Our new publication improving on our methods to expand muscle stem cells ex vivo is published online at Regenerative Medicine Frontiers. Ex vivo expansion of adult stem cells have implications for cell based therapies, tissue modelling, screening compounds and genome editing.

We have a post-doctoral fellow position available in our laboratory to study molecular mechanisms underlying cell fate decisions between cardiovascular lineage and head muscle lineage in the developing embryo. This is an exciting opportunity that will take advantage of state of the art technologies in proteomics, genomics, genetics and pluripotent stem cells. Interested candidates should send a CV, names and contact information for 3 references and PDF copies of your recent publications.

We are delighted to have been awarded the ‘Programme bilatéral de recherche collaborative Québec – Communauté française de Belgique‘ 3-year research grant. We will collaborate with Professor Guillaume Bourque (Genome Quebec, McGill University) and Professor Cédric Blanpain (Université Libre de Bruxelles) to better understand how multipotent progenitors choose between cardiovascular lineages (Blanpain group) and head muscle lineages (Crist group) in the developing mouse embryo and in pluripotent mouse embryonic stem cells. Implications for both the natural and health sciences! Positions available, please contact me for information.

Congratulations to Dr. Ryo Fujita, PDF, who has won a Lucie B. Bessner travel award from the McGill Regenerative Medicine Network. Ryo will be attending the Frontiers in Myogenesis Meeting in Costa Rica this September! Bravo Ryo!

Congratulations to our collaborators Andrew Brack and Annarita Scaramozza for their new publication appearing in Cell Stem Cell. In collaboration with the Brack lab, we help show the importance of PAX3 in defining a population of radiotolerant MuSCs.

Undergraduate research projects (3 credits) offered at McGill University are a really good introduction to research and a first opportunity to investigate science as a career! This semester we welcome McGill student Micheline Mentzner, who will help us finish a screen of small compounds for properties of muscle stem cell expansion.

We are very pleased that Rose Rodrigues joins our laboratory today. Rose is a UBC Coop student who is taking a break from coursework to work with us in 2019. Welcome to the lab Rose, best wishes for your very first job in science!

We are currently recruiting two graduate students to lead projects related to specification of muscle stem cells during development and maintenance of adult muscle stem cells throughout life. To apply, please send your CV, unofficial transcripts and contact information for two to three references.