Sabah Hussain

Sabah Hussain, MD, PhD, is Distinguished James McGill Professor in the Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at McGill University and Senior Scientist in the Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases Program of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC, Glen site). She leads an integrated bench-to-bedside program focused on skeletal-muscle wasting, autophagy, and angiogenesis.

Education & Training:

• MD – University of Baghdad, 1978
• PhD (Physiology) – McGill University, 1989

Research Focus:

Dr Hussain’s laboratory investigates the molecular machinery governing skeletal-muscle mass in health and disease. Using transgenic models of angiopoietin signaling, sepsis, COPD and mechanical ventilation, her team has dissected how autophagy, mitophagy and proteasomal pathways drive diaphragmatic and locomotor muscle atrophy. A second axis of work explores gene-therapy delivery of angiopoietins to accelerate muscle regeneration after injury or in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy models. More recently, her group is mapping epigenetic regulators—microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs—that fine-tune these degradative pathways.

Scientific Awards & Funding:

• Distinguished James McGill Professorship
• CIHR Project Grant – Fall 2024 competition
• NSERC Discovery Grant – 2024 competition

Advising & Mentorship:

Dr Hussain mentors graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and clinical research trainees. Sami Sedraoui, a PDF in her group, received the April 2025 Relève-Étoile Jacques-Genest Award from CIHR.

Laboratory & Affiliations:

Her laboratory is located in the Meakins-Christie Laboratories, RI-MUHC Block E, Glen site (1001 Decarie Blvd, Montréal). The group is embedded within the Centre for Translational Biology and benefits from the RI-MUHC Technology Platforms including Proteomics, Small-Animal Imaging and Molecular Imaging Services.