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.
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.
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
