People
Our genetically diverse staff
Dr Javier M Di Noia (PI)
Javier obtained a Biology degree and a PhD from the University of Buenos Aires working on the genetic diversity of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. He did his post-doctoral training at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, where he learned about the mechanisms of antibody gene diversification mentored by Dr Michael Neuberger. He crossed back the Atlantic to establish his lab at the IRCM in mid 2006, where he is now professor. Javier held a Canada Research Chair in genetic diversity 2008-2018 and is currently a Merit researcher from the Fonds de recherche de Québec - Santé.
Dr Astrid Zahn (Research associate and lab manager)
Astrid was born in the city of Trelew, in Argentinean Patagonia. She obtained a B.Sc./M.Sc. in Biological sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. She then did her Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge, UK working on the hepatitis C virus. She joined the lab in 2009. Astrid manages the lab, contributes to most research lines, and drives her own project in germinal center biology.
Publications
Dolbec D, LehouxM, Asselin de Beauville A, Zahn A, Di NoiaJM#, Segura M#. Unmutated but T cell-dependent IgM antibodies targeting Streptococcus suis play an essential role in bacterial clearance. PLoS Pathog 20(1): e1011957. 2024. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011957.
Litzler LC*, Zahn A*, Dionne KL, Sprumont A, Ferreira SR, Slattery MFR, Methot SP, Patenaude AM,Hebert S, Kabir N, Subramani PG, Jung S, Richard S, Kleinman C, Di Noia JM#. Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 1 regulates B cell fate after positive selection in the germinal center in mice. J Exp. Med. 2023 Sep 4;220(9):e20220381. doi: 10.1084/jem.20220381.
Lombard-Vadnais F, Chabot-Roy F, Zahn A, Rodriguez Torres S, Di Noia JM, Melichar HJ, Lesage S. Activation-induced cytidine deaminase expression by thymic B cells promotes T-cell tolerance and limits autoimmunity, iScience, 2023; 26(1), doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105852
Zhong M-C Lu Y, Qian J, Zahn A, Di Noia JM, Atar-Karo D. King I, Veillette A#. The SLAM family of receptors promotes humoral immunity by maintaining pro-survival effectors in activated germinal center B cells.p J Exp Med. 2021 Mar 1;218(3):e20200756.
Safavi S, Larouche A, Zahn A, Patenaude A-M, Domanska D, Dionne K, Rognes T, Dingler F, Kang S-K, Liu Y, Johnson N, Hébert J, Verdun RE, Rada CA, Vega F, Nilsen H, Di Noia JM#. The uracil-DNA glycosylase UNG protects the fitness of normal and cancer B cells expressing AID. NAR Cancer, 2020, 2(3), doi.org/10.1093/narcan/zcaa019.
Litzler LC, Zahn A, Meli AP, Hébert S, Patenaude AM, Methot SP, Sprumont A, Bois T, Kitamura D, Costantino S, King IL, Kleinman CL, Richard S, Di Noia JM#. PRMT5 is essential for B cell development and germinal center dynamics. Nature Communications, 2019 Jan 3;10(1):22. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07884-6
Cortizas E*, Zahn A*, Shiva S*, Reed JA, Vega F, Di Noia JM#, Verdun RE#. UNG protects B cells from AID-induced telomere loss. J. Exp. Med. 2016, 213(11), 2459-2472.
Zahn A and Di Noia JM#. AID in Somatic Hypermutation and Class Switch Recombination. In: Ratcliffe, M.J.H. (Editor in Chief), Encyclopedia of Immunobiology, Vol. 2, pp. 115–125. Oxford: Academic Press, 2016.
Litzler LC, Methot SP, Patenaude AM, Zahn A, Di Noia JM#. Cell-based Assays to Monitor AID Activity. Bioprotocol 2016; 6(3): e1724. http://www.bio-protocol.org/e1724.
Methot SP, Litzler LC, Trajtenberg F, Zahn A, Robert F, Pelletier J, Buschiazzo A, Magor BG, Di Noia JM#. Consecutive interactions with HSP90 and eEF1A1 underlie a functional maturation and storage pathway of AID in the cytoplasm. J. Exp. Med. 2015, 212:581-596.
Montamat-Sicotte D, Litzler LC, Abreu C, Safavi S, Zahn A, Orthwein A, Müschen M, Oppezzo P, Muñoz DP, Di Noia JM#. HSP90 inhibitors decrease AID levels and activity in mice and in human cells. Eur J Immunol. 2015, 45:2365-76.
Collin R, Dugas V, Chabot-Roy G, Salem D, Zahn A, Di Noia JM, Rauch J, Lesage S. Autoimmunity and antibody affinity maturation are modulated by genetic variants on mouse chromosome 12. J Autoimmun. 2015, 58:90-9.
Zahn A*, Eranki AK*, Patenaude AM, Methot SP, Fifield H, Cortizas EM, Foster P, Imai K, Durandy A, Larijani M, Verdun RE, Di Noia JM#. Activation induced deaminase C-terminal domain links DNA breaks to end protection and repair during class switch recombination. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014, 111(11):E988-E997.
Zahn A, Daugan M, Safavi S, Godin D, Cheong C, Lamarre A, Di Noia JM#. Separation of function between isotype switching and affinity maturation in vivo and circulating autoantibodies in UNG-deficient mice. J immunol. 2013;190:5949-60.
Cortizas EC, Zahn A, Hajjar ME, Patenaude AM, Di Noia JM. Verdun RE. Alternative End Joining and Classical-NHEJ Pathways Repair Different Types of Double Strand Breaks During Class Switch Recombination. J immunol. 2013;191:5751-63.
Orthwein A, Zahn A, Methot S, Godin D, Conticello SG, Terada K and Di Noia JM#. Optimal functional levels of Activation Induced Deaminase specifically require the Hsp40 DnaJa1. EMBO J 2012; 31: 679-91.
Jana Ridani (Ph.D. student, McGill University, Department of Medicine, Division of Experimental Medicine)
After graduating from the Lebanese University in Tripoli, Lebanon with a Bachelor's degree in Life and earth sciences, Jana came back to Montréal, where she was born for graduate studies. She joined the lab in late 2018 as M.Sc. student and transitioned to Ph.D. She is investigating the regulation of AID by protein-protein interactions.
Lorenzo JP, Molla L, Amro EM, Ibarra IL, Ruf S, Neber C, Gkougkousis C, Ridani J, Subramani PG, Boulais J, Harjanto D, Vonica A, Di Noia JM, Dieterich C, Zaugg JB, Papavasiliou FN. APOBEC2 safeguards skeletal muscle cell fate through binding chromatin and regulating transcription of non-muscle genes during myoblast differentiation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 121(17):e2312330121.
Ridani J, Barbulescu P, Martin A, Di Noia JM#. Somatic Hypermutation. In Molecular Biology of B Cells, 3rd Edition - January 10, 2024, Editors: Honjo T, Reth M, Radbruch A, Alt F, Martin A
Kiersten Dionne (Ph.D. student, McGill University, Department of Microbiology and Immunology)
Kiersten comes from bilingual New Brunswick, graduating as a Bachelor on Science from University of Moncton. After a productive M.Sc. in biochemistry at the Université de Sherbrooke with Dr F Bachand, Kiersten joined us in the fall of 2018 and s now studying the role of AID in B cell biology during antibody responses.
Publications
Litzler LC*, Zahn A*, Dionne KL, Sprumont A, Ferreira SR, Slattery MFR, Methot SP, Patenaude AM,Hebert S, Kabir N, Subramani PG, Jung S, Richard S, Kleinman C, Di Noia JM#. Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 1 regulates B cell fate after positive selection in the germinal center in mice. J Exp. Med. 2023 Sep 4;220(9):e20220381. doi: 10.1084/jem.20220381
Safavi S, Larouche A, Zahn A, Patenaude A-M, Domanska D, Dionne K, Rognes T, Dingler F, Kang S-K, Liu Y, Johnson N, Hébert J, Verdun RE, Rada CA, Vega F, Nilsen H, Di Noia JM#. The uracil-DNA glycosylase UNG protects the fitness of normal and cancer B cells expressing AID. NAR Cancer, 2020, 2(3), doi.org/10.1093/narcan/zcaa019.
Noé Seija-Desivo (Ph.D. student, Molecular Biology programs, Université de Montréal)
Noé graduated from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of the Republic, in Montevideo, Uruguay. He obtained an M.Sc. investigating the effects of AID in Chronic Lymphoid Leukemia at the Institut Pasteur de Montevideo. He is now interested in the mechanisms targeting AID to the Ig genes and off-targets.
Publications
Liang Y, Wang HC, Seija N, Lin YH, Tung LT, Di Noia JM, Langlais D, Nijnik A. B-cell Intrinsic Regulation of Antibody Mediated Immunity by Histone H2A Deubiquitinase BAP1. Frontiers in immunology, 15:1353138, 2024.
Feng Y.*, Seija N.*, Di Noia JM# and Martin A# (2020) AID in Antibody Diversification: There and Back Again. Trends Immunol., 41, 586–600.
Feng Y, Li C, Stewart JA, Barbulescu P, Seija-Desivo N, Álvarez-Quilón A, Pezo RC, Perera MLW, Chan K, Tong AHY, Mohamad-Ramshan R, Berru M, Nakib D, Li G, Kardar GA, Carlyle JR, Moffat J, Durocher D, Di Noia JM, Bhagwat AS, Martin A. FAM72A antagonizes UNG2 to promote mutagenic repair during antibody maturation. Nature 2021 600(7888):324-328. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04144-4
Silvana Ferreira (Postdoctoral fellow)
Silvana is a biologist from Argentina. She received her PhD from the University of Buenos Aires, studying the effect of hormones on uterine function. She joined the lab in February 2020 to dissect signaling pathways in activated and germinal center B cells. She is now on maternity leave!
Litzler LC*, Zahn A*, Dionne KL, Sprumont A, Ferreira SR, Slattery MFR, Methot SP, Patenaude AM,Hebert S, Kabir N, Subramani PG, Jung S, Richard S, Kleinman C, Di Noia JM#. Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 1 regulates B cell fate after positive selection in the germinal center in mice. J Exp. Med. 2023 Sep 4;220(9):e20220381. doi: 10.1084/jem.20220381
Michael Slattery (M.Sc. student)
After doing a research project for the Honours program of the department of microbiology and immunology looking at the role of protein arginine methyl transferases in germinal center B cells, Michael started their M.Sc. in the same department. They are studying common aspects of germinal center B cells and B cell lymphoma cells.
Litzler LC*, Zahn A*, Dionne KL, Sprumont A, Ferreira SR, Slattery MFR, Methot SP, Patenaude AM,Hebert S, Kabir N, Subramani PG, Jung S, Richard S, Kleinman C, Di Noia JM#. Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 1 regulates B cell fate after positive selection in the germinal center in mice. J Exp. Med. 2023 Sep 4;220(9):e20220381. doi: 10.1084/jem.20220381
Marcelo M Rodriguez (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Marcelo has a degree in genetics from the National University of Misiones, and a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from Austral University, in Argentina working on different aspects of cancer. Marcelo is studying how deaminases influence cancer cell biology.
Johanna Guerry (Ph.D.)
After doing pharmacy studies, Johanna did a research-oriented master's degree in "pharmaceutical biotechnology" and joined the Ecole Supérieure de Biotechnologie de Strasbourg. She graduate with a Doctorate in Pharmacy, Masters in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, and Biotechnology Engineer and joined us in January 2023 to study deaminases.
Kíra Haefner (Ph.D.)
Kíra graduated from Friedrich Schiller University, in Jena, Germany. She did a dual M.Sc. at FSU and the joint IRCM / U de Montreal MCM program in 2023. She came back to study mechanisms of diverisification of antibodies in January 2024.
