Dr Stéphane Richard (LDI) -
Dr. Stephane Richard
Lady Davis Institute, Associate Director
James McGill Professor of Medicine & Oncology
"Arginine methylation and QUAKING as regulators of CNS myelination"
ABSTRACT:
Our laboratory studies the family of proteins termed QUAKING and arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) in myelination. These proteins are essentially master regulators of oligodendrocyte function and we have shown that the absence of these proteins causes myelination defects (quaking phenotype) in mice. By understanding how the quaking proteins and the PRMTs function, we are able to tease out the molecular details about how oligodendrocytes become mature and produce myelin. This information will be important for the basic understanding of myelination and with possible implications for re-myelination therapies.