Colin McKerlie

Dr. McKerlie is a comparative pathologist and phenogenomic scientist. He established his research program at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in 2002 when he came from the Research Institute at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre where he was Director of the Department of Comparative Research.  

He received his DVM (1991) and Doctorate of Veterinary Science (1997) in comparative pathology from the Ontario Veterinary College. He is a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in the UK, and licensed by the College of Veterinarians of Ontario. From 2002 to 2007, Dr. McKerlie led the planning and development of The Centre for Phenogenomics (TCP), a government of Canada designated national research facility owned and operated by SickKids and Mount Sinai Hospital. After TCP opened in 2007, he led TCP as CEO and as Director of Research Partnerships until 2019.

Research

Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease. Comparative pathology compares and integrates those causes and effects across different species.  

Dr. McKerlie uses comparative pathology to study the relationship between our genes (genotype) and our physical traits (phenotype) using mice as models of humans.  

His research program identifies and uses changes in tissues and cells when normal gene function is lost to understand what genes do to keep us healthy, when abnormal genes (called “mutations”) happen to explore how a mutation causes disease, and when a new therapy for a disease needs to be evaluated for how effective and safe it might be.

Education and experience

• 1997–Present: Associate Scientific Staff, Division of Pathology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada. 
• 1999–Present: Graduate Faculty, Dept of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology, University of Toronto, ON, Canada. 
• 2000–Present: Associated Graduate Faculty, Dept of Pathobiology, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, ON, Canada. 
• 2002–Present: Staff Scientist, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada. 
• 2002–Present: Associate Scientific Staff, Dept of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada. 
• 2003–2011: Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Charles River Laboratories, Boston MA, USA. 
• 2005–2007: Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Trestle Digital Imaging Systems, Irvine CA, USA. 
• 2012–Present: Adjunct Professor, Dept of Pathobiology, Ontario Veterinary College, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, ON, Canada. 
• 2015–2018: Member, Board of Directors, Victoria Angel Registry of Hope (Registered Canadian Charity), Toronto, ON, Canada. 

Achievements

• 2005: Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Research & Innovation. 
• 2007: Appointed Chappel Memorial Lecturer by the University of Guelph. 
• 2012: Appointed Faculty of Medicine Edge of Science Signature Lecturer by the University of Manitoba. 
• 2012: Elected as Finance Committee Chair by the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, U.K. 
• 2015: Elected to Overseas Fellow, Royal Society of Medicine, U.K. 
• 2018: Elected to Membership of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium Executive Subcommittee, U.K. 

1. Adissu HA, Medhanie GA, Morikawa L, White JK, Newbigging S, McKerlie C. Right ventricular epicardial fibrosis in mice with sternal segment dislocation. Vet Pathol. 2015 Sep;52(5):967-76. doi: 10.1177/0300985814552108. PMID: 25281652. 
2. Adissu HA, Estabel J, Sunter D, Tuck E, Hooks Y, Carragher DM, Clarke K, Karp NA, Sanger Mouse Genetics Project, Newbigging S, Jones N, Morikawa L, White JK, McKerlie C. Histopathology reveals correlative and unique phenotypes in a high throughput mouse phenotyping screen. Dis Model Mech. 2014 May;7(5):515-24. doi: 10.1242/dmm.015263. PMID: 24652767. 
3. Dickinson ME, Flenniken AM, Ji X, Teboul L, Wong MD, White JK, Meehan TF, Weninger WJ, Westerberg H, Adissu H, Baker CN, Bower L, Brown JM, Caddle LB, Chiani F, Clary D, Cleak J, Daly MJ, Denegre JM, Doe B, Edie SM, Fuchs H, Gailus-Durner V, Galli A, Gambadaro A, Gallegos J, Guo S, Horner NR, Hsu CW, Johnson SJ, Kalaga S, Keith LC, Lanoue L, Lawson TN, Lek M, Mark M, Marschall S, Mason J, McElwee ML, Newbigging S, Nutter LMJ, Peterson KA, Ramirez-Solis R, Rowland DJ, Ryder E, Samocha KE, Seavitt JR, Selloum M, Szoke-Kovacs Z, Tamura M, Trainor AG, Tudose I, Wakana S, Warren J, Wendling O, West DB, Wong L, Yoshiki A, The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, MacArthur DG, Tocchini-Valentini GP, Gao X, Flicek P, Justice M, Parkinson HE, Moore M, Wells S, Braun RE, Svenson K, Hrabe de Angelis M, Herault Y, Mohun T, Mallon A-M, Henkelman RM, Brown SD, Adams D, Lloyd KCK, McKerlie C, Beaudet AL, Bucan M, Murray SA. High-throughput discovery of novel developmental phenotypes. Nature. 2016 Sep 22;537(7621):508-514. doi: 10.1038/nature19356. PMID: 27626380. 
4. Elmore SA, Cardiff R, Cesta MF, Gkoutos GV, Hoehndorf R, Keenan CM, McKerlie C, Schofield P, Sundberg JP, Ward JM. A review of current standards and the evolution of histopathological nomenclature for laboratory animals. ILAR J. 2018 Nov 22. doi: 10.1093/ilar/ily005. PMID: 30476141. 
5. Lloyd KCK, Adams DJ, Baynam G, Beaudet AL, Bosch F, Boycott KM, Braun RE, Caulfield M, Cohn R, Dickinson ME, Dobbie MS, Flenniken AM, Flicek P, Galande S, Gao X, Grobler A, Heaney JD, Herault Y, de Angelis MH, Lupski JR, Lyonnet S, Mallon AM, Mammano F, MacRae CA, McInnes R, McKerlie C, Meehan TF, Murray SA, Nutter LMJ, Obata Y, Parkinson H, Pepper MS, Sedlacek R, Seong JK, Shiroishi T, Smedley D, Tocchini-Valentini G, Valle D, Wang CL, Wells S, White J, Wurst W, Xu Y, Brown SDM. The deep genome project. Genome Biol. 2020 Feb 3;21(1):18. doi: 10.1186/s13059-020-1931-9. PMID: 32008577.