Currently there is a huge challenge in drug screens as the vast majority of the candidate drugs fail in clinical trials either due to no efficacy or drug toxicity. As an alternative to traditional animal models, zebrafish have recently emerged as a powerful vertebrate paradigm to study human disease and to use its developing embryos […]

The challenges faced by mammals in adapting to their environment must be tightly controlled in order to ensure optimal body function. Hormones can travel in the bloodstream to reach various parts of the body and execute their biological actions on various organs. However, to reach their target the hormones must leave the bloodstream. That means […]

Mutations in the enzyme glucocerebrosidase (GBA1) are the most common genetic risk factor for development of Parkinson’s disease (PD). PD is characterized by the buildup of abnormal protein deposits in the brain, followed by progressive loss of neurons and behavioural symptoms. Numerous studies have noted a correlation between reduced GBA1 activity and increased levels of […]

Enzymes are macromolecules that speed up the rate of chemical reactions by many orders of magnitude. Different classes of enzymes are present in a cell at different copy numbers to control and fine-tune its metabolism. The kinetics of enzymes differs depending on the physical properties of the local surroundings. Due to the high complexity of […]

Nanomaterials have revolutionized biomedical and pharmaceutical technology in the past decades. Several nanomedicines have reached the clinics but the overall clinical translation is still low. Precise delivery of the pharmaceutical agent at the right time and space remains a challenge. Responsive materials can overcome this limitation by modulation of their behavior according to internal (e.g., […]

The focus of this project is to screen for small-molecules that may interact with the machinery that controls the decision of life and death in the cell. Diseases can arise from aberrant control of cell life and death like cancer and neurodegeneration. By shutting off the cell death pathway when cells are injured, or stressed […]

Glutamate, the most widespread excitatory neuromediator in the brain, plays an important role in learning and memory functions. At very high cerebral concentrations it is likely to cause pathological effects (nerve cell death), such as those encountered in ischemic stroke. To reduce the toxic concentrations of glutamate in the brain, several approaches have been developed. […]

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have an inflamed digestive tract and experience diarrhea, fatigue, and abdominal pain. Youth with IBD are six times more likely to take opioids than youth without IBD. We are currently in the midst of an opioid crisis. In 2016, there were almost 3000 deaths related to opioid use in […]

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have an inflamed digestive tract and experience diarrhea, fatigue, and abdominal pain. Youth with IBD are six times more likely to take opioids than youth without IBD. We are currently in the midst of an opioid crisis. In 2016, there were almost 3000 deaths related to opioid use in […]

Increased awareness of the issues associated with using opioids such as morphine that target the mu-opioid receptor – namely, that these drugs tend to lead to dependency and significant, often life-threatening, side effects – have led researchers to identify the delta opioid receptor as an alternative, and potentially safer, target for the management of chronic […]

The proposed research project falls within what is called process intensification (PI). PI consists in novel devices and techniques that bring striking changes to chemical engineering processes by significantly decreasing the equipment’s size to production ratio, energy consumption and waste production, which result in smaller, cheaper, cleaner and more efficient technologies. Catalytic nanoparticles, with a […]

Le projet consiste en la conception et l’utilisation de modèles cellulaires et animaux de cancers et fibroses, notamment de tumeur cérébrale, pour l’étude de l’hypoxie tumorale. Les techniques d’imagerie par résonance magnétique et de tomographie à émission de positrons seront utilisées pour réaliser l’étude. La manipulation de la radioactivité afin d’obtenir des images scintigraphiques sera […]