Dr. Harding is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy, is a Principal Investigator at the Structural Genomics Consortium and is also cross-appointed to the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, all at the University of Toronto. Dr. Harding completed both her undergraduate (MBiochem) and graduate (DPhil) studies at the University of Oxford, the latter training in the lab of Dr. Susan Lea. Dr. Harding moved to the University of Toronto for her postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Cheryl Arrowsmith. Dr. Harding was awarded the prestigious Huntington’s Disease Society of America Berman-Topper Family Career Development Fellowship for her research on the structure-function of the Huntington’s disease protein, huntingtin, work that has continued into her independent research career. Her contributions to the field of Huntington’s were further recognised with her award of the 2024 Nancy Wexler Young Investigator Prize, an honour bestowed upon a researcher whose work reflects the highest calibre of excellence, diligence and creative thinking.
Dr. Harding's team uses structural biology, protein biochemistry and chemical biology to study the molecular mechanisms of pathology of repeat expansion disorders, with a primary focus on Huntington’s disease. Huntington’s is a devastating, incurable, genetic, neurodegenerative disease caused by a CAG-tract expansion in the Huntingtin gene. The group is concentrated on three key areas: 1) defining the structure-function relationship of the Huntington’s disease protein, huntingtin, and how this is altered by the disease-causing mutation; 2) molecular mechanisms of repeat expansion disorders like Huntington’s; and 3) development of chemical tools targeting understudied proteins and targets of interest for Huntington’s disease drug discovery.
Baker DA, Stewart LB, Large JM, Bowyer PW, Ansell KH, Jiménez-Díaz MB, El Bakkouri M, Birchall K, Dechering KJ, Bouloc NS, Coombs PJ, Whalley D, Harding DJ, Smiljanic-Hurley E, Wheldon MC, Walker EM, Dessens JT, Lafuente MJ, Sanz LM, Gamo FJ, Ferrer SB, Hui R, Bousema T, Angulo-Barturén I, Merritt AT, Croft SL, Gutteridge WE, Kettleborough CA, Osborne SA
Nat Commun. 2017-9-5 . 8(1):430 .doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00572-x
PMID: 28874661Zhang Q, Wang Z, Hou F, Harding R, Huang X, Dong A, Walker JR, Tong Y
Biochim. Biophys. Acta. 2016-10-21 . .doi: 10.1016/j.bbagen.2016.10.019
PMID: 27776223Zhang Q, Harding R, Hou F, Dong A, Walker JR, Bteich J, Tong Y
J. Biol. Chem.. 2016-6-2 . .doi: 10.1074/jbc.M116.740787
PMID: 27255711