Title:   
Full Professor

Institute:
Université de Sherbrooke

Department:  
Biology

Province:
Quebec

Training:  
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute, New York, USA
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA
Ph.D., Molecular Biology, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
B.Sc., Biology, Moncton University, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada

Research interests:
Mechanisms of gene expression in cancer progression.
Role of chromatin remodeling in gene expression and cancer progression.

Career highlights:
Canada Research Chair on Mechanisms of Gene Transcription, Tier 1 (2007-2014)

Research Projects

Project title:
Characterization of estrogen-mediated repression of dioxin receptor signaling

Funding period:  
2010-2012

Program:
Operating Grant (Environment-cancer)

Summary:
An important focus of our research is to studying proteins that are able to bind carcinogenic environmental pollutants, and to determine how these proteins (namely the dioxin receptor) impact on breast cancer progression. This dioxin receptor (AhR) is an important regulator of gene activity (i.e. it controls whether or not, and to what level a particular gene is expressed in cells).  Thus, AhR is able to induce the production of molecules that can detoxify cells from these pollutants, but importantly one of these proteins can also transform estrogen into a byproduct that causes mutations in genes that are within the breast epithelium. Our long-term goal is to ultimately understand how these important molecules function together and cooperate in either promoting or preventing breast cancer.

CRS publications:

M. Marques, L. Laflamme and L. Gaudreau (2011).  The estrogen receptor represses aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling by directing DNA methylation of target promoters. (manuscript in preparation)

Past CRS projects:

2005 Role of the human H2A.Z histone variant in gene expression and cancer
 
2003 Mechanism of action of the BRCA1 tumor suppressor in gene expression