Lochmüller Lab

Service de Neurologie - Pathologies Neuromusculaires, Hôpital Neurologique Pierre Wertheimer, Hospices Civils de Lyon

Institut Neuromyogène, Laboratoire Physiopathologie et Génétique du Neurone et du Muscle (PGNM)

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Dr Lola Lessard has been a neurology resident physician at Hospices Civils de Lyon, France since 2015 and is currently finishing her residency training at the Neuromuscular Center of Ottawa (Dr Jodi Warman-Chardon). She has been involved with the neuromuscular community from the bedside to the bench for the past seven years.  

She completed the “Myology” and “Peripheral Neuropathies” inter-university diplomas at Paris Universities. In addition to her neurology clinician training, she trained for 6 months under the supervision of Dr Nathalie Streichenberger in the Department of Neuromuscular Pathology. Under the supervision of Dr Laure Gallay (INMG, Hospices Civils de Lyon) she conducted several clinical and histopathological works in the field of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. 

She validated the Master 2 Recherche “Pathophysiology of neuromuscular disorders” and performed her master 2 training in the team of Pr. Laurent Schaeffer at the Neuromyogène Institute, Lyon, investing the role of TGFβ signaling on neuromuscular junctions and skeletal muscle atrophy in a transgenic murine model. She completed her MD thesis performing morphological characterization of neuromuscular junctions in patients with mitochondrial disorders. 

Thanks to a 3-year funding from the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale, Lola Lessard completed her PhD in 2024, under the supervision of Dr. Rémi Mounier and Dr Laure Gallay at the NeuroMyoGene Institute. The aim of Lola’s thesis was to study the role of the metabolic sensor and regulator AMPK in the fate of skeletal muscle stem cells of patients with Type I Myotonic Dystrophy. During her PhD, she aimed to develop metabolic biosensors and innovating tools to assess muscle stem cell metabolic flexibility. 

Lola is interested in fundamental, translational and clinical research on rare neuromuscular disorders, and has joined the Lochmüller Lab to contribute to the clinical research aspect of the research program.

Research Interests:

Myopathies; neuromuscular disorders; neuromuscular junctions; type 1 myotonic dystrophy; mitochondrial disorders; idiopathic inflammatory myopathies; histopathology; myogenesis; muscle stem cells; mitochondria; metabolism; AMPK; biosensors; cell signaling.