Dr. Harding completed both her undergraduate (MBiochem) and graduate (DPhil) studies at the University of Oxford, the latter training in the lab of Dr. Susan Lea. She moved to the University of Toronto for her postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Cheryl Arrowsmith. Dr. Harding was awarded the prestigious Huntington’s Disease Society of America Berman-Topper Family Career Development Fellowship for her research on the structure-function of the Huntington’s disease protein, huntingtin, work that has continued into her independent research career. She established her independent lab in August 2024. Her contributions to the field of Huntington’s were further recognized with her award of the 2024 Nancy Wexler Young Investigator Prize and Huntington Society of Canada Leadership Award.

Dr. Harding's team uses structural biology, protein biochemistry and chemical biology to study the molecular mechanisms of pathology of repeat expansion disorders, with a primary focus on Huntington’s disease. Huntington’s is a devastating, incurable, genetic, neurodegenerative disease caused by a CAG-tract expansion in the Huntingtin gene. The group is concentrated on three key areas: 1) defining the structure-function relationship of the Huntington’s disease protein, huntingtin, and how this is altered by the disease-causing mutation; 2) molecular mechanisms of repeat expansion disorders like Huntington’s; and 3) development of chemical tools targeting understudied proteins and targets of interest for Huntington’s disease drug discovery.

For a list of Dr. Harding's publications, please visit PubMed or ORCID.


Assistant Professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto
Principal Investigator, Structural Genomics Consortium
Assistant Professor (Cross-Appointment), Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto