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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
Most Recent Publications (provided by The Ottawa Hospital Library Database)

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