Dept of Cellular and Physiological Sciences - Christopher Brett, PhD

Hosted by Drs. Elizabeth Conibear and Susanne Clee

Dr. Christopher Brett is an Associate Professor of Biology and Co-Director of the Centre for Microscopy and Cell Imaging at Concorida University in Montreal. Prior to establishing his own research group as a Canada Research Chair in 2010, he studied Rab-GTPase function and organelle membrane fusion in Dr. Alexey Merz’s laboratory at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Brett earned his Ph.D. in 2005 at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore under the supervision of Drs. Rajini Rao and Mark Donowitz where he studied the cellular physiology of endosomal sodium hydrogen exchangers. He is a Vancouver native and earned his B.Sc. (1996) and M.Sc.(1999) in Physiology at UBC working in Dr. John Church’s laboratory where he studied pH signaling in neural cells. Recently, Dr. Brett’s group discovered a new cellular pathway responsible for degradation of lysosomal nutrient transporter proteins that relies on generation of IntraLumenal membrane Fragments (ILFs) during organelle fusion [McNally et al., 2017. Dev. Cell. 40:151-167]. Termed the ILF pathway, this ESCRT-indepdent mechanism is also capable of degrading surface receptor and transporter proteins, representing an alternative to the canonical multivesicular body (MVB) pathway that is thought to mediate diverse physiology.

If you would like to meet with Dr. Brett please contact Dr. Conibear
(conibear@cmmt.ubc.ca)