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.
Schapira M, Halabelian L, Arrowsmith CH, Harding RJ
Nat Chem Biol. 2024-3-8 . .doi: 10.1038/s41589-024-01570-z
PMID: 38459278Mann MK, Wolf E, Silva M, Kwak HA, Wilson B, Bolotokova A, Wilson DJ, Harding RJ, Schapira M
ACS Omega. 2024-1-9 . 9(1):917-924 .doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c07070
PMID: 38222562Gall-Duncan T, Luo J, Jurkovic CM, Fischer LA, Fujita K, Deshmukh AL, Harding RJ, Tran S, Mehkary M, Li V, Leib DE, Chen R, Tanaka H, Mason AG, Lévesque D, Khan M, Razzaghi M, Prasolava T, Lanni S, Sato N, Caron MC, Panigrahi GB, Wang P, Lau R, Castel AL, Masson JY, Tippett L, Turner C, Spies M, La Spada AR, Campos EI, Curtis MA, Boisvert FM, Faull RLM, Davidson BL, Nakamori M, Okazawa H, Wold MS, Pearson CE
Cell. 2023-10-5 . .doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.09.008
PMID: 37827155Harding RJ, Franzoni I, Mann MK, Szewczyk MM, Mirabi B, Ferreira de Freitas R, Owens DDG, Ackloo S, Scheremetjew A, Juarez-Ornelas KA, Sanichar R, Baker RJ, Dank C, Brown PJ, Barsyte-Lovejoy D, Santhakumar V, Schapira M, Lautens M, Arrowsmith CH
J Med Chem. 2023-7-27 . .doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c00314
PMID: 37499118Harding RJ, Bermudez P, Bernier A, Beauvais M, Bellec P, Hill S, Karakuzu A, Knoppers BM, Pavlidis P, Poline JB, Roskams J, Stikov N, Stone J, Strother S, Evans AC
PLoS Comput Biol. 2023-7-27 . 19(7):e1011230 .doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011230
PMID: 37498959Alteen MG, Deme JC, Alvarez CP, Loppnau P, Hutchinson A, Seitova A, Chandrasekaran R, Silva Ramos E, Secker C, Alqazzaz M, Wanker EE, Lea SM, Arrowsmith CH, Harding RJ
Structure. 2023-6-20 . .doi: 10.1016/j.str.2023.06.002
PMID: 37390814MacDonald KM, Nicholson-Puthenveedu S, Tageldein MM, Khasnis S, Arrowsmith CH, Harding SM
Nat Commun. 2023-2-2 . 14(1):556 .doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-36195-8
PMID: 36732527Denis HL, Alpaugh M, Alvarez CP, Fenyi A, Barker RA, Chouinard S, Arrowsmith CH, Melki R, Labib R, Harding RJ, Cicchetti F
Cell Mol Life Sci. 2023-1-18 . 80(2):45 .doi: 10.1007/s00018-023-04687-x
PMID: 36651994Harding RJ, Deme JC, Hevler JF, Tamara S, Lemak A, Cantle JP, Szewczyk MM, Begeja N, Goss S, Zuo X, Loppnau P, Seitova A, Hutchinson A, Fan L, Truant R, Schapira M, Carroll JB, Heck AJR, Lea SM, Arrowsmith CH
Commun Biol. 2021-12-8 . 4(1):1374 .doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-02895-4
PMID: 34880419Mann MK, Zepeda-Velázquez CA, González-Álvarez H, Dong A, Kiyota T, Aman AM, Loppnau P, Li Y, Wilson B, Arrowsmith CH, Al-Awar R, Harding RJ, Schapira M
J Med Chem. 2021-10-14 . .doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c00889
PMID: 34648286