Hanns Lochmüller

Senior Scientist, CHEO Research Institute

Professor of Neurology, University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine and The Ottawa Hospital Department of Medicine

Hanns is a neurologist and clinical academic specializing in genetic neuromuscular disorders and rare disease. He is Senior Scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute. He also holds appointments as Professor of Neurology in the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Medicine, Division of Neurology at The Ottawa Hospital. He is affiliated with the University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute and Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and with the Ottawa Centre for Neuromuscular Disease.

Hanns trained as a neurologist in Munich, Germany and in Montreal, Canada. From 2007 to 2017, he held the chair of experimental myology at the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Newcastle University in the UK. He continues to hold a scientific appointment at the Department of Neuropediatrics and Muscle Disorders of the Medical Center – University of Freiburg in Germany and as visiting scientist at the Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Barcelona in Spain.

His research interests include molecular therapies of neuromuscular disorders; molecular pathogenesis of muscle and neuromuscular junction disorders; neurogenetics and translational research; data sharing and -omics in neuromuscular and rare diseases; and genomics and systems medicine. In addition to his scientific and clinical research interests, he is internationally active in rare disease science policy and research collaborations. He chaired the Interdisciplinary Scientific Committee of the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) and the Executive Committee of the TREAT-NMD Alliance. He initiated and coordinated the highly successful “RD-Connect” international infrastructure for rare disease data and biosample sharing and analysis, is co-founder and former coordinator of the German muscular dystrophy network (MD-NET), and former scientific coordinator of EuroBioBank, a European (and Canadian) network of biobanks for rare disorders.

Hanns’s clinical activities focus on clinical research and care of patients with rare neuromuscular disorders, including myotonic dystrophy (DM1), spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), muscular dystrophy and congenital myasthenic syndromes (CMS). He has a strong commitment to working with patients and patient organizations in Canada, as he has with organizations in Europe for many years.

Recent publications

Baskar, D, Reddy, N, Preethish-Kumar, V, Polavarapu, K, Nishadham, V, Vengalil, S et al.. GNE Myopathy: Genotype - Phenotype Correlation and Disease Progression in an Indian Cohort. J Neuromuscul Dis. 2024.11 (5)959-968 PMID:39213088

Roos, A, Häusler, M, Kollipara, L, Topf, A, Preusse, C, Stucka, R et al.. HNRNPA1 de novo Variant Associated with Early Childhood Onset, Rapidly Progressive Generalized Myopathy. J Neuromuscul Dis. 2024.11 (5)1131-1137 PMID:39121134

Daniel, E, Smith, IC, Ly, V, Bourque, PR, Breiner, A, Lochmuller, H et al.. Direct and indirect costs of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies in adults: A systematic review. PLoS One. 2024.19 (7)e0307144 PMID:39058702

Kastreva, K, Chamova, T, Blagoeva, S, Bichev, S, Mihaylova, V, Meyer, S et al.. Characterization of Clinical Phenotypes in Congenital Myasthenic Syndrome Associated with the c.1327delG Frameshift Mutation in CHRNE Encoding the Acetylcholine Receptor Epsilon Subunit. J Neuromuscul Dis. 2024.11 (5)1011-1020 PMID:38995797

Natera-de Benito, D, Pugliese, A, Polavarapu, K, Guergueltcheva, V, Tournev, I, Todorova, A et al.. Advancing the Understanding of Vesicle-Associated Membrane Protein 1-Related Congenital Myasthenic Syndrome: Phenotypic Insights, Favorable Response to 3,4-Diaminopyridine, and Clinical Characterization of Five New Cases. Pediatr Neurol. 2024.157 5-13 PMID:38833907

Olimpio, C, Paramonov, I, Matalonga, L, Laurie, S, Schon, K, Polavarapu, K et al.. Increased Diagnostic Yield by Reanalysis of Whole Exome Sequencing Data in Mitochondrial Disease. J Neuromuscul Dis. 2024.11 (4)767-775 PMID:38759022

Steyaert, W, Sagath, L, Demidov, G, Yépez, VA, Esteve-Codina, A, Gagneur, J et al.. Unravelling undiagnosed rare disease cases by HiFi long-read genome sequencing. medRxiv. 2024. PMID:38746462

Schirinzi, E, Bochicchio, MA, Lochmüller, H, Vissing, J, Jordie-Diaz-Manerae,, Evangelista, T et al.. E-Health & Innovation to Overcome Barriers in Neuromuscular Diseases. Report from the 3rd eNMD Congress: Pisa, Italy, 29-30 October 2021. J Neuromuscul Dis. 2024. PMID:38728200

Polavarapu, K, O'Neil, D, Thompson, R, Spendiff, S, Nandeesh, B, Vengalil, S et al.. Partial loss of desmin expression due to a leaky splice site variant in the human DES gene is associated with neuromuscular transmission defects. Neuromuscul Disord. 2024.39 10-18 PMID:38669730

Landfeldt, E, Alemán, A, Abner, S, Zhang, R, Werner, C, Tomazos, I et al.. Predictors of Loss of Ambulation in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Neuromuscul Dis. 2024.11 (3)579-612 PMID:38669554

Tawil, R, Wagner, KR, Hamel, JI, Leung, DG, Statland, JM, Wang, LH et al.. Safety and efficacy of losmapimod in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (ReDUX4): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2b trial. Lancet Neurol. 2024.23 (5)477-486 PMID:38631764

See more on PubMed

Lochmüller Lab

Hanns Lochmüller and team: research and clinical activities