Michael Rudnicki, PhD, FRSC
mrudnicki@ohri.ca
Tel: (613) 739-6740
Fax: (613) 739-6294
Assistant:
Sandy Martino
smartino@ohri.ca
613-737 8899 ext. 76330
Senior Scientist and Director of the Regenerative Medicine Program and the
Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Professor, Department of Medicine and Department of Cellular and Molecular
Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa
Canada Research Chair in Molecular Genetics
Scientific Director, Stem Cell Network
Research Interests
Stem Cell Biology, Myogenesis, Satellite Cells, Molecular Biology,
Transcriptional Regulation, Transcriptional Networks, Gene Expression, Signal
Transduction, Differentiation, Molecular Genetics.
Biographical Sketch and Research Interests
Dr. Michael Rudnicki is a Senior Scientist and the Director of the Regenerative
Medicine Program and the Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research at the Ottawa
Hospital Research Institute. He is Professor in the Department of Medicine at
the University of Ottawa. Dr. Rudnicki is the Scientific Director of the
Canadian Stem Cell Network. Dr. Rudnicki is a Fellow of the Royal Society of
Canada, and holds the Canada Research Chair in Molecular Genetics. He is an
Associate Editor of Cell Stem Cell and the Journal of Cell Biology, and is
Co-Editor in Chief of Skeletal Muscle. He has organized international research
conferences as one of the founding directors of the Society for Muscle Biology.
Dr Rudnicki's laboratory works to understand the molecular mechanisms that
regulate the determination, proliferation, and differentiation of stem cells
during embryonic development and during tissue regeneration. The lab has
conducted leading studies into both embryonic myogenesis and the function of
muscle stem cells (satellite cells) in adult regenerative myogenesis. In
particular, they have worked extensively to understand the molecular mechanisms
that regulate the function of satellite cells in skeletal muscle. Towards this
end, the lab employs molecular genetic and genomic approaches to determine the
function and roles played by regulatory factors. They identified Pax7 as a
transcription factor required for the specification of satellite cells, and
identified Wnt7a signaling as playing an important role in muscle stem cell
function. His research has been published in scientific journals that include
Cell, Nature Cell Biology, Cell Stem Cell, Genes & Development, and PLoS
Biology.
Satellite stem cells undergoing a symmetric division on a cultured myofiber
Selected Publications
- Megeney, L.A., Kablar, B., Garrett, K., Anderson, J.E., and Rudnicki,
M.A. (1996). MyoD is required for myogenic stem cell function in adult
skeletal muscle. Genes Dev. 10: 1173-1183.
- Seale, P., Sabourin, L.A., Girgis-Gabardo, A., Mansouri, A., Gruss, P., and
Rudnicki, M.A. (2000). Pax7 is required for the specification
of myogenic satellite cells. Cell 102: 777-786.
- Polesskaya, A., Seale, P., and Rudnicki, M.A. (2003). Wnt
signaling induces the myogenic specification of resident CD45+ adult stem cells
during muscle regeneration. Cell 113:841-852.
- Kuang, S. Charge, S.B., Seale, P., Huh, M., and Rudnicki, M.A.
(2006). Distinct roles for Pax7 and Pax3 in adult regenerative myogenesis. J.
Cell Biol. 172:103-113.
- Kuang., K., Kuroda, K.,, Le Grand, F., and Rudnicki, M.A.
(2007). Asymmetric self-renewal and commitment of satellite stem cells in
muscle. Cell 129(5):999-1010.
- McKinnell, I.W., Ishibashi, J., Greenblatt, Le Grand, F., Punch, V.J.G.,
Addicks, G.C., Jack F Greenblatt, J.F., Dilworth, F.J., and Rudnicki,
M.A. (2008). Pax7 activates myogenic genes by recruitment of a histone
methyltransferase complex. Nature Cell Biology 10(1):77-84.
- Le Grand, F., Scimè, A., Jones, A.E., and Rudnicki, M.A.
(2009). The planar cell polarity pathway regulates the symmetric expansion of
satellite stem cells . Cell Stem Cell 4(6):535-547.
- von Maltzahn, J., Bentzinger, C.F., and Rudnicki, M.A. (2011).
Non-canonical Wnt7a/Fzd7 signalling activates the Akt/mTor anabolic growth
pathway in skeletal muscle. Nature Cell Biology 14(2):186-191.
- Soleimani, V.D., Yin, H., Jahani-Asl, A., Ming, H., Kockx, C.E.M., van IJcken,
W.F.J., Grosveld, F., and Rudnicki, M.A. (2012) Snail regulates
MyoD binding-site occupancy to direct enhancer switching and
differentiation-specific transcription in myogenesis. Molecular Cell
47(3):457-68.
- Kawabe, Y., Wang, Y.X., McKinnell, I.W., Bedford, M.T., and Rudnicki, M.A. (2012) Carm1 regulates activation of transcription by Pax7 through asymmetric satellite stem cell divisions. Cell Stem Cell 11(3):333-45.
Price FD;Yin H;Jones A;van IW;Grosveld F;Rudnicki MA;, (2013 Jan 10), Canonical Wnt signaling induces a primitive endoderm metastable state in mouse embryonic stem cells, Stem Cells, -> view abstract
Soleimani VD;Punch VG;Kawabe YI;Jones AE;Palidwor GA;Porter CJ;Cross JW;Carvajal JJ;Kockx CE;van Ijcken WF;Perkins TJ;Rigby PW;Grosveld F;Rudnicki MA;, (2012 May 16), Transcriptional Dominance of Pax7 in Adult Myogenesis Is Due to High-Affinity Recognition of Homeodomain Motifs, Dev Cell, Vol.22, Issue 6, 1208-1220 -> view abstract
Pasut A;Rudnicki MA;, (2012 Mar 2), The long, the short, and the micro: a polyA tale of Pax3 in satellite cells, Cell Stem Cell, Vol.10, Issue 3, 237-238 -> view abstract
Liu QC;Zha X;Faralli H;Yin H;Louis-Jeune C;Perdiguero E;Pranckeviciene E;Munoz-Canoves P;Rudnicki MA;Brand M;Perez-Iratxeta C;Dilworth FJ;, (2012 Jul 30), Comparative expression profiling identifies differential roles for Myogenin and p38alpha MAPK signaling in myogenesis, J Mol Cell Biol, Vol.4, Issue 6, 386-397 -> view abstract
Soleimani VD;Yin H;Jahani-Asl A;Ming H;Kockx CE;van Ijcken WF;Grosveld F;Rudnicki MA;, (2012 Jul 3), Snail Regulates MyoD Binding-Site Occupancy to Direct Enhancer Switching and Differentiation-Specific Transcription in Myogenesis, Mol Cell, Vol.47, Issue 3, 457-468 -> view abstract
Wang YX;Rudnicki MA;, (2012 Feb), Satellite cells, the engines of muscle repair, Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol, Vol.13, Issue 2, 127-133 -> view abstract
von MJ;Bentzinger CF;Rudnicki MA;, (2012 Feb), Wnt7a-Fzd7 signalling directly activates the Akt/mTOR anabolic growth pathway in skeletal muscle, Nat Cell Biol, Vol.14, Issue 2, 186-191 -> view abstract
Bentzinger CF;Wang YX;Rudnicki MA;, (2012 Feb), Building muscle: molecular regulation of myogenesis, Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol, Vol.4, Issue 2, -> view abstract
Bentzinger CF;Wang YX;von MJ;Rudnicki MA;, (2012 Aug 6), The emerging biology of muscle stem cells: Implications for cell-based therapies, Bioessays, -> view abstract
von MJ;Chang NC;Bentzinger CF;Rudnicki MA;, (2012 Aug 31), Wnt signaling in myogenesis, Trends Cell Biol, Vol.22, Issue 11, 602-609 -> view abstract
Note: This is not a complete list of publications. More publications may be available in The Ottawa Hospital Library database and Pubmed (search by last name and initials).
Current Lab Members
Gregory Addicks – PhD candidate
Andrew Jones – PhD candidate
Alessandra Pasut – PhD candidate
Yu Xin (Will) Wang – PhD candidate
Florian Bentzinger – Postdoctoral fellow
Natasha Chang – Postdoctoral fellow
Nicolas Dumont - Postdoctoral Fellow
Melanie Lacaria – Postdoctoral fellow
Marie-Claude Sincennes – Postdoctoral fellow
Johnathan Smid – Postdoctoral fellow
Vahab Soleimani – Postdoctoral fellow
Julia von Maltzahn – Postdoctoral fellow
Hang Yin – Postdoctoral fellow
Sharlene Faulkes – Research Associate
Hong Ming - Technician
Jennifer Ritchie - Technician
David Wilson - Technician
Fan Xiao – Technician
