Keywords

Parkinson's disease • Ubiquitin • mitochondria • Parkin • PINK1 • synuclein • LRRK2

Research Focus

My research focuses on movement disorders and on the molecular events leading to the neuronal degeneration in Parkinson's disease (PD). I am particularly interested in the function and cell biology of PD genes. My work in this area aims to provide important clues about disease mechanisms and potentially lead to innovative new therapeutic strategies. My research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Parkinson Society Canada and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Selected Publications

Click on to see my current publications list

• Trempe J-F*#, Sauvé#, V, Grenier K*, Seirafi, M, Tang MY*, Ménade M, Krett J*, Wong K, Kozlov G, Nagar B, Fon EA§, Gehring K§. Structure of parkin reveals mechanism of ubiquitin ligase activation. Science. 2013; 340(6139):1451-5. PMID: 23661642.

• Koyano F, Okatsu K, Kosako H, Tamura Y, Go E, Kimura M, Kimura Y, Tsuchiya H, Yoshihara H, Hirokawa T, Endo T, Fon EA, Trempe JF, Saeki Y, Tanaka K, Matsuda N. Ubiquitin is phosphorylated by PINK1 to activate parkin. Nature. 2014; 510(7503):162-6. doi: 10.1038/nature13392. PMID: 24784582.

• McLelland GL*, Goiran T*, Yi W*, Dorval G, Chen CX, Lauinger ND*, Krahn AI*, Valimehr S, Rakovic A, Rouiller I, Durcan TM, Trempe JF, Fon EA. Mfn2 ubiquitination by PINK1/parkin gates the p97-dependent release of ER from mitochondria to drive mitophagy. Elife. 2018; 7. pii: e32866. PMID: 29676259.

• Yi W*, MacDougall EJ*, Tang MY*, Krahn AI*, Gan-Or Z, Trempe JF, Fon EA. The Landscape of Parkin Variants Reveals Pathogenic Mechanisms and Therapeutic Targets in Parkinson's Disease. Hum Mol Genet. 2019 28(17):2811-2825 doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddz080. PMID: 30994895.

• Eldeeb MA, Thomas RA, Ragheb MA, Fallahi A, Fon EA.Mitochondrial quality control in health and in Parkinson's disease. Physiol Rev. 2022 Oct 1;102(4):1721-1755. doi: 10.1152/physrev.00041.2021. Epub 2022 Apr 25.PMID: 35466694.