JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMPE
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor
Dept of Pharmacology & TherapeuticsÂ
McGill University
Jean-Francois Trempe obtained his doctorate degree from the University of Oxford in 2007. After postdoctoral training at McGill and the Montreal Neurological Institute, he obtained a Faculty position at McGill in 2013. His goal is to elucidate the function of proteins implicated in Parkinson’s disease (PD) through 3D structure determination and proteomics studies, as well as design small molecules to modulate their activities. In collaboration with the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the SGC, his lab aims to design and characterize small-molecules activators for Parkin and PINK1. He holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Structural Pharmacology and has received the New Investigator Award from Parkinson Canada in 2014. He has published a total of 61 articles during his career (H-index 31, 4126 citations), mostly on the topics of ubiquitin and neurodegenerative diseases. His most important contribution to date are the structure determination of Parkin, which revealed the mechanism of action of this important PD target (Trempe, Sauvé et al. Science 2013), and the elucidation of the structural basis for PINK1 activation (Rasool et al. EMBO Rep 2018; Mol Cell 2021)
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NATHALIE CROTEAU
Lab technician
Ms Nathalie Croteau is a laboratory technician who’s been working at McGill for more than 30 years. She obtained a BSc degree in Biochemistry from McGill in 1987, after which she started to work as a technician at McGill, in the labs of Drs Andrew Bateman and Samuel Solomon (1987-1994). In 1994, she joined the lab of Dr Alice Vrielink (McGill Biochemistry). After the departure of Dr Vrielink from McGill in 2001, Ms Croteau joined the lab of Prof James Coulton in the department of Microbiology & Immunology, where she worked until his retirement. She joined Dr Trempe in November 2013, and has since been the cornerstone of the laboratory.
SIMON VEYRON
Postdoctoral fellow
Simon obtained a PhD under the direction of Jacqueline Cherfils, at the CNRS Laboratoire de Biologie et Pharmacologie Appliquée, ENS Paris-Saclay, France. His project consisted of elucidating the structure and mechanism of action of FIC proteins. He joined the Trempe lab in November 2018. His project, funded by the Michael J Fox Foundation, is to design and optimize small-molecule activators of Parkin, using NMR and X-ray crystallography.
PhD student
Andrew graduated with a BSc (Major in Pharmacology, Minor in Chemistry) in 2016. He started working in the lab in his U3 year as part of the PHAR599 course. He then joined the lab as a MSc student, and transferred to PhD. He works on the mitochondrial processing peptidase, a protein regulating the import of nuclear-encoded mitochondrial proteins and involved in cerebellar ataxia. He holds a CIHR doctoral award.
ANDREW BAYNE
TARA SHOMALI
PhD student
Tara obtained her BSc in Pharmacology at McGill in 2020. She works on the pharmacology of the protein PINK1. She started working in the lab as a summer student in 2019, and then as a PHAR 599 student. She completed her MSc project in 2022. As of January 2023, she is now a PhD student in the lab!
SABRINA ROMANELLI
MSc student
Sabrina obtained her undergraduate degree from McGill University in Honours Pharmacology in spring 2022. During her undergraduate training, she participated in research projects in the domains of reproductive immunology and toxicology. In Fall 2022, she started her master’s degree in Pharmacology, excited to join the world of structural biology research. Her research will focus on better understanding the relationship between PINK1 and the TOM complex. Sabrina holds both a CIHR and FRQS master's award.
LEE ROWSELL
Undergraduate student
Lee is a U3 undergraduate student completing their BSc in Biochemistry with a minor in Pharmacology. They began their work in the lab during the summer of 2023 and will continue in the following year for a PHAR 599 project. Lee's work is on MAPL, a protein which regulates several mitochondrial processes and is linked to the early onset of Parkinson's Disease.
