|
Senior Investigator, Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital
Alva Chair in Human Genetics,
Professor of Genetics,
Professor of Biochemistry, McGill University
Roderick R. McInnes, OC, OOnt MD, PhD is the Alva Chair in Human Genetics, Professor of Human Genetics and Biochemistry, and Senior Investigator at the Lady Davis Institute of the Jewish General Hospital, all of McGill University.
Prof. McInnes was previously the Head of the Program in Developmental Biology at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, and a University Professor at the University of Toronto, an HHMI International Research Scholar, and the Inaugural Scientific Director of the Institute of Genetics of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). He has made important contributions to understanding the molecular basis of retinal and eye development, the identification of genes and processes associated with retinal degeneration, and knowledge of synaptic proteins that modulate ion channels in the nervous system. He is one of three coauthors of the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th editions of the classic textbook Thompson and Thompson’s Genetics in Medicine, for which the co-authors received the 2015 American Society of Human Genetics Award for Excellence in Human Genetics Education. In 2010, Dr. McInnes was President of the American Society of Human Genetics. From 2009- 2021 (March) he was the Director of the Lady Davis Institute and until 2017, Canada Research Chair in Neurogenetics. In 2017-2018 he served as the Acting President of CIHR. He received the Paul Armstrong Lecture Award from the CAHS for leadership in advancing health sciences, and the Research Canada Leadership in Advocacy Award for championing health research at the national level in 2019. Prof. McInnes is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS), and was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2008, and made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2009, and an Office of the Order in 2021.
Major Research Activities
Historically our lab has focused on retinal and brain development, photoreceptor degeneration and accessory proteins of ion channels in the nervous system. In inherited neurodegenerations, we wish to understand what is happening in the mutant neurons, in the years to decades between their birth and their death. After decades of normal function, why do the neurons suddenly die? To address this question, we identified molecular mechanisms that contribute to or protect against the death of mutant photoreceptors (PRs) using mouse models of PR diseases. Understanding of these mechanisms has suggested therapeutic opportunities to slow PR death. Our current major focus is on the molecular, cellular and phenotypic analysis of a largely uncharacterized microtubule-associated protein whose loss of function in mice impairs the growth of the whole animal, and the development of the brain.
Recent Publications
Ivakine, E.A., Acton, B.A., Mahadevan, V., Ormond, J., Tang, C., Pressey, J. C., Ng, D., Delpire, E., Salter, M. W., Woodin, M.A. and McInnes, R. R. (2013). Neto2 is a KCC2 Auxiliary Protein Required for Neuronal Cl- Regulation in Mature Hippocampal Neurons Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (USA) 110, 3561-3566.
Wyeth, M., Pelkey, K., Petralia, R., Salter, M., McInnes, R.R. and McBain, C. (2013). Neto auxiliary protein interactions regulate kainate & NMDA receptor subunit localization at mossy fiber-CA3 pyramidal cell synapses. J Neuroscience 34, 622-628, 2014.
Mahadevan, V., Pressey, J.C., Acton, B.A., Uvarov, P., Huang, M.Y., Chevier, J., Puchalski, A., Li, C.M., Ivakine, E. A., Airaksinen, M., Depire, E., McInnes, R.R., Melanie A. Woodin (2014). Kainate Receptors Coexist in a Functional Complex with KCC2 and Regulate Chloride Homeostasis in Hippocampal Neurons. Cell Reports 7, 1762–1770.
Jiang, C.K., Wright, K.L., Bramall, A.N., Szego, M.J., Egan, S.E., McInnes, R.R. Stat3 mediates protection of mutant photoreceptors in inherited photoreceptor degeneration (2014). Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (USA) 111 (52) E5716-E5723.
Jung, C., Atan, D., Ng, D., Ploder, L., Ross, S., Klein, M., Birch, D., Diez, E., McInnes, R.R. (2015). Transcription factor PRDM8 is required for rod bipolar and type 2 OFF-cone bipolar cell survival and amacrine subtype identity. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (USA) 112, E3010-19.
Mahadevan, V., Dargaei, Z., Ivakine, E., Hartmann, A-M., Ng, D., Chevrier, J., Ormond, J., Nothwang, H. G., McInnes, R. R., Woodin, M.A. Neto2-null mice have impaired GABA-mediated inhibition and are susceptible to seizures (2015). Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience (2015). Sep 23;9:368. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2015.00368
Wyeth, M., Pelkey, K.A., Yuan, Y., Vargish, G., Johnston, A.D., Hunt, S., Fang, C., Abebe, D., Mahadevan, V., Fisahn, A., Salter, M., McInnes, R.R., Chittajallu, R., McBain, C.J. Neto Auxiliary Subunits Regulate Interneuron Somatodendritic and Presynaptic Kainate Receptors to Control Network Inhibition (2017). Cell Reports 20, 2156–2168.
|