Full professor
Department of Pediatrics
Faculty of Medicine

Sabine Elowe completed her doctoral studies at the University of Toronto in 2005, mentored by Tony Pawson, a globally recognized authority in signal transduction mechanisms. Her thesis work focused on understanding the wiring of signaling pathways downstream of EphRs, the largest family of receptor tyrosine kinases implicated in numerous developmental processes and adult tissue homeostasis, with implications in various diseases, notably cancer. Subsequently, she pursued her postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich, Germany, from 2005 to 2009, under the guidance of Erich Nigg, focusing on deciphering signaling mechanisms during mitosis. Her work during this period, particularly on mitotic kinases, yielded significant insights into their substrates and regulatory mechanisms. In 2010, she embarked on her independent research journey at Université Laval and the CHU de Quebec, where she established an independent research program investigating mitotic signaling mechanisms. Employing a multidisciplinary collaborative approach, her laboratory addresses fundamental questions concerning the role of proper mitotic signaling in maintaining genome integrity.

Maintaining Genome integrity during cell division

Aneuploidy is a pathological condition defined by an aberrant number of chromosomes. Dr. Elowe’s lab is interested in the characterization of signaling pathways and molecular mechanisms of action that ensure the precision of cell division, and thus the prevention of aneuploidy and maintaining genome integrity. Specifically, research in the lab is focused on a highly conserved group of kinases known as the “Spindle Assembly Checkpoint” or “SAC” kinases, which collectively provide normal cell division by two distinct mechanisms: 1) ensuring the attachment of the chromosome to the cell division apparatus and 2) delaying the division process until all elements of the division system are in position. The lab’s research focuses on the following questions:

  • What are the mechanisms of activation and inactivation of SAC kinases?
  • What are the endogenous substrates of SAC kinases?
  • Is SAC differentially regulated in cell lines with chromosomal instability?
  • How does aneuploidy contribute to cancer?

These questions are answered using a multidisciplinary approach to identify the signaling pathways involved, including advanced molecular biology and biochemistry approaches, proteomics, indirect immunofluorescence, and high-resolution video microscopy, to name a few.