Principal Investigator

Lea Harrington

Telomere Length Homeostasis and Genomic Instability

Lea Harrington established her laboratory in 1995, and after obtaining a professorship at the University of Toronto and subsequently at the University of Edinburgh in the field of telomere and genomic instability, she was recruited to the Université de Montréal as a professor in the Faculty of Medicine.

For her contributions to cancer research, Dr. Harrington has received a Terry Fox Young Investigator Award and an International Scholar Award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Since 2017, she has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Basic Science of Oncology Clinical Teaching Manual, 6th Edition (McGraw-Hill) and Co-Chair of the Medical Review Panel for the Gairdner Foundation.

Principal Investigator, Telomere Length Homeostasis and Genomic Instability Research Unit, IRIC

Professor, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal

Visiting Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh

Phone (office)
(514) 343-6111, ext. 6729
Email
lea.harrington@umontreal.ca
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Telomere Length Homeostasis and Genomic Instability

Lea Harrington’s team seeks to demystify the mechanisms underlying telomere maintenance and fidelity. It is particularly interested in the enzyme called telomerase (TERT: telomerase reverse transcriptase), and its dosage sensitivity to factors that act to protect telomeres and genome integrity.

Research topics

Publications

  • May 28, 2019

    Petite Integration Factor 1 (PIF1) helicase deficiency increases weight gain in Western diet-fed female mice without increased inflammatory markers or decreased glucose clearance.

    Belmonte FR, Dedousis N, Sipula I, Desai NA, Singhi AD, Chu Y, Zhang Y, Bannwarth S, Paquis-Flucklinger V, Harrington L, Shiva S, Jurczak MJ, O’Doherty RM, Kaufman BA
    PLoS ONE 2019-05-28 ;14( 5 ):e0203101.

  • March 5, 2018

    In medio stat virtus : unanticipated consequences of telomere dysequilibrium.

    Harrington L, Pucci F
    Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 2018-03-05 ;373( 1741 ):.

  • March 5, 2018

    Understanding diversity in telomere dynamics.

    Monaghan P, Eisenberg DTA, Harrington L, Nussey D
    Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 2018-03-05 ;373( 1741 ):.

  • July 19, 2017

    Mammographic density, blood telomere length and lipid peroxidation.

    Erdmann NJ, Harrington LA, Martin LJ
    Sci Rep 2017-07-19 ;7( 1 ):5803.

  • June 13, 2016

    Inhibition of Dopamine Receptor D4 Impedes Autophagic Flux, Proliferation, and Survival of Glioblastoma Stem Cells.

    Dolma S, Selvadurai HJ, Lan X, Lee L, Kushida M, Voisin V, Whetstone H, So M, Aviv T, Park N, Zhu X, Xu C, Head R, Rowland KJ, Bernstein M, Clarke ID, Bader G, Harrington L, Brumell JH, Tyers M, Dirks PB
    Cancer Cell 2016-06-13 ;29( 6 ):859-73.

  • May 26, 2016

    Rapid Discovery and Structure-Activity Relationships of Pyrazolopyrimidines That Potently Suppress Breast Cancer Cell Growth via SRC Kinase Inhibition with Exceptional Selectivity over ABL Kinase.

    Fraser C, Dawson JC, Dowling R, Houston DR, Weiss JT, Munro AF, Muir M, Harrington L, Webster SP, Frame MC, Brunton VG, Patton EE, Carragher NO, Unciti-Broceta A
    J. Med. Chem. 2016-05-26 ;59( 10 ):4697-710.

  • February 23, 2016

    Inactivation of Pif1 helicase causes a mitochondrial myopathy in mice.

    Bannwarth S, Berg-Alonso L, Augé G, Fragaki K, Kolesar JE, Lespinasse F, Lacas-Gervais S, Burel-Vandenbos F, Villa E, Belmonte F, Michiels JF, Ricci JE, Gherardi R, Harrington L, Kaufman BA, Paquis-Flucklinger V
    Mitochondrion 2016-02-23 ;.

  • February 1, 2016

    Lifelong leukocyte telomere dynamics and survival in a free-living mammal.

    Fairlie J, Holland R, Pilkington JG, Pemberton JM, Harrington L, Nussey DH
    Aging Cell 2016-02-01 ;15( 1 ):140-8.

  • December 11, 2015

    The lighthouse at the end of the chromosome.

    Benslimane Y, Harrington L
    F1000Res 2015-12-11 ;4:.

  • February 27, 2015

    Defective repair of uracil causes telomere defects in mouse hematopoietic cells.

    Vallabhaneni H, Zhou F, Maul RW, Sarkar J, Yin J, Lei M, Harrington L, Gearhart PJ, Liu Y
    J. Biol. Chem. 2015-02-27 ;290( 9 ):5502-11.

  • See all publications

Awards and distinctions

  • Personal Chair in Telomere Biology, University of Edinburgh, 2009

  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Scholar Award, 2007

  • Terry Fox Young Investigator Award, 2001