 |
Marc D. McKee, Ph.D. Professor, Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences Tel: 514-398-4400 ext. 00041 marc.mckee [at] mcgill.ca |
Biographical Sketch
Dr. McKee is a full professor with a joint appointment in the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences, and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. 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.
Dr. McKee’s research focuses on molecular determinants of biomineralization in bones and teeth, and in pathologic calcification as found in kidney stones and vascular calcification.
Of 239 total publications, Dr. McKee has 211 scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals. He has a Google Scholar h-index of 83 with >30,100 total citations. The Elsevier Scopus all-science database containing the works of more than 8 million authors calculates his career world citation rank as being in the top 1% (see doi.org/10.17632/btchxktzyw.3)
Keywords
Mineralization/calcification, mineralized tissues, bones, teeth, otoconia, rare bone and tooth mineralization diseases, osteomalacia/odontomalacia, mouse models of disease, osteopontin, electron microscopy
Research or Clinical Activities
McKee's research focuses on mineralization of extracellular matrices in bones and teeth, in mineralization pathologies, and in other biomineralizing systems such as inner-ear otoconia and eggshells. We are investigating the role of mineral-binding small biomolecules and proteins – most notably a protein called osteopontin – and the enzymes that modify these biomolecules to influence their mineralization-regulating activities. Our studies on pathologic mineralization include work on rare bone diseases where skeletal and dental mineralization is defective (osteomalacia / odontomalacia), and bones and teeth are soft and deform. We also investigate the actions of regulatory molecules where debilitating mineral deposition occurs in soft tissues such as in the kidney (urolithiasis, kidney stones), in blood vessels (vascular calcification), and in tendon and ligament insertions (entheses). In other recent work, based on findings describing underlying mechanisms guiding mineralization, we have recently shown how chiral amino acids can be used to produce synthetic, helical chiral suprastructures of calcium carbonate mineral.
Selected Recent Publications
Crossfibrillar mineral tessellation in normal and Hyp mouse bone as revealed by 3D FIB-SEM microscopy. Buss DJ, Reznikov N, McKee MD.J Struct Biol. 2020 Nov 1;212(2):107603. doi: 10.1016/j.jsb.2020.107603. Epub 2020 Aug 14. PMID: 32805412
Deep learning for 3D imaging and image analysis in biomineralization research. Reznikov N, Buss DJ, Provencher B, McKee MD, Piché N.J Struct Biol. 2020 Oct 1;212(1):107598. doi: 10.1016/j.jsb.2020.107598. Epub 2020 Aug 9. PMID: 32783967 Review.
Biological stenciling of mineralization in the skeleton: Local enzymatic removal of inhibitors in the extracellular matrix. Reznikov N, Hoac B, Buss DJ, Addison WN, Barros NMT, McKee MD.Bone. 2020 Sep;138:115447. doi: 10.1016/j.bone.2020.115447. Epub 2020 May 23. PMID: 32454257 Review.
Nanostructure, osteopontin, and mechanical properties of calcitic avian eggshell. Athanasiadou D, Jiang W, Goldbaum D, Saleem A, Basu K, Pacella MS, Böhm CF, Chromik RR, Hincke MT, Rodríguez-Navarro AB, Vali H, Wolf SE, Gray JJ, Bui KH, McKee MD.Sci Adv. 2018 Mar 30;4(3):eaar3219. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aar3219. eCollection 2018 Mar. PMID: 29725615
Chiral acidic amino acids induce chiral hierarchical structure in calcium carbonate. Jiang W, Pacella MS, Athanasiadou D, Nelea V, Vali H, Hazen RM, Gray JJ, McKee MD.Nat Commun. 2017 Apr 13;8:15066. doi: 10.1038/ncomms15066. PMID: 28406143