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Dr. Louise Larose (P.h.D)
- Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, McGill University.
- Member, Department of Physiology, McGill University.
- Member, Division of Endocrinology, McGill University Hospital Center (M.U.H.C).
- Member, Division of Experimental Medicine, McGill University.
1.
Cellular signal transduction
2. SH2 and SH3-containing adaptor proteins
3. Receptor Protein Kinases
4. Cell growth
5. Cell transformation
6. Cell differentiation
7. Serine Threonine Protein Kinases
Role of Nck, an adaptor protein, in mitogenesis, cell transformation and metabolism.
Signals through cell surface growth factor receptors commonly
involve intrinsic tyrosine kinase activation, resulting in phosphorylation of
the receptors and various cellular proteins. This creates high affinity binding
sites for a variety of cytoplasmic proteins containing PhosphoTyrosine Binding
(PTB) or Src homology 2 (SH2) domains, which mediate further signal transduction
events. Most of the SH2-containing proteins possess another distinct Src homology
domain, the SH3. SH3 domains are also involved in protein interactions, but
through recognition of proline rich sequences rather than tyrosine phosphorylated
motifs in their target molecules. Among the SH2- SH3-containing proteins, a
special category referred to as adaptor proteins are defined by their lack of
any particular catalytic activity. These adaptor proteins are believed to couple
activated receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) with functional effector proteins
via their SH2 and SH3 domains and thus promoting signal transduction. Nck is
an adaptor protein of 47kDa consisting of one SH2 and three SH3 domains. Nck
associates with a variety of activated receptor tyrosine kinases and in fibroblasts,
Nck overexpression induces cell transformation. In addition to mediate RTKs
signal transduction, our laboratory has recently discovered a new function for
Nck in direct modulation of protein translation through its interaction with
the b-subunit of the eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2b). In summary, our
research interests are to understand the role of adaptor proteins such Nck,
by identifying and characterizing the molecules interacting with these adaptors,
and elucidating their functional significance in major cellular processes in
normal and pathological conditions.
Research Assistant : Dongmei Zuo
Graduate Students: Sem Kebache; Rossella Oliva
Left to right : Sem; Rossella; Louise & Dongmei
- Sem Kebache, Dongmei Zuo, Eric Chevet & Louise Larose (2002). PNAS. 99: 5406-5411.
- Thierry Dubois et al. (2001). J Biol Chem. 276: 18757-18764.
- El Bachir Bioukar, Nadia Cardillo Marricco, Dongmei Zuo & Louise Larose (1999). J Biol Chem. 274: 21457-21463.
- Jiang-Feng Liu et al. (1999). Oncogene. 18: 6425 - 6433.
- Laure Voisin et al. (1999). Biochem. J. 341: 217-223.
- Maya Kozlowski et al. (1998). Mol. Cell. Biol. 18: 2089-2099.
- Genevieve Lussier & Louise Larose (1997). J Biol Chem. 272: 2688-2694.