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Joel Watts is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Western Ontario in 2003, followed by a PhD in 2008, during which he characterized a novel prion protein family member named Shadoo under the supervision of Dr. David Westaway. Following his doctoral studies, Dr. Watts pursued postdoctoral research in the lab of Nobel Laureate Dr. Stanley Prusiner at the University of California, San Francisco. His postdoctoral work involved the development of new transgenic mouse models to study prion disease and the prion-like properties of Aβ and α-synuclein, which are implicated in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. In 2014, he established his own lab at the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, where he focuses on prion diseases related to human neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. His lab investigates the mechanisms of protein misfolding and aggregation, which are central to neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis, aiming to develop improved mouse and cellular models to study these illnesses, as well as to devise novel therapeutic strategies to halt their progression.
Department of Sociology