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 genome remodelling regulates neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration.
We study these problems in the retina and cerebral cortex.
Deciphering how neurons are produced in these structures during development might provide lessons that could someday help us to regenerate neural tissue artificially. It also helps us to understand the mechanisms that underlie neurodevelopmental disorders and inherited retinal disease.
Retinal 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.
Understanding the adaptive and maladaptive processes that occur during neurodegeneration might also provide new approaches that could help prevent or mitigate these tragic disorders.
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 chromatin remodeler ADNP regulates
neurodevelopmental disorder risk genes
and neocortical neurogenesis
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2025
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2405981122
2. Sujay Shah, José Alex Lourenço Fernandes,
Suma Medisetti, Pierre Mattar.
Chd4 remodels chromatin to control retinal cell type
specification and lineage termination
BioRxiv 2025
Shah et al.
3. 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
4. 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.
Larrigan et al
5. 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
6. 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
Diseases, conditions and populations of interest
Research and clinical approaches
