Joel C. Watts

Dr. Joel C. Watts is a Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, with a cross-appointment at the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases. His research focuses on prion diseases and related neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, emphasizing protein misfolding, aggregation, and the development of transgenic mouse models.

• BSc in Biochemistry, University of Western Ontario (2003)
• PhD in Biochemistry, University of Toronto (2008)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of California San Francisco (2008-2014)

Research interests include:

• Prion disease mechanisms and toxicity
• Prion-like propagation of Aβ and α-synuclein
• Development of authentic transgenic mouse models
• Protein structure dynamics in neurodegeneration
• Therapeutic strategies for stopping prion spread

His lab's publications span high-impact journals like Nature Neuroscience and PNAS, focusing on cross-species prion transmission, amyloid seeding, and synucleinopathy modeling. Current work explores strain diversity, biochemical nature of aggregates, and translational model development.

Scientific awards include:

• NSERC Postgraduate Scholarships (2003-2007)
• CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship (2008-2011)
• NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award (2012-2013)
• CIHR New Investigator Award (2015-2017)
• Ontario Early Researcher Award (2017-2022)
• Canada Research Chair in Protein Misfolding Disorders (2017-2022)

Dr. Watts teaches advanced biochemistry courses including BCH2103H and BCH473Y, and collaborates on LMP410H1 Pathobiology of Neurodegenerative Disease. His lab employs multidisciplinary approaches integrating biochemistry, biophysics, neuropathology, and cell biology to study protein misfolding disorders.