Title:
Assistant Professor

Institute:
Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Centre

Department:
Microbiology-Immunology

Province:
Quebec

Training:
Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Pediatric Hematology & Oncology, Pediatric-Oncology Branch, Immunology Section, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Immunology & Oncology, Human Cancer Genetics, Immunology Section, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
PhD, Biomedical Sciences, Immunology & Oncology Branch, Centre de recherche de l’Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec
MSc, Microbiology Immunology, Rhumatology & Immunology Branch, Louis-Charles Simard Research Centre, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec
BSc, Microbiology Immunology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec

Research interests:
Immune Reconstitution, Bone marrow transplantation, Graft-versus-Host disease

Recognitions:
Best Cytokine Paper Award, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
Junior Researcher FRSQ, Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Quebec.

Career highlights:
Establishment of new treatment to perform incompatible bone marrow transplantation to cure different types of leukemia; discovery of the mechanism that constrains the regeneration of CD4 lymphocyte (an important type of white blood cells) after stem cell transplantation or high dose chemotherapy; First scientific paper highlighting the adverse role of interleukine-15 on the severity of graft versus host disease after bone marrow transplantation.

Research Projects

Project title:
The effect of GVHD on the peripheral niche regulating lymphocyte homeostasis

Funding period: 
2011-2013

Program:
Operating Grant (Basic Research)

Summary:
Chemotherapy with stem cell transplantation is the only curative treatment  for leukemia patients.  Although originally developped to treat leukemia, this therapy is now under clinical investigation to treat patients  with metastatic lung cancer.  The benefit of such treatment is ascribed not only to the higher dose of chemotherapy administered to the patient, but also to the anti-tumor effect the transplant exerts on cancer cells. Unfortunately, graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) is a serious complication that can induce severe immunosuppression.  As a result, patients that survive GVHD are typically at higher risk of lethal infections, disease recurrence and emergence of second malignant diseases. This grant seeks to understand the adverse effect of GVHD on immune reconstitution.