Dr. Rachel Harding is an Assistant Professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto and a Principal Investigator at the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) at University Health Network (UHN). She is cross-appointed to the University of Toronto Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and is an Affiliate Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Dr. Harding completed her undergraduate degree (MBiochem) and DPhil at the University of Oxford, where she trained with Dr. Susan Lea, before moving to Toronto for postdoctoral research with Dr. Cheryl Arrowsmith at the SGC. Her postdoctoral work focused on the structure-function of Huntingtin, the protein mutated in Huntington’s disease, supported by a Huntington’s Disease Society of America Berman-Topper Family Career Development Fellowship. Dr. Harding has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and, as an independent investigator, has secured more than $6 million CAD in research funding as Principal Investigator. Her research contributions have been recognised through several awards and honours, including the 2024 Hereditary Disease Foundation Nancy S. Wexler Young Investigator Prize and the 2025 Huntington Society of Canada Michael Wright Community Leadership Award.
The Harding laboratory uses structural biology, protein biochemistry, biophysics and chemical biology to investigate challenging and understudied areas of human biology and disease, particularly where limited molecular understanding or a lack of high-quality chemical tools has constrained therapeutic discovery. The group combines mechanistic studies with ligand discovery and chemical tool development to understand protein function and identify new opportunities for therapeutic intervention. A major focus of the laboratory is repeat expansion disorders, including Huntington’s disease and other polyglutamine diseases. The team studies how disease-associated mutations alter protein structure, interactions, dynamics and biomolecular condensation, and develops chemical tools to interrogate these processes. The laboratory also works on emerging therapeutic targets beyond neurodegeneration, including targets for non-hormonal contraception. Across these research areas, the group aims to develop robust molecular understanding, high-quality chemical tools and openly available datasets and reagents that enable both fundamental discovery and early-stage drug development.
Harding 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: 34648286Szewczyk MM, Ishikawa Y, Organ S, Sakai N, Li F, Halabelian L, Ackloo S, Couzens AL, Eram M, Dilworth D, Fukushi H, Harding R, Dela Seña CC, Sugo T, Hayashi K, McLeod D, Zepeda C, Aman A, Sánchez-Osuna M, Bonneil E, Takagi S, Al-Awar R, Tyers M, Richard S, Takizawa M, Gingras AC, Arrowsmith CH, Vedadi M, Brown PJ, Nara H, Barsyte-Lovejoy D
Nat Commun. 2020-5-14 . 11(1):2396 .doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16271-z
PMID: 32409666Mann MK, Franzoni I, de Freitas RF, Tempel W, Houliston S, Smith L, Vedadi M, Arrowsmith CH, Harding RJ, Schapira M
J. Med. Chem.. 2019-10-30 . .doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b00988
PMID: 31663737Schapira M, Harding RJ
F1000Res. 2019-8-27 . 8:87 .doi: 10.12688/f1000research.17710.1
PMID: 31448096