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Christian E. Rocheleau, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Medicine christian.rocheleau [at] mcgill.ca |
Biographical Sketch
A native of Massachusetts, I attended undergraduate at Assumption College in Worcester (1990-94), where I developed an interest in cell biology and signal transduction. I pursued these interests during my Ph.D. (2000) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (Worcester) working with Dr. Craig Mello in the Department of Cell Biology. There I used the then new technique of RNA-mediated interference (RNAi) and the emerging genome sequence to elucidate a novel Wnt/MAPK-like pathway as establishing polarity and cell fates in the early C. elegans embryo. As a Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund Postdoctoral fellow I continued studies in signal transduction in the Department of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) working with Dr. Meera Sundaram (2000-05). There I characterized the role of scaffold proteins in the Ras/MAPK pathway and identified numerous novel regulators of Ras/MAPK signaling via mutagenesis screens and RNAi. In 2005 I established my own lab in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine at McGill University and the MUHC Research Institute as an Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair. In 2011 I was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure and joined the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology as an associate member.
Keywords
Vesicular trafficking, signal transduction, cell biology, genetics, Caenorhabditis elegans
Research or Clinical Activities
Our laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of endocrinology using the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. Hormones and Growth Factors act as signals from one cell to another to control various cellular behaviors such as proliferation, differentiation, and migration. These signals can activate receptors on the cell surface to initiate a cascade of molecular events that transduce the signal to the cell interior to elicit a cellular response. The Ras/MAPK pathway can transduce signals from a variety of receptors to control numerous cellular responses and inappropriate activation of this pathway can lead to cancer. Vesicular trafficking plays an important role in endocrine signaling, in both the secretion of hormone signals and in the regulation of downstream signaling events. Our research focuses on understanding the mechanisms that regulate vesicular trafficking and signal transduction as well as understanding how these two processes intersect. These fundamental cellular processes are evolutionarily conserved between humans and the nematode C. elegans. Therefore, we can apply the rapid forward and reverse genetic approaches available in C. elegans to identify and characterize new regulators relevant to the development of therapeutics to treat human cancers and endocrine diseases caused by unregulated signaling and/or vesicular trafficking.
Selected Recent Publications
The Rab GTPase activating protein TBC-2 extends longevity by facilitating release of FOXO/DAF-16 from endosomes.
Meraş İ, Chotard L, Liontis T, Ratemi Z, Wiles B, Seo JH, Van Raamsdonk JM and Rocheleau CE (2022) PLoS Genet 18(8): e1010328.
LIN-10 can promote LET-23 EGFR signaling and trafficking independently of LIN-2 and LIN-7.
Gauthier KD and Rocheleau CE (2021) Molecular Biology of the Cell
Golgi localization of the LIN-2/7/10 complex points to a role in basolateral secretion of LET-23 EGFR in the C. elegans vulval precursor cells.
Gauthier KD and Rocheleau CE (2021) Development
C. elegans rab-18 mutants display reduced lipid content under fed and fasted conditions.
Ratemi Z, Kiss RS and Rocheleau CE (2019) microPublication Biology
The VPS-34 PI3 kinase negatively regulates RAB-5 during endosome maturation.
Law F, Seo J-H, Wang Z, DeLeon JL, Bolis Y, Brown A, Zong W-X, Du G and Rocheleau CE (2017) Journal of Cell Science