Lochmüller Lab

We are excited to share that  Dr. Lola Lessard has been awarded a one-year postdoctoral research fellowship from AFM-Téléthon to study AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling in Type I Myotonic Dystrophy (DM1) as a potential therapeutic target.

Dr. Lessard is currently completing 6 months of clinical training at the Ottawa Neuromuscular Centre. She will work with Dr Bernard Jasmin’s and Dr Aymeric Ravel-Chapuis‘ labs at the University of Ottawa to expand on her own and the labs’ significant research and observations in the AMPK signaling pathway related to Myotonic dystrophy.

Research Proposal to Study AMPK Signaling Pathway:

The research proposal has two aims. Firstly, Dr. Lessard will further define the involvement of AMPK mis-splicing in DM1 by using a DM1 mouse model in which AMPK is deleted and observe the impact on muscle metabolism, histology, and RNA processing. Secondly, Dr. Lessard will investigate whether the metabolic phenotype of muscle cells  from patients with DM1 show the metabolic defects that were observed in the immortalized DM1 muscle cell line.

Dr. Lessard’s research will build on past work from her PhD in Lyon and on work conducted by the Jasmin lab, who previously in skeletal muscle from the human skeletal actin long-repeat (HSALR) mouse model of DM1.

The outcomes of Dr. Lessard’s research will contribute to the advancement of the broad understanding of the importance of AMPK signaling and has the for DM1 patients.