dr. Lathrop has also made major contributions to genetic approaches for the study of models of human disease in other mammalian species. His present scientific studies focus on using genetic and other high-throughput genomic approaches to identify DNA variants that predispose people to common diseases, particularly, lung cancer, asthma and cardiovascular disease, and to understand the effects of these in a biological and public health context.

Tomi Pastinen

Tomi Pastinen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Genetics at McGill University. Dr. Pastinen completed his MD/PhD supervised by Leena Peltonen and Ann-Christine Syvanen at the University of Helsinki, Finland with a focus on the development of array-based genotyping methods and their application to the study of complex diseases (2000). During his postdoctoral fellowship with Thomas Hudson at McGill University he initiated studies of allelic variation in expression in human cells. Member of McGill University faculty since 2006, his laboratory has focused on genome-wide allele-specific functional genomic studies and their applications to common disease genomics. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Human Genomics and is a recipient of the Maud Menten Young Investigator Award by the CIHR.

Guillaume Bourque

Guillaume Bourque is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Genetics at McGill University and the Director of Bioinformatics at the McGill University & Genome Quebec Innovation Center. During his PhD, he worked on genome rearrangements in evolution with Pavel Pevzner at the University of Southern California. In 2002, he did postdoctoral research on gene regulatory networks at the University of Montreal with David Sankoff. From 2004 to 2010, he was a Senior Group Leader and the Associate Director of Computational & Mathematical Biology at the Genome Institute of Singapore. His research interests are in comparative and functional genomics with a special emphasis on applications of next generation sequencing technologies.

Alan Evans

Alan Evans did his PhD in biophysics at Leeds University in the UK, studying 3D protein folding. He spent 5-years at Atomic Energy of Canada, working on the physics and analysis of PET images. In 1984, he moved to the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) at McGill where his research interests include multi-modal brain imaging with PET and MRI, structural network modelling and large-scale brain databasing. He has held numerous leadership roles, including director of the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre (BIC), founding member of the International Consortium for Brain Mapping (ICBM), and one of the founders of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM). In 2003 he received a CIHR Senior Scientist Award. He is P.I. of the Montreal Consortium for Brain Imaging Research (MCBIR), a $35M initiative to link the BIC with six institutions investigating brain development and aging, cognitive neuroscience and addiction. MCBIR employs using MRI/PET/MEG and large-scale data processing for human and animal studies. Dr. Evans heads the data coordinating center for a large NIH-funded multi-center MRI study of normal pediatric development. This project provides a web-accessible reference database of normal maturation.

Michael Meaney

Michael Meaney is the associate director of Douglas Research Centre, a University Institute in Mental Health. He is a James McGill Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology and Neurosurgery as well the Director of the Program for the Study of Behaviour, Genes and the Environment at McGill. He was one of the first researchers to describe how maternal care influences gene expression of the offspring; in particular genes which regulate responses to stress. Dr. Meaney and his team are currently pursuing this research by conducting studies examining the molecular mechanisms by which maternal care alters gene expression and the subsequent effects on neuron growth, function, and health. Michael Meaney is the Director of the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurolodevelopment Project, funded by CIHR that includes longitudinal, developmental studies of high-risk children in Quebec and Ontario. The project represents a collaboration of over 20 groups across Canada. In recognition of his contributions to neuroendocrine research, Meaney has numerous awards. In 2007 he was recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as a “Most Highly Cited Scientist” in the area of neuroscience.

About

Principal Investigators

Mark Lathrop

Tomi Pastinen

Guillaume Bourque

Alan Evans

Michael Meaney

Other Team Members

Past Team Members