Selected Publications
Some of our recent highlighted publications.
For a complete list, please refer to PubMed or Google Scholar.
* Denotes a member of the Harper Lab at the time of publication
Skeletal muscle reprogramming of metabolic, ribosomal and developmental pathways contributes to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass-induced adaptation in women
Journal: eBioMedicine
August 2026
Authors: Chantal A Pileggi*, Dhanuddara Mohottalage*, Luke S Kennedy*, Majid Nikpay, Lauren MK Hamilton*, Martín Roffe, Michel N Kanaan, Amer Jarrar, Nicole Kolozsvari, Dongdong Wang, Miroslava Cuperlovic-Culf, Tommy Alain, Gregory R Steinberg, Ruth McPherson, Robert Dent, Mary-Ellen Harper
Functional and metabolomic analyses of brown adipose tissue during cold-deacclimation reveal rapid N-acetylated amino acid adaptations
Journal: iScience
April 2026
Authors: Chantal A Pileggi*, Ella McIlroy*, Lauren MK Hamilton*, Nidhi Kuksal*, Luke S Kennedy*, Valeria Vasilyeva*, Michel N Kanaan*, Ziyad El Hankouri*, Yan Burelle, Miroslava Cuperlovic-Culf, Mary-Ellen Harper
Succinate-driven cardiac mitochondrial respiration aligns with whole-animal hypoxia-tolerance in African mole-rats
Journal: Mammalian Biology
April 2026
Authors: Daniel Munro, Daniel W Hart, Nigel C Bennett, Barry Van Jaarvsveld, Maiah EM Devereaux, Kevin L Campbell, Rajaa Sebaa*, Emmanuel Van Dermeeren, Mary-Ellen Harper, Pierre U Blier, Matthew E Pamenter
Integrated bioinformatic and in vivo analysis confirms the cardioprotective role of OPA1
Journal: BMC Cardiovascular Disorders
January 2026
Authors: Claire Fong-McMaster*, Serena M Pulente, Luke S Kennedy*, Tyler KT Smith, Stephanie Myers*, Michel N Kanaan*, Charbel Y Karam*, Matthew Cope*, Michelle M Levesque*, Ella McIlroy*, Ilka Lorenzen-Schmidt, Craig J Goergen, Morgan D Fullerton, Miroslava Cuperlovic-Culf, Erin E Mulvihill, Mary-Ellen Harper
Intestinal adaptation to cold-induced metabolic demand and feeding requires GLP-1R and GLP-2R signalling
_journal_cover.png)
Journal: Communications Biology
December 2025
Authors: Nadya M Morrow, Antonio A Hanson, Claire Fong-McMaster*, Dawson BH Livingston, Hoda Osman, Lauren Hamilton*, Natasha A Trzaskalski, Cassandra AA Locatelli, Mélodie N Bellefleur, Ethel Messika-Zeitoun, Sebastian M Cino, Serena M Pulente, Iryna Abramchuk, Xiaoling Zhao, Ilka Lorenzen-Schmidt, Arianne Morissette, Krista A Power, Mary-Ellen Harper, Erin E Mulvihill
Impaired xCT-mediated cystine uptake drives serine and proline metabolic reprogramming and mitochondrial fission in skeletal muscle cells
Journal: Redox Biology
August 2025
Authors: Michel N Kanaan*, Charbel Y Karam*, Luke S Kennedy*, Chantal A Pileggi*, Lauren Hamilton*, Miroslava Cuperlovic-Culf, Mary-Ellen Harper
Complexome profiling identifies changes in mitochondrial supercomplexes in murine heart failure
Journal: American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology
August 2025
Authors: Claire Fong-McMaster*, Ella McIlroy*, Michelle M. Levesque*, Stephanie Myers*, Serena M. Pulente, Gurrose Gahla*, Ilka Lorenzen-Schmidt, Miroslava Cuperlovic-Culf, Arsalan S. Haqqani, Erin E. Mulvihill, Mary-Ellen Harper
Accessory Subunit NDUFB4 Participates in Mitochondrial Complex I Supercomplex Formation
Journal: Journal of Biological Chemistry
February 2024
Authors: Gaganvir Parmar*, Claire Fong-McMaster*, Chantal A Pileggi*, David A Patten*, Alexanne Cuillerier, Stephanie Myers*, Ying Wang, Siegfried Hekimi, Miroslava Cuperlovic-Culf, Mary-Ellen Harper
The SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein interacts with MAO-B and impairs mitochondrial energetics
Journal: Current Research in Neurobiology
October 2023
Authors: Chantal A Pileggi*, Gaganvir Parmar*, Hussein Elkhatib*, Corina M Stewart, Irina Alecu, Marceline Côté, Steffany AL Bennett, Jagdeep K Sandhu, Miroslava Cuperlovic-Culf, Mary-Ellen Harper
GDF15 promotes weight loss by enhancing energy expenditure in muscle
Journal: Nature
October 2023
Authors: Authors: D Wang, LK Townsend, GJ DesOrmeaux, SM Frangos, B Batchuluun, L Dumont, RE Kuhre, E Ahmadi, S Hu, IA Rebalka, J Gautam, M Joy T Jabile, CA Pileggi*, S Rehal, EM Desjardins, EE Tsakiridis, JSV Lally, ES Juracic, AR Tupling, HC Gerstein, G Paré, T Tsakiridis, ME Harper, TJ Hawke, JR Speakman, DP Blondin, GP Holloway, SB Jørgensen, GR Steinberg
Mapping relationships between glutathione and SLC25 transporters in cancers using hybrid machine learning models
Journal: Cellular & Molecular Immunology
October 2023
Authors: Abrar Ul Haq Khan, Alaa Kassim Ali, Bryan Marr, Donghyeon Jo, Simin Ahmadvand, Claire Fong-McMaster*, Saeedah Musaed Almutairi, Lisheng Wang, Subash Sad,
Mary-Ellen Harper, Seung-Hwan Lee
Novel Homozygous Variant in COQ7 in Siblings With Hereditary Motor Neuropathy
Journal: Neurology Genetics
January 2023
Authors: Ian C Smith, Chantal A Pileggi*, Ying Wang, Kristin Kernohan, Taila Hartley, Hugh J McMillan, Marcos Loreto Sampaio, Gerd Melkus, John Woulfe, Gaganvir Parmar, Pierre R Bourque, Ari Breiner, Jocelyn Zwicker, C Elizabeth Pringle, Olga Jarinova, Hanns Lochmüller, David A Dyment, Bernard Brais, Kym M Boycott, Siegfried Hekimi, Mary-Ellen Harper, Jodi Warman-Chardon
Exercise training enhances muscle mitochondrial metabolism in diet-resistant obesity
Journal: eBiomedicine
September 2022
Authors: Chantal A Pileggi*, Denis P Blondin*, Breana G Hooks*, Gaganvir Parmar*, Irina Alecu, David A Patten, Alexanne Cuillerier, Conor O'Dwyer, A Brianne Thrush*, Morgan D Fullerton, Steffany AL Bennett, Éric Doucet, François Haman, Miroslava Cuperlovic-Culf, Ruth McPherson, Robert RM Dent, Mary-Ellen Harper
Naked mole-rat brown fat thermogenesis is diminished during hypoxia through a rapid decrease in UCP1
Journal: Nature Communications
November 2021
Authors: Hang Cheng, Rajaa Sebaa*, Nikita Malholtra, Baptiste Lacoste, Ziyad El Hankouri*, Alexia Kirby, Nigel C Bennett, Barry Van Jaarsveld, Daniel W Hart, Glenn J Tattersall, Mary-Ellen Harper, Matthew E Pamenter
Glutaredoxin-2 and Sirtuin-3 deficiencies impair cardiac mitochondrial energetics but their effects are not additive
Journal: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Molecular Basis of Disease
May 2021
Authors: Neoma T Boardman*, Baher Migally*, Chantal Pileggi*, Gaganvir S Parmar*, Jian Ying Xuan*, Keir Menzies, Mary-Ellen Harper
Altered mitochondrial fusion drives defensive glutathione synthesis in cells able to switch to glycolytic ATP production
Journal: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Molecular Cell Research
January 2021
Authors: David A Patten*, Shawn McGuirk, Ujval Anilkumar, Ghadi Antoun, Karan Gandhi, Gaganvir Parmar*, Mohamed Ariff Iqbal, Jacob Wong, Richard B Richardson, Julie St-Pierre, Ruth S Slack, Mary-Ellen Harper
