Dr Jean-François Trempe obtained a D.Phil. in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford in 2007. His postdoctoral years were spent at McGill University in the department of Biochemistry (2007-2010) and at the Montreal Neurological Institute (2010-2013). He joined McGill’s Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics in August 2013. He holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Structural Pharmacology and has received the New Investigator Award from Parkinson Canada in 2014. His goal is to elucidate the function of proteins implicated in Parkinson’s disease through 3D structure determination and proteomics. He has notably solved the structures of Parkin and PINK1, two proteins implicated in a mitochondrial quality control pathway. These structures will pave the way to the development of therapeutics aimed at Parkinson’s disease. Dr Trempe is on the executive committee of the FRQS-funded Centre de Recherche en Biologie Structurale at McGill. Since 2020, he is the Director of the Proteomics platform at the RI-MUHC. His research program is supported by NSERC, CIHR, CFI, the Michael J Fox Foundation and the Agora Trust.
My research interests are in the structure and function of proteins implicated in Parkinson’s disease, Parkin and PINK1 in particular. These proteins have been shown to mediate neuroprotection and mitochondrial maintenance through their enzymatic activities and post-translational modifications (PTMs): Parkin is an E3 ubiquitin ligase and PINK1 is a Ser/Thr kinase. My goals are to: 1) elucidate the composition and 3D structure of molecular complexes formed by Parkin and PINK1 on mitochondria, 2) develop novel therapies for PD based on these structures. My group will use the full range of structural biology tools available at McGill, such as X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, SAXS, electron microscopy and mass spectrometry, in order to obtain the most complete and highest resolution picture of complexes formed by PINK1 and Parkin. These structures will inform us on how these enzymes become active and modify their substrates, and will guide the development of novel pharmacological targets.
Sauvé V, Stefan E, Croteau N, Goiran T, Fakih R, Bansal N, Hadzipasic A, Fang J, Murugan P, Chen S, Fon EA, Hirst WD, Silvian LF, Trempe JF, Gehring K
Nat Commun. 2024-9-20 . 15(1):7707 .doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-51889-3
PMID: 39300082Eldeeb MA, Fallahi A, Soumbasis A, Bayne AN, Trempe JF, Fon EA
Autophagy. 2024-4-10 . .doi: 10.1080/15548627.2024.2340399
PMID: 38597070Rasool S, Shomali T, Truong L, Croteau N, Veyron S, Bustillos BA, Springer W, Fiesel FC, Trempe JF
Sci Rep. 2024-4-2 . 14(1):7739 .doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-58285-3
PMID: 38565869Eldeeb MA, Bayne AN, Fallahi A, Goiran T, MacDougall EJ, Soumbasis A, Zorca CE, Tabah JJ, Thomas RA, Karpilovsky N, Mathur M, Durcan TM, Trempe JF, Fon EA
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024-3-5 . 121(10):e2313540121 .doi: 10.1073/pnas.2313540121
PMID: 38416681