Dr. Gilles Lajoie, BA, BSc, PhD, PDF


Children’s Health Research Institute
Scientist, Molecular Genetics Program


Lawson Health Research Institute
Scientist, Children’s Health Research Institute


University of Western Ontario
Professor, Departments of Biochemistry and Chemistry

Other Appointments
Director, Biological Mass Spectrometry Laboratories

Contact Information
Tel: (519) 661-3054
Fax: (519) 661-3954
E-mail: glajoie@uwo.ca

Brief Biography

Dr. Gilles Lajoie received his PhD in Chemistry from McGill University in 1984. He continued his training as a Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford. Shortly thereafter he returned to Canada where he was the Director of the Biological Mass Spectrometry Laboratory at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Lajoie was then appointed as Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at The University of Western Ontario where he proceeded to set up a state-of-the-art laboratory in biological mass spectrometry. He is the Director of the Don Rix Protein Identification Facility, located at the Siebens Drake Research Institute at Western.


Research Interests

Development of new technologies in biological mass spectrometry and proteomics and applications to biological and biomedical problems.


Research Activities

Dr. Lajoie is interested in applying these very sensitive techniques to biomedical problems, particularly in the areas of maternal and newborn health, and in children’s diseases. His research could lead to very powerful diagnostic tools such as screening for mothers, infants and children at risk for genetic based diseases and many other epigenetic diseases. This would be particularly useful in cases where amounts of biological samples are severely limited such as blood and fluids from premature babies.


Representative Publications

  1. Reinking, J., Lam, M. M., Pardee, K., Sampson, H. M., Liu, S., Yang, P., Williams, S., White, W., Lajoie, G., Edwards, A., and Krause, H. M. (2005). The Drosophila nuclear receptor e75 contains heme and is gas responsive. Cell 122(2):195-207.
  2. Buscemi, N., Murray, C., Doherty-Kirby, A., Lajoie, G., Sussman, M. A. and Van Eyk, J. E. (2005). Myocardial subproteomic analysis of a constitutively active Rac1 expressing transgenic mouse with lethal myocardical hypertrophy. Am. J. Physiol. Heart 289:2325-2333.
  3. Zhang, H., Zhang, C., Lajoie, G., and Yeung, K. K-C. (2005). Selective sampling of phosphopeptides for detection by MALDI mass spectrometry. Anal. Chem. 77(18):6078-6084.
  4. Liu, S., Zhang, C., Campbell, J. L., Zhang, H., Yeung, K. K-C., Han, V. K. M., an d Lajoie, G. (2005). Formation of phosphopeptide-metal ion complexes in liquid chromatography/electrospray mass spectrometry and their influence on phosphopeptide detection. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 19(19):2747–2756 .
  5. Keykhosravani, M., Doherty-Kirby, A., Zhang, C., Goldberg, H. A., Hunter, G. K., and Lajoie, G. (2005). Comprehensive identification of posttranslational modifications in rat bone osteopontin by mass spectrometry. Biochemistry 44(18):6990-7003.
  6. Kim, A. R., Doherty-Kirby, A., Lajoie, G., Rylett, R. J., and Shilton, B. H. (2005). Two methods for large-scale purification of recombinant human choline acetyltransferase. Protein Expr. Purif. Mar;40(1):107-17.
  7. Canton, D. A., Olsten, M. K., Kim, K., Doherty-Kirby, A., Lajoie, G., Cooper, J. A. and Litchfield, D. W. (2005). The pleckstrin homology domain-containing protein CKIP-1 is involved in regulation of cell morphology and the actin cytoskeleton and interaction with actin capping protein. Mol. Cell. Biol. 25(9):3519-34.
  8. Simmons, D. A., Wilson, D. J., Lajoie, G. A., Doherty-Kirby, A., and Konermann, L. (2004). Subunit disassembly and unfolding of hemoglobin studied by time-resolved electrospray mass spectrometry. Biochemistry 43(46):14792-14801.
  9. Dobransky, T., Doherty-Kirby, A., Kim, A. R.., Brewer, D., Lajoie, G., and Rylett, R. J. (2004). Protein kinase C isoforms differentially phosphorylate human choline acetyltransferase regulating its catalytic activity. J. Biol. Chem. 279(50):52059-52068.
  10. Dempsey, B. R., Wrona, M., Moulin, J. M., Gloor, G. B., Jalilehvand, F., Lajoie, G., Shaw, G. S., and Shilton, B. H. (2004). Solution NMR structure and X-ray absorption analysis of the C-terminal zinc-binding domain of the SecA ATPase. Biochemistry 43(29):9361-9371.