Annual NMD4C Early Career Awards
This annual award program provides three awards, celebrating excellence and contribution to the neuromuscular field by early career neuromuscular investigators across both clinical and basic science streams.
By creating these awards, the NMD4C provides a method of recognizing outstanding achievement by early career neuromuscular researchers and clinicians on behalf of the Canadian neuromuscular community. Recipients receive a tangible accolade to bolster their academic CVs in pursuit of future academic appointments and grant applications. This award program is a part of the network's broader strategy to provide support for Canadian early-career neuromuscular investigators.
Dr. Natasha Chang
Assistant Professor, McGill University and NMD4C Steering Committee Investigator
Early career investigators are at a stage in their careers where finding the funding and academic appointments to continue their research programs and clinical work is integral to their career progression in the field of neuromuscular care and research. These applications are highly competitive, and it is our hope that receiving an NMD4C award can help support and strengthen these applications to secure critical research funding and academic appointments.
Award Categories
The three categories included in the competition are:
- Early Career Biomedical Researcher of the Year
- Early Career Clinical Researcher of the Year
- Publication of the Year
2024 Award Recipients
Early Career Biomedical Researcher of the Year
Dr. Mireille Khacho
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa
Dr. Mireille Khacho is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Ottawa, whose research focuses on the role of mitochondrial function and dynamics in key cellular processes that regulate stem cell function in tissue homeostasis, elucidate the fundamental behavior of mitochondria in muscle stem cells, and the underlying role of mitochondrial dysfunction in degenerative disorders.
As an Early Career Researcher, Dr. Khacho has established herself as an emerging international leader in neuromuscular research while holding a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Mitochondrial Dynamics and Regenerative Medicine. Her excellence and impact have been recognized through attracting over $2.7 million in peer-reviewed funding, publishing as lead or corresponding author in prestigious journals such as Cell Stem Cell, and obtaining significant recognitions including the J.P. Bickell Award and the Stem Cell Network Young Investigator Award.
Since 2018, Dr. Khacho has published 13 articles and invited reviews in peer-reviewed journals, and her outreach and knowledge mobilization efforts are evidenced by having presented at 38 international and national conferences. She is a dedicated mentor and champion for the next generation of researchers, having mentored a total of 37 trainees who have been highly successful in securing numerous scholarships, fellowships, and recognition with numerous abstract and presentation awards.
Major Achievements
Dr. Khacho uncovered that mitochondrial dynamics play an instructive role in the regulation of adult muscle stem cell quiescence and their ability to activate, upon muscle injury or damage, to commence the process of muscle regeneration. Her work showed that dysregulation of mitochondrial dynamics causes severe defects in adult muscle stem cells and completely impairs muscle regeneration. The importance of this work is underscored by the fact that it was featured on the cover of Cell Stem Cell and highlighted in a Preview in Cell Stem Cell.
Dr. Khacho uncovered a novel and fundamental role for mitochondrial dynamics in the regulation of stem cell metabolism, self-renewal capacity and fate decisions. This Cell Stem Cell publication was the first to reveal that mitochondria in stem cells can communicate with the nucleus to control gene expression, thereby regulating the expression of key genes that modulate cell fate decisions. This research also demonstrated that dysregulated mitochondrial dynamics and function has a profound impact on stem cells and the differentiation process during development and in adult tissue regeneration. This work has important implications for aging and regenerative medicine and was recommended by Faculty of 1000 as being of special significance in its field
Dr. Khacho demonstrated that dysregulated mitochondrial function and dynamics has a profound impact on stem cells during development and in adult tissue regulation. She showed for the first time that loss of proper mitochondrial function in neural stem cells, either during development or in an adult context, is an etiological factor leading to neurodevelopmental defects and cognitive dysfunction. Within the context of neural stem cells, her work uncovered that cognitive decline during aging or in neurodegenerative disease may be due to dysfunctional mitochondria in the neural stem cell pool. These findings have major implications in understanding not only aging and degenerative diseases but also the basic mechanisms of adult stem cell maintenance.
Early Career Publication of the Year
Dr. Jean-Philippe Leduc Gaudet
Assistant Professor in the Medical Biology Department at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
MYTHO is a novel regulator of skeletal muscle autophagy and integrity, published in the journal Nature Communications.
Dr. Jean-Philippe Leduc Gaudet is an Assistant Professor in the Medical Biology Department at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), establishing his new laboratory there since June 2023. Dr. Leduc Gaudet completed his BSc and MSc in Kinesiology at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) before going on to complete PhD studies in Experimental Medicine at McGill University, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Veneto Institute of Molecular Medicine and at the RI-MUHC. Dr. Leduc Gaudet’s research is focused on the various signaling pathways that control protein breakdown and protein synthesis, with a particular emphasis on the discovery and characterization of novel genes that are involved in muscular diseases. Dr. Leduc Gaudet’s publication was featured on the Nature Communications Editors’ Highlights webpage, and he was recently invited to publish a highlight of this work in the prestigious journal Autophagy.
Paper Highlights
The results of the publication “MYTHO is a novel regulator of skeletal muscle autophagy and integrity” suggests that dysregulation of Mytho expression may contribute to human muscular diseases, opening new paths to understanding the fundamental importance of proteolytic signaling in regulating skeletal muscle health.
Autophagy is a multistep process responsible for the removal and recycling of superfluous or dysfunctional cell components, and it is essential for regulating skeletal muscle health. Emerging evidence shows that when autophagy is not functioning properly due to physiopathological conditions, such as neuromuscular diseases, skeletal muscle will develop weakness, atrophy, degeneration, and fibrosis. Despite the significant progress made by scientists in quantifying the functional importance of autophagy in the regulation of skeletal muscle mass and function, important gaps remain in understanding the molecular machinery that regulates autophagy in skeletal muscles.
This paper identifies a novel FoxO-dependent Riken gene, d230025d16Rik, named Macroautophagy and YouTH Optimizer (MYTHO). The authors demonstrate that Mytho is a critical regulator of autophagy and skeletal muscle integrity in vivo, and that its knockdown protects against muscle atrophy in a wide range of acute catabolic conditions. Prolonged silencing, however, causes severe myopathy. In other experiments, the paper highlights that muscle biopsy samples of human patients diagnosed with myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) display reduced Mytho expression, activation of the mTORC1 signaling pathway and impaired autophagy.
Eligibility Criteria
Researcher of the year award stream
- Early-career status: within five years of the date of their first independent research-related appointment (the eligibility window will be adjusted to take into account eligible leaves, as define by CIHR).
- Member of NMD4C
- Self-nominations are accepted
- Previous award recipients are ineligible
Publication of the year award stream
- Early-career status: within five years of the date of their first independent research-related appointment (the eligibility window will be adjusted to take into account eligible leaves, as define by CIHR).
- Member of NMD4C
- Self-nominations are accepted
- Previous award recipients are ineligible
- Article published in the preceding year (November 2022 - present)
- First or last author of the article
Nomination Procedure
Researcher of the year award streams
If you wish to nominate yourself or an individual for this award, please complete this nomination form (please ensure all of the selection criteria have been addressed). You will need:
- The nominee’s contact information.
- The nominee’s biosketch (NIH OR CIHR format; 4-5 pages).
- Up to three research milestones of the nominee.
- A brief paragraph highlighting the achievements of the individual, and why you think they should receive the award.
Publication of the year award streams
To nominate yourself or an individual for this award, please complete this nomination form (please ensure all of the selection criteria have been addressed). You will require:
- The nominee’s contact information.
- The nominee’s biosketch (NIH OR CIHR format; 4-5 pages).
- Up to three research milestones of the nominee.
- A brief paragraph highlighting the achievements of the individual, and why you think they should receive the award.
- A PDF copy of the full publication you wish to nominate.
Selection Criteria
Researcher of the year award streams
Nominations will be evaluated by NMD4C’s Early-Career committee using the following selection criteria:
- Research excellence (impact, originality, productivity).
- Research collaborations/ partnerships.
- Outreach and knowledge mobilization.
- Trainee Mentorship/ supervision.
- Open science.
- Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Indigeneity (EDII).
Publication of the year award streams
Nominations will be evaluated by NMD4C’s Early-Career committee according to the following selection criteria:
- Impact on the field.
- Quality of work.
- Originality/uniqueness.
- Open science.
Deadline
The nomination deadline for the 2024 awards cycle is the January 15th, 2024. Applicants will be notified of outcomes in February 2024. Award recipients will be honoured at the NMD4C annual meeting.