Natasha Chang
Working Group Member
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, McGill University
NMD4C Involvement: Pillar 1: Preclinical Science, Theme 1: Early-Career, Theme 5: Open Science
Email NatashaResearch Interests: Muscle stem cells, Muscle regeneration, Myogenesis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy
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Biography
Dr. Natasha Chang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at McGill University. She obtained her PhD with Dr. Gordon Shore at McGill University studying BCL-2 family proteins and their role in regulating the cell survival autophagy pathway. Her studies highlighted a critical role for basal autophagy in the maintenance of skeletal muscle homeostasis. Dr. Chang performed her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Rudnicki at the Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. During her postdoctoral fellowship she made seminal contributions establishing the role of the dystrophin glycoprotein complex in regulating muscle stem cell fate. Importantly, she demonstrated that dystrophin deficiency in muscle stem cells leads to altered epigenetic gene regulation in the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Dr. Chang’s research program at McGill investigates the molecular regulation of muscle stem cell biology in healthy and degenerative contexts with a focus on how cellular autophagy mediates muscle stem cell functions.
Read Dr. Chang’s Early Career Blog here!
Recent Publications
Robertson, R, Li, S, Filippelli, RL, Chang, NC. Muscle stem cell dysfunction in rhabdomyosarcoma and muscular dystrophy. Curr Top Dev Biol. 2024.158 83-121 PMID:38670717
VanGenderen, CA, Granet, JA, Filippelli, RL, Liu, Y, Chang, NC. Modulating Myogenesis: An Optimized In Vitro Assay to Pharmacologically Influence Primary Myoblast Differentiation. Curr Protoc. 2022.2 (9)e565 PMID:36165685
Filippelli, RL, Kamyabiazar, S, Chang, NC. Monitoring Autophagy in Neural Stem and Progenitor Cells. Methods Mol Biol. 2022.2515 99-116 PMID:35776348
Filippelli, RL, Omer, A, Li, S, van Oostende-Triplet, C, Gallouzi, IE, Chang, NC et al.. Automated Quantification of Subcellular Particles in Myogenic Progenitors. Curr Protoc. 2021.1 (12)e325 PMID:34879178
Filippelli, RL, Chang, NC. Empowering Muscle Stem Cells for the Treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Cells Tissues Organs. 2022.211 (6)641-654 PMID:33910206
Chang, NC. Autophagy and Stem Cells: Self-Eating for Self-Renewal. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2020.8 138 PMID:32195258
Chang, NC, Sincennes, MC, Chevalier, FP, Brun, CE, Lacaria, M, Segalés, J et al.. The Dystrophin Glycoprotein Complex Regulates the Epigenetic Activation of Muscle Stem Cell Commitment. Cell Stem Cell. 2018.22 (5)755-768.e6 PMID:29681515
Pasut, A, Chang, NC, Gurriaran-Rodriguez, U, Faulkes, S, Yin, H, Lacaria, M et al.. Notch Signaling Rescues Loss of Satellite Cells Lacking Pax7 and Promotes Brown Adipogenic Differentiation. Cell Rep. 2016.16 (2)333-343 PMID:27346341
Chang, NC, Chevalier, FP, Rudnicki, MA. Satellite Cells in Muscular Dystrophy - Lost in Polarity. Trends Mol Med. 2016.22 (6)479-496 PMID:27161598
Jahani-Asl, A, Yin, H, Soleimani, VD, Haque, T, Luchman, HA, Chang, NC et al.. Control of glioblastoma tumorigenesis by feed-forward cytokine signaling. Nat Neurosci. 2016.19 (6)798-806 PMID:27110918
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