Michel Cayouette, Ph.D.

Michel Cayouette is Assocaite Researcher at Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montréal. He direct the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory located at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal.

CONTACT

Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal
110 Pine Avenue West
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H2W 1R7

Phone : 514-987-5757
Fax : 514-987-5761
Email :michel.cayouette@ircm.qc.ca

SUMMARY OF RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

The brain is a complex organ containing hundreds of different cell types that originate from neural stem cells, which initially all look alike. How is such enormous cell diversity achieved? Stem cells have to make important decisions such as to proliferate or to stop proliferating, to die or to stay alive and to become a certain cell type rather than another. Proper coordination and control of such decisions have a direct influence on the generation of the myriad of cell types that ultimately make up a fully functional brain. The major research interest of the Cellular Neurobiology Unit is to uncover the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie this cell diversification process. Because of its simplicity and accessibility, we use the retina as a model system to address this problem. Some of the projects in the laboratory are designed to identify and characterize the genetic developmental programs that control the production of the different cell types in the retina. We are also interested in identifying the molecular mechanisms responsible for the establishment of cell polarity in retinal stem cells, which plays an important part in creating asymmetric cell divisions that give rise to two daughter cells of different types. The understanding of these mechanisms is a critical first step towards using neural stem cells as a source of new cells to replace those lost after neural injury or neurodegenerative diseases such as, for example, Parkinson, Alzheimer and various retinopathies.

STUDIED DISEASES

Retinitis pigmentosa : Mechanisms of photoreceptor cell differentiation and survival Macular degeneration :

Mechanisms of photoreceptor cell differentiation and survival Glaucoma :

Mecanisms of axonal specification and elongation

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

M. Cayouette, D. Behn, M. Sendtner, P. Lachapelle and C. Gravel (1998). Intraocular gene transfer of ciliary neurotrophic factor prevents death and increases responsiveness of rod photoreceptors in the retinal degeneration slow mouse. J. Neurosci., 18: 9282-9293.

M. Cayouette, A.V. Whitmore, G. Jeffery and M. Raff (2001). Asymmetric segregation of Numb in retinal development and the influence of the pigmented epithelium. J. Neurosci., 21(15):5643-5651. [Highlighted in Nature Rev. Neurosci. (2001), vol 2: p.609].

M. Cayouette and M. Raff (2002). Asymmetric segregation of Numb: a mechanism for neural specification from Drosophila to mammals. Nat. Neurosci., 5 (12): 1265–1269.

T. Das, B. Payer, M. Cayouette and W. A. Harris (2003). In vivo time-lapse imaging of cell divisions during neurogenesis in the developing zebrafish retina. Neuron, 37(4): 597-609.

M. Cayouette and M. Raff (2003). The orientation of cell division influences cell-fate choice in the developing mammalian retina. Development, 130 (11):2329-2339.

M. Cayouette, B.A. Barres and M. Raff (2003). Importance of intrinsic mechanisms in cell-fate decisions in the developing rat retina. Neuron, 40 (5): 897-904.

M. Zigman*, M. Cayouette*, C. Charalambous, A. Schleiffer, O. Hoeller, D. Dunican, C. R. McCudden, N. Firnberg, B. A. Barres, D. P. Siderovski and J. A. Knoblich (2005). Mammalian Inscuteable regulates spindle orientation and cell fate in the developing retina. Neuron, 48 (4): 539-545. *equal contribution

M. Cayouette*, L. Poggi, and W. A. Harris*. Lineage in the vertebrate retina. (2006) Trends in Neurosci., 29 (10): 563-570. * Corresponding authors

J. Elliott, M. Cayouette* and C. Gravel (2006). The CNTF/LIF signaling pathway regulates developmental programmed cell death and differentiation of rod precursor cells in the mouse retina in vivo. Dev. Biol. 300 (2): 583-598. * corresponding author.

J. R. Chan, C. Jolicoeur, J. Yamauchi, J. Elliott, J. P. Fawcett, B. K. Ng, and M. Cayouette. The Polarity Protein Par-3 Directly Interacts with p75NTR to Regulate Myelination (2006). Science, 314: 832-836. [News and Views in: Nat Neurosci. 2007;10(1):17-18].

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