Dr. Daniel Coutu
Dr. Daniel Coutu
Assistant Professor | Scientist, Regenerative Medicine Program, OHRI | Research Chair, Regenerative Orthopedic Surgery, The Ottawa Hospital

BSc Sciences Biologiques (Microbiologie et Immunologie), Université de Montréal (Montreal, Canada)
PhD Division of Experimental Medicine, McGill University (Montreal, Canada)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Stem Cell Research, Helmholtz Zentrum München (Munich, Germany)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zürich (Basel, Switzerland)

Room
501 Smyth Rd, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1H 8L6, room CCW W6107
Phone
613-798-5555 ext. 79048


Biography

Research interests

The skeleton (which includes tissues such as bone, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, periosteum and marrow stroma) displays amazing regenerative and repair properties because it contains skeletal stem cells capable of generating all of these tissues. However, in certain circumstances (e.g. in the context of aging, chronic inflammatory joint diseases or extensive/repeated trauma) those repair mechanisms are impaired.

The focus of my research here at OHRI and uOttawa is to study the biology of skeletal stem cells in an attempt to bring novel therapies to patients suffering from debilitating conditions with unmet clinical needs. More specifically, the research in my lab explores four main axes:

  1. Study the fundamental biology of skeletal stem cells
  2. Improve tissue regeneration and repair by skeletal stem cells
  3. Technology development – quantitative imaging techniques
  4. Study the interactions between skeletal cells and blood/immune cells in the bone marrow

Publications

  • Coutu DL, Kokkaliaris KD, Kunz L, Schroeder T. Multicolor quantitative confocal imaging cytometry. Nat Methods. 2018 Jan;15(1):39-46. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.4503. Epub 2017 Nov 13. PubMed PMID: 29320487.
  • Coutu DL, Kokkaliaris KD, Kunz L, Schroeder T. Three-dimensional map of nonhematopoietic bone and bone-marrow cells and molecules. Nat Biotechnol. 2017 Dec;35(12):1202-1210. doi: 10.1038/nbt.4006. Epub 2017 Nov 13. PubMed PMID: 29131149.
  • Hoppe PS, Schwarzfischer M, Loeffler D, Kokkaliaris KD, Hilsenbeck O, Moritz N, Endele M, Filipczyk A, Gambardella A, Ahmed N, Etzrodt M, Coutu DL, Rieger MA, Marr C, Strasser MK, Schauberger B, Burtscher I, Ermakova O, Bürger A, Lickert H, Nerlov C, Theis FJ, Schroeder T. Early myeloid lineage choice is not initiated by random PU.1 to GATA1 protein ratios. Nature. 2016 Jul 14;535(7611):299-302. doi: 10.1038/nature18320. PubMed PMID: 27411635.
  • Hoppe PS, Coutu DL, Schroeder T. Single-cell technologies sharpen up mammalian stem cell research. Nat Cell Biol. 2014 Oct;16(10):919-27. doi: 10.1038/ncb3042. Review. PubMed PMID: 25271480.
  • Coutu DL, Schroeder T. Probing cellular processes by long-term live imaging--historic problems and current solutions. J Cell Sci. 2013 Sep 1;126(Pt 17):3805-15. doi: 10.1242/jcs.118349. Epub 2013 Aug 13. Review. PubMed PMID: 23943879.

Research interests

  • Skeletal stem cells
  • Tendon biology
  • Regenerative orthopaedic surgery
  • Multicolor confocal imaging
  • Quantitative image analysis
  • Hematopoiesis