Lines of Research

The research program currently operates under the direction of Dr. Sylvia Villeneuve with the help of Dr. Judes Poirier as assistant director.

The mission of the StoP-AD Centre is to amplify Canadian expertise in the field of research on the prevention of Alzheimer's disease. To do so, its research program relies on groups of experts in different lines of research:

Neuroimaging

Lead:

Dr. Sylvia Villeneuve

Dr. Villeneuve earned her doctorate at the Université de Montréal in 2011, where she investigated the nature of memory problems in those with mild cognitive impairments of both vascular and non-vascular origins. Her first postdoctoral training took place at the University of California, Berkeley, where she examined the interactions between amyloid deposits, vascular diseases, and cognition in the preclinical phase of Alzheimer's disease. She completed a second postdoctoral training at Northwestern University, where she evaluated the predictive value of neurovascular changes, such as diminished neurovascular reactivity or the deterioration of the blood-brain barrier, in decelerating the early changes associated with amyloid deposits. Dr. Villeneuve has been an associate professor at McGill University since 2015 and a member of the Ordre des psychologues du Québec since 2009. In addition, she is the director of the Multimodal Imaging of the Aging Brain lab at the Douglas Institute.

Villeneuve Lab

Co-researchers/Collaborators

Clinical

Lead:

Dr. Simon Ducharme

Dr. Simon Ducharme is a neuropsychiatrist and a clinician scientist at The Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. He has a medical degree from the Université de Montréal and a master's from McGill University. He completed his residency in Psychiatry at McGill in 2012, and a fellowship in Behavioural Neurology and Neuropsychiatry at Harvard University in 2014. He is specialized in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and the interface between psychiatric disorders and dementia. His research program uses advanced neuroimaging techniques to develop diagnostic biomarkers for frontotemporal dementia. He is the Montreal site's primary investigator of the Genetic Frontotemporal Dementia Initiative study, the FTD team leader of the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging, and the co-director of the Neuropsychiatric International Consortium for FTD. Dr. Ducharme is the director of the McGill Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neuropsychiatry and the director of the American Neuropsychiatric Association Committee on research.

McGill Profile

Co-researchers/Collaborators

Dr. Maiya Geddes

McGill Profile

Dr. Maxime Montembeault

McGill Profile

Dr. Andrée-Ann Baril

CÉAMS Profile

Dr. Christian Bocti

Sherbrooke Profile

Dr. Robert Laforce

CR CHU Québec Profile

Dr. Serge Gauthier

Douglas Profile

Genetics and Biofluid

Lead:

Dr. Judes Poirier

Dr. Poirier is a pioneer in biomedical research on the causes and treatments of both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. It was at the Andrus Gerontology Centre in Los Angeles that he identified the primordial role of apolipoprotein E (apoE) in the reparation of brain cells. This breakthrough was shortly followed by a second important discovery which brought to light a genetic variant of apoE which substantially increases the risk of developing the common form of Alzheimer's disease. In 1995 and 1996, he identified a series of genes which carry genetic variations that allow us to predict whether certain types of medication will work in a given patient. In some circles, he is considered one of the founders of central nervous system pharmacogenomics. Recently, his team identified a new protective gene involved in the etiopathology of Alzheimer's disease which paves the way for new therapeutic approaches based on the biology of cholesterol.

ADGEN Lab