Nizar Batada

Principal Investigator, Genome Technologies Platform

Research Description

Genome instability, stem cell biology and cancer

How does a normal cell suddenly embark on a journey towards cancer? Acquisition of mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressors is thought to be necessary for transformation. Improper maintenance of genome integrity as cells grow and duplicate their DNA can lead to mutations and chromosomal rearrangements seen in tumors. Proper DNA damage response and repair is particularly important in stem cells which are a small pool of long-lived cells that replenish tissue throughout life. Dr. Batada's laboratory uses cutting edge genomic tools to elucidate the causes of genome instability in the context of cellular reprogramming and characterize the similarities between stem cells and cancer biology.

Contact Information

Telephone
+1 (416) 673 8594
Email
nizar.batada@oicr.on.ca
Mailing Address
MaRS Centre, South Tower
101 College Street, Suite 800
Toronto, Ontario
Canada, M5G 0A3
Additional Contacts
Ms. Stacey Quinn
Stacey Quinn, Executive Assistant, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR);
Stacey Quinn, Administrative Assistant, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR)
+1 (416) 673 8519
Website
Lab Homepage

Current

2011 - Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto.
2008 - Principal Investigator, Genome Technologies Platform, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR).

Background

2007 - 2008Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School (George Church, advisor).
2004 - 2008PhD, Biophysics, Stanford University.
2004 - 2006Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Medical Genetics, University of Toronto (Mike Tyers, advisor) and Department of Biology, University of Bath (Laurence Hurst, advisor).

Selected Bibliography

  • Ji J* , Ng SH* , Sharma V, Hussein S, Nagy A, McPherson JD and Batada N. Exome sequencing reveals missense and nonsense point mutations in iPS cells (submitted) 2011. (* equal contribution)
    • Hussein S*, Batada NN*, Vuoristo S, Ching R, Autio R, Narva E, Ng S, Sourour M, Hamalainen R, Olsson C, Lundin K, Mikkola M, Trokovic R, Peitz M, Brustle O, Bazett-Jones D, Alitalo K, Lahesmaa R, Nagy A and Otonkoski T. Copy number variation and selection during reprogramming to pluripotency. Nature (in press). 2011 (*equal contributions)
      • Warnecke T, Batada NN, Hurst LD. The impact of the nucleosome code on protein-coding sequence evolution in yeast. PLoS Genet. 2008 Nov;4(11):e1000250. Epub 2008 Nov 7
        • Cheung V, Chua G, Batada NN, Landry C, Michnick S, Hughes T, Winston F. Chromatin and transcription-related factors are required to repress transcription from within coding regions throughout the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome. PLoS Biology. 2008;6(11): e277
          • Batada NN, Hurst LD. Evolution of chromosome organization driven by selection for reduced gene expression noise. Nature Genetics. 2007;39(8):945-9.