Pierre Mattar profile picture

Contact Information

Pierre Mattar, PhD
613-761-4395 x78547
pierre.mattar@uottawa.ca

pmattar@ohri.ca

ORCID logo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5708-6218

Pierre Mattar

Senior Scientist, Regenerative Medicine
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Assistant Professor, Cellular and Molecular Medicine
University of Ottawa
Clifford, Gladys and Lorna J. Wood Chair for Research in Vision
Ottawa Hospital

Research Interests

The lab is focused on how neural cell types are i) produced and ii) maintained.  

Our research is focused on the developing cerebral cortex and retina. 

Deciphering how neurons are produced in these structures during development might help us to regenerate neural tissue artificially. It also helps us to understand the mechanisms that underlie neurodevelopmental disorders and inherited retinal disease.

R
etinal cell death plays a role in all of the main causes of blindness. Once killed, retinal neurons are lost forever. These cells cannot be regenerated in humans.

Deciphering how retinal neurons are produced during development might help us to regenerate neural tissue artificially. Cells could be generated in the lab, and then transplanted into individuals to replace the cells that they have lost.  

Understanding the degenerative process might also provide new approaches that could help prevent or mitigate degeneration.   

Brief Biography

Selected Publications

Lab members in bold † Co-authors
1. Samuel Clémot-Dupont†, José Alex Lourenço Fernandes†, Sarah Larrigan†, Xiaoqi Sun†, Suma Medisetti, Rory Stanley, Ziyad El Hankouri, Shrilaxmi V. Joshi, David J. Picketts, Karthik Shekhar,  Pierre Mattar The ChAHP chromatin remodelling complex regulates neurodevelopmental disorder risk genes to scale the production of neocortical layers BioRxiv 2024 Clémot-Dupont et al.
2. Ivana Herrera, José Alex Lourenço Fernandes, Khatereh Shir-Mohammadi, Pierre Mattar Lamin A upregulation reorganizes the genome during rod photoreceptor degeneration Cell Death & Disease. 2023. Herrera et al
3. Sarah Larrigan, Shrilaxmi V. Joshi, Pierre Mattar. Divergent phenotypes in constitutive versus conditional mutant mouse models of Sifrim-Hitz-Weiss syndrome Human Molecular Genetics. 2023. Sep 21:ddad157. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddad157. Online ahead of print. Larrigan et al
4. Camille Boudreau-Pinsonneault, Luke Ajay David†,  José Alex Lourenço Fernandes†, Awais Javed,  Michel Fries, Pierre Mattar, Michel Cayouette Direct neuronal reprogramming by temporal identity factors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2023. 120(19):e2122168120. Boudreau-Pinsonneault et al
5.
Mattar P, Stevanovic M, Nad I, Cayouette M. Casz1 controls higher order nuclear organization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2018. 115(34):E7987-E7996. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/08/01/1803069115 6. Mattar P, Ericson J,
 Blackshaw S, Cayouette M. A Conserved Regulatory Logic Controls Temporal Identity in Mouse Neural Progenitors. Neuron. 2015 Feb. 4; 85(3): 497-504. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25654255   

Diseases, conditions and populations of interest





Research and clinical approaches