Marc D. Mckee

Biography

Dr. Marc D. McKee is a full professor at McGill University in Montreal with a joint appointment in the Faculties of Dentistry and Medicine. He received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from McGill University in cell biology, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Harvard University and The Children's Hospital in Boston. He then held academic appointments at the Forsyth Institute in Boston (1989), and at the University of Montreal (1990), after which he moved to McGill University in 1998.

Research Interest

Research in my laboratory is primarily focused on mineralization (calcification) of extracellular matrices in bones and teeth, and in other biomineralizing systems such as inner-ear otoconia and eggshells. In particular, we are investigating the role of mineral-binding proteins, peptides, amino acids and other small molecules in normal hard-tissue mineralization and in rare hypomineralization (osteomalacia) diseases of bones and teeth, such as X-linked hypophosphatemia and hypophosphatasia. Our work also includes investigating pathologic circumstances and the actions of regulatory molecules where unwanted and debilitating mineral is deposited in soft tissues such as in the kidney (urolithiasis, kidney stones) and in blood vessels (vascular calcification, including atherosclerosis). We study how biomineralization is controlled by components of the extracellular matrix, and how enzymes modify these components to affect their mineralization-regulating activities. The proteins/enzymes that we are currently focusing on are osteopontin and PHEX, with additional work being done on bone sialoprotein, dentin matrix protein-1, matrix Gla protein, ALPL (TNAP, TNSALP) and PHOSPHO1. In other work we are examining extracellular matrix organization and composition at cell-matrix and matrix-matrix interfaces, including at implantable biomaterial interfaces. To study these processes, a variety of morphological, biochemical, immunochemical, cell biological and molecular techniques are used which include among others: electron microscopy, focused-ion beam milling, atomic force microscopy, confocal microscopy, immunocytochemistry, in vivo experimentation using normal and transgenic mice, in vitro cell culture and crystal growth systems, and standard biochemical and chemical assays.