Lalonde Lab: (https://lalondelab.org)
It was during my first semester as a Psychology undergraduate student at the University of Ottawa that I was introduced to neuroscience and the scientific study of the nervous system. Right away, I was captivated by the intricacies of the brain and the multidisciplinary nature of this branch of biology.
After completing my B.A., I joined the Department of Psychology at McGill University where I did an M.A. in the area of visual psychophysics followed by a Ph.D. focusing on the molecular basis of activity-dependent visual cortex plasticity. At the end of my graduate studies, I received a CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue my training in molecular and cellular neuroscience in the laboratory of Dr. Grace Gill at Tufts University School of Medicine. During that time, I studied many questions related to calcium signaling and the transcriptional control of gene expression in neurons using primary cell cultures and genetically modified mouse models. As my work at Tufts was reaching its completion, I had the opportunity to prolong my stay in Boston by joining the laboratory of Dr. Stephen Haggarty at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Genomic Research. There, I gained unique research experience in neuropharmacology, translational neuroscience, stem cell biology, mass spectrometry, and the development of assays adapted for image-based, high-throughput phenotypic screening with primary neuronal cells. While at MGH, I was also an affiliated member of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard where I collaborated on projects investigating the molecular underpinnings of neuropsychiatric disorders, in particular, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, with the help of patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
During the summer of 2017, I became a faculty member of the College of Biological Science at the University of Guelph where I lead the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience.
The morphogenesis of neuronal cells and their organization into functional circuits is a tightly controlled process that follows a series of well-defined steps. Once differentiated and integrated into networks, mature neurons also retain a remarkable capacity to rapidly change the arrangement of their synaptic connections in response to activity, a feature that is believed to critically support cognition as well as our ability to learn and retain information for long periods of time. Accumulating evidence strongly suggests that perturbation of the molecular interactions responsible for the growth of neurons, or the capacity of these cells to adequately respond to activity-dependent signals, contributes to the pathophysiology of different brain disorders such as schizophrenia, intellectual disability, and autism spectrum disorders. Our laboratory aims to elucidate novel effectors and mechanisms that contribute to the development and/or plasticity of neuronal cells. We believe that our basic research into these questions will lead to new insights into the pathogenesis of different brain disorders and potentially help recognize original targets for pharmacological intervention and treatment of these debilitating diseases.
Our laboratory uses a multidisciplinary approach to explore these questions, which includes primary neuron cultures, genetic perturbations, calcium and live-cell imaging, confocal microscopy, gene expression profiling, proteomic techniques, as well as patient-derived models of neurodevelopmental disorders.
The Lalonde Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience is currently funded by NSERC, a Research Grant from the Scottish Rite Charitable Foundation, a Brain Canada Future Leaders in Canadian Brain award, as well as start-up funding from the University of Guelph College of Biological Science and the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.
Hewitt, T*, Alural, B*, Tilak M, Wang, J, Becke N, Chartley, E. Perrault M, Haggarty SJ, Sheridan SD, Perlis RH, Jones N, Mellios N, Lalonde J. (2023) Bipolar disorder-iPSC derived progenitor cells exhibit dysregulation of store-operated calcium entry and accelerated differentiation Molecular Psychiatry, doi:10.1038/s41380-023-02152-6.
Parmentier T, LaMarre J, Lalonde J, (2023) Evaluation of neurotoxicity with human pluripotent stem cell-derived cerebral organoids. Current Protocols in Toxicology, 3:e744.
Holborn J*, Walczyk-Mooradally A*, Perrin C, Alural B, Aitchison C, Borenstein A, Khokar JY, Akhtar TA, Lalonde J. (2023) Interference of neuronal TrkB signaling by cannais-derived flavonoids cannflavins A and B. Phytomedicine Plus, 3:100410.
Parmentier T, James F, Hewitson E, Bailey C, Werry N, Sheridan SD, Perlis RH, Perrault M, Lalonde J, LaMarre J. Human cerebral spheriods undergo activity dependent changes in cellular compostion and miRNA expression. (2022) Scientific Reports, 12:9143.
Walczyk-Mooradally A, Holborn J, Singh K, Tyler M, Patnaik D, Wesseling H, Brandon NJ, Steen J, Graether SP, Haggarty SJ, Lalonde J. Phosphorylation-dependent control of Activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc) protein by TNIK. (2021) Journal of Neurochemistry 158:1058-1073.
Sheppard PAS, Asling HA, Walczyk-Mooradally A, Armstrong SE, Elad VM, Lalonde J, Choleris E.Protein synthesis and actin polymerization in the rapid effects of 17β-estradiol on short-term social memory and dendritic spine dynamics in female mice. (2021) Psychoneuroendocrinology. 128:105232.
Thériault RK, St-Denis M, Hewitt T, Khokhar JY, Lalonde J, Perreault ML. Sex-Specific Cannabidiol- and Iloperidone-Induced Neuronal Activity Changes in an In Vitro MAM Model System of Schizophrenia. (2021) International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 22:5511.
Tilak M, Alural B, Wismer SE, Brasher MI, New LA, Sheridan SD, Perlis RH, Coppolino MG, Lalonde J, Jones N. Adaptor Protein ShcD/SHC4 Interacts with Tie2 Receptor to Synergistically Promote Glioma Cell Invasion. (2021) Molecular Cancer Research 19:757-770.
Zimmerman AJ, Hafez AK, Amoah SK, Rodriguez BA, Dell'Orco M, Lozano E, Hartley BJ, Alural B, Lalonde J, Chander P, Webster MJ, Perlis RH, Brennand KJ, Haggarty SJ, Weick J, Perrone-Bizzozero N, Brigman JL, Mellios N. A psychiatric disease-related circular RNA controls synaptic gene expression and cognition. (2020) Molecular Psychiatry 25:2712-2727.
Jagtap S, Thanos, J, Fu T, Wang J, Lalonde J, Dial T, Feiglin A, Chen J, Kohane I, Lee J, Sheridan SD, Perlis RH. Aberrant mitochondrial function in patient-derived neural cells from CDKL5 deficiency disorder and Rett Syndrome (2019) Human Molecular Genetics, 28:3625-3636.
BIOL*1090 – Introduction to Molecular and Cellular Biology
NEUR*3100 – Molecular Mechanisms of Neurological Disorders
MCB*6500/7500 – MSc/PhD Research Topics in MCB