Researchers

Full Professor and Teaching Physician

Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval

Department of Medicine

Dr Frédéric Barabé is a full professor at the Department of Medicine at Université Laval. He completed his post-doc fellowship in onco-hematology at the University of Toronto before joining the IDRC team as a young investigator. Dr Barabé has over 10 publications in high rated journals including Science. He is supported by CIHR grants to investigate the role and biology of MLL fusion genes in the pathology of acute human leukemia, and he works with hematopoietic stem cells.

Adjunct Professor

Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval

Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology

Dr. Mariana Baz is a Senior Research Scientist and Head of the of the Antiviral Drug Sensitivity division at the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza at the Doherty Institute in Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Baz also holds an independent investigator position at the CHU de Québec Research Center, an Adjunct Professor position at Université Laval, Quebec, Canada and she is the Associate Director and Head of the new state-of-the-art aerosol containment level 3 (CL3) laboratory at the Infectious Disease Research Center (CRCHU de Quebec-Université Laval).

Dr. Baz is a virologist with over 15 years of experience in pathogenesis, antiviral therapies (using cell, molecular techniques and animal models to evaluate antiviral drugs and elucidate mechanisms of resistance), and vaccine development for respiratory viruses. She was trained in Uruguay (Bachelor in Biochemistry), Canada (Master and Ph.D.) and the USA (Postdoctoral Fellow).
Her research is currently focused on new therapies for seasonal and pandemic influenza as well as COVID-19 in high-risk populations using different animal models.
Baz has received several national and international awards including the “Fellows Award for Research Excellence”, NIH (2014) and the Vaccine and Edward Jenner Vaccine Society Young Investigator Program (2015). She has published over 45 peer reviewed articles in high impact journals such as NEJM, Lancet ID, J Am Chem Soc, PLoS Path, J Virol, Clin Infect Dis, mBio, J of Virology, etc.

Funder of the IDRC, Full Professor and Teaching Physician

Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval

Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology

A medical graduate from Université Laval in 1968, then trained in internal medicine at McGill University and in microbiology / infectious diseases at Tufts University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, Dr. Michel G. Bergeron is a full professor in the Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology of the Faculty of Medicine. In 1974, he founded the Infectious Disease Research Centre (IDRC) at Université Laval, of which he was the director until 2016. He played a major role in the introduction of infectious diseases research in Canada. Being a visionary, innovator and entrepreneur, he assembled a transdisciplinary team of more than 200 researchers at the IDRC, which makes it a North American center of excellence for basic and applied research on HIV/AIDS, viral and bacterial respiratory infections, microbial resistance, tropical diseases (leishmaniasis and malaria), nosocomial infections, rapid molecular diagnosis (at the point-of-care), the prevention of sexually transmitted infections and vaccinology, all of which is supported by an arsenal of genomics , bioinformatics, and proteomics tools.

Full Professor and Teaching Physician

Full Professor

Faculty of Medicine , Université Laval

Department of Pediatrics

Dr Guy Boivin is Full Professor at the Department of Pediatrics at Université Laval. He holds the Canadian Research Chair in emerging viruses and antiviral resistance. He did his post-doctoral fellowship at Minnesota University. Dr Boivin is author or co-author of over 160 publications and 206 communications at conventions and international symposiums. His research program focuses mainly on the diagnostic, pathogenesis, and treatment of viral infections. He is particularly interested in herpes viruses and respiratory viruses (including avian flu). Dr Boivin uses cellular biology technologies as well as animal models to develop rapid DNA-based diagnostic tests, to evaluate new antiviral drugs, and to elucidate the mechanisms of resistance against antiviral drugs. Dr Boivin has coordinated many multi-center studies aimed at evaluating the epidemiology and clinical impact of emerging viruses. He collaborates with fundamental and clinical research groups at McGill University, University of Toronto, and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. Dr Boivin’s research is supported by CIHR and pharmaceutical companies. His work will significantly impact the diagnostic and therapy of threatening viral infections. Recently, he has successfully led the project for the new Level 3 laboratory that was inaugurated in 2020 and for which he is the supervisor.

Full Professor

Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval

Department of Molecular Medicine

Dr. Jacques Corbeil focuses on using the latest techniques in bioinformatics and machine learning to assist diagnostic, prognostic and response to treatmen. The research aimed at classifying and predicting disease courses. Modern genomic and metabolomic techniques generate a deluge of data that need to be interpreted using novel bioinformatics approaches. Dr. Corbeil is using state-of-the-art instrumentation and methodologies to facilitate the interpretation of complex data. Dr. Corbeil’s research includes investigating how infectious microorganisms interact with their host, the effects of antibiotics on our microbial flora, exploring how to design small molecules and drugs to interfere with specific microbial functions and integration of omics specifically in cancer research data. Dr. Corbeil operates at the interface of computer sciences and omic sciences. He specializes in microbiome research, metabolomics biomarker discovery and big data analytics. Dr. Corbeil also has numerous projects investigating environmental microbiomes and industrial processes. He created the Big Data Research Centre at Université Laval with colleague François Laviolette. Since 2004 and until 2025, Dr. Corbeil holds the Canada Research Chair in Medical Genomics (Tier 1). For more information see http://corbeillab.genome.ulaval.ca

Full Professor

Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval

Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology

Dr. Estaquier is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Université Laval. He holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Sciences and Technologies of Lille. He joined the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) in 1996 as a research fellow and became director of research in 2004. Dr. Estaquier is the author or co-author of more than 115 publications and scientific journals as well as about 15 book chapters. His research program focuses on the study of the immunological response in relation to cell death in host-pathogen interactions. Indeed, programmed cell death, of which apoptosis is a major phenotype, plays a major role in the persistence or elimination of infectious agents. These studies are part of a partnership with the CNRS at the Saint-Pères research center in Paris (FR3636). He studies notably intracellular pathogens such as HIV, or the protozoan Leishmania responsible for leishmaniasis.

Full Professor

Faculty of Medicine , Université Laval

Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology

Dr. Louis Flamand is a full professor and Director of the Department of Microbiology-Infectious Diseases and Immunology in the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval, and a senior researcher in the Infectious and Immune Diseases Axis of the CHU de Québec Research Center. Prior to joining Université Laval, Dr. Flamand obtained his PhD from the Université de Montréal, and completed postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Institute of Human Virology (Maryland, USA). Dr. Flamand obtained his MBA in Pharmaceutical Management from Laval University. For 10 years, he was President of the Risk Committee for Biological Risks at Université Laval. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the HHV-6 Foundation, since 2006. Dr. Flamand also has experience in preclinical development. Throughout his career, Dr. Flamand has received several provincial and national recognitions, and ongoing financial support from granting agencies for his work in virology. Dr. Flamand is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications, and is the lead editor of the book “Human Herpesviruses HHV-6A, HHV-6B & HHV-7: Diagnosis and Clinical Management 3rd Edition”.

Associate professor

Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval

Department of molecular biology, medical biochemistry and pathology

Amélie Fradet-Turcotte is an associate professor at Université Laval and a researcher at CHU de Québec Research Center since 2015. Amélie did her postdoctoral studies at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto, and she holds a PhD in biochemistry from Université de Montréal. As a PhD student in the laboratory of Jacques Archambault at the Institut de Recherches Clinique de Montréal (IRCM), she studied how replication of oncogenic viruses impacts biological processes of the host cell. She then pursued her interest in understanding how external stress shape cellular behavior by joining the team of Daniel Durocher in Toronto. There, she unraveled the molecular mechanisms that are central to the repair of DNA breaks, a process that is essential to maintain genomic stability in cells. As a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Virology and Genomic Instability, her research interests aim at understanding the regulation of the molecular processes that safeguard our genetic material in infected cells as well as the consequences of their deregulation on cancer development. For more information, please consult her lab’s webpage.

Associate Professor

Faculty of Sciences and Engineering, Université Laval

Department of Chemistry

Dr. Giguère’s research projects are oriented towards organic chemical synthesis in the areas of biological recognition of synthetic saccharides, preparation of biologically active natural molecules and development of new synthesis methodologies. His research group is dedicated to the education and training of scientists in the fields of chemical sciences in connection with biology and medicine.

Full Professor

Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval

Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology

In addition to being a regular researcher at the Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval, and an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology in the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval, Dr. Gilbert is the director of the graduate program in microbiology-immunology at Université Laval, as well as a regular member of the Infectious Diseases Research Centre since 2021. Dr. Gilbert is pursuing two lines of research: the study of the role of extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes, and the role of the lectin DCIR (Dendritic Cell Immunoreceptor) in the early stages of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) infection and the dysregulation of the immune response in infected patients. Three patents have been filed from these studies and the valorization of these discoveries is ongoing in her laboratory.

Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Bioinformatics

Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval

Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology

Faculty of Medicine , Université Laval

Dr Leclerc is a Full Professor at the Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology at Université Laval. He did his postdoctoral studies at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel, Switzerland. Dr Leclerc is author or co-author of over 50 publications and 44 communications at at various international conferences and symposia. Dr Leclerc is interested in the structural aspects of viral capsids, their maturation and the genome encapsidation process. He is also involved in the development of a vaccine platform based on the use of a plant virus. He works on two models: the hepatitis C virus (HCV; icosahedron) and papaya mosaic virus (PapMV; rod shape). He uses the techniques of molecular biology, electron and confocal microscopy, protein biochemistry and basic immunology to elucidate the driving principles governing the interactions between the capsid subunit and their nucleic acid. He is actively collaborating with the laboratory of Dr M. Allaire at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (New-York) and Dr S. Gagné (Laval Univ., Québec) to determine the structure of these proteins by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). He is also developing a novel protein-engineered vaccination strategy based on the use of viral capsids. He has demonstrated that these capsids trigger an immune response (cellular and humoral) that persists for more than a year after a single vaccine injection.

Associate Clinical Professor

Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval

Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology

Dr. Jean Longtin is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval. He is also an infectious disease specialist at the CHU de Québec and Chief Microbiologist of the Quebec Public Health Laboratory since 2015. His interests are primarily focused on STIs, including HIV and gonorrhea, as well as antibiotic resistance. He participates in the development and implementation of new diagnostic modalities in medical microbiology. He has developed several networks for laboratory practice harmonization, particularly at the level of ISO accreditation.

Director of the IDRC and Full Professor

Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval

Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology

Dr. Ouellette received his PhD on antibiotic resistance in bacteria from Université Laval. He did his postdoctoral studies at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, where he refined his skills on antimicrobial resistance by studying protozoan parasites. In 1990, he joined the Infectious Diseases Research Centre at Université Laval, where he is now Professor and Director and holds a Canada Research Chair in Antimicrobial Resistance. Dr. Ouellette’s research focuses on the genomics of antimicrobial resistance and he has made fundamental discoveries on resistance mechanisms in protozoan parasites and bacteria.

Full Professor

Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval

Dr Barbara Papadopoulou, B. Pharm., PhD, is a full professor in the Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology of the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval. She received her Ph.D. degree in microbiology and molecular biology from the University of Paris XI and Pasteur Institute of Paris in France. For her postdoctoral studies, she was trained in yeast genetics at the University of Amsterdam and on Leishmania molecular biology and drug resistance at Université Laval. Dr Papadopoulou is a world expert on Leishmania parasitic diseases and her research focus is on gene regulation, microbial pathogenesis, functional genomics and vaccinology. Her group uses a combination of molecular, genomics and proteomics approaches to identify developmentally expressed genes/proteins, delineate the molecular mechanisms underlying their stage-specific regulation and assess their potential function in the intracellular survival of the parasite and in disease development. Her group is also interested in the development of novel vaccine strategies against Leishmania. She is the author of more than 130 peer-reviewed publications, several reviews and book chapters, and more than 215 communications in international meetings and symposia.

Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval

Dr. Richard is an regular researcher in the Infectious and Immune Diseases Research Axis of the CRCHU de Québec, and full professor at the Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology of Université Laval’s Faculty of Medicine. His work focuses on malaria, one of the world’s most common infectious diseases, with approximately 300 million cases each year and 500,000 deaths, which represents one of the most devastating global public health problems. The lack of an effective vaccine, the emergence of resistance to first-line drugs like chloroquine and antifolates, and recent reports of reduced susceptibility to artemisinine in Cambodia, combined with the small number of suitable new drugs against the malaria parasite, demonstrate the urgent need for the development and implementation of novel intervention strategies in the form of drugs, vector control measures, and an effective vaccine. Indeed, if the trend in malaria prevalence stays on its current upward course, the death rate could double in the next 20 years.

Adjunct Professor

Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval

Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology

Dr Paul H. Roy is an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Bioinformatics at Université Laval. He did his post-doctoral studies at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, Nutley, N.J. Dr Roy is author or co-author of 100 publications, 3 book chapters, he holds 6 patents, and presented his work in 163 communications in congresses and international symposiums, most of which under invitation. Dr Roy’s work focuses on the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, since resistance has become a major problem for the treatment of infectious diseases. Bacteria utilize diverse genetic strategies to disseminate their resistance genes. In many Gram-negative bacteria, there are elements called “integrons” in which resistance genes containing ‘attC’ recombination sequences become mobile cassettes that can be integrated in tandem to form strongly expressed operons. Integrons represent a major factor in the emergence of the next ‘superbugs’ such as Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Klebsiella, E. coli, and several enteric bacteria. Dr Roy is a world-known authority in this aspect as he is one of the discoverers of the integrons. His research team investigates the mechanisms of site-specific recombination: the interaction between integrase and its target sites on DNA, the role of a mobile RNA element called ‘group II intron’ in cassette formation, as well as the origin of integrons in environmental bacteria and their adaptation to plasmids of pathogenic bacteria. His team also studies specific bacterial components including tRNA in order to identify new targets for the development of new antibacterial drugs.

Dr Sachiko Sato is Full Professor at the Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval. Since 2003, she is also director of the Bioimaging platform at CRCHU de Québec. She graduated with a Bpharm from Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Chiba University. After working in Nippon Hoffman-la-Roche Research Centre in Kamakura, she joined as Ph.D. student in the laboratory of Dr. Akira Kobata, the Institute of Medical Science of the University of Tokyo, Japan in 1987. During the same period, she also worked as a visiting scientist in the laboratory of Dr. R. Colin Hughes, at the MRC: National Institute for Medical Research in London, UK, where she first encountered an interesting cytosolic mammalian glycan-binding protein, now called galectin-3. She later obtained her Ph. D. from the University of Tokyo in 1994. Then, as postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Ron Kopito, Stanford University, she was involved in the work on cystic fibrosis that established the precedent that a genetic disease can be remediated by a chemical mean for the first time. This concept has been elaborated as “corrector” treatment for cystic fibrosis. After she completed her post-doc training in the Infectious Diseases Research Center of Université Laval, Quebec, Canada, she became principal investigator of the laboratory of glycobiology in this centre in 1999. While her research interest has always been to elucidate the role of galectins in host-pathogen interactions, the interest of her laboratory recently has been extended to the study of the therapeutic potential of galectins and N-acetylglucosamine for the treatment of muscular dystrophies and the development of a new single-cell lineage tracking system.

Dr. Michel J. Tremblay, Canada Research Chair in Human Immunoretrovirology, and professor at Université Laval’s Faculty of Medicine, is interested in many key aspects of HIV infection such as: host-derived molecules acquired by HIV; multifaceted interactions that HIV can establish with some of its primary human target cells (e.g. CD4+ T cells, macrophages and dendritic cells); identification of host factors involved in gene expression; studying the possible links between HIV and other human diseases, including leishmaniosis and hepatitis C; large-scale analysis of gene profiles following viral infection using DNA microarrays and powerful bio-informatics tools; deciphering functional roles played by galectins with regard to the virus life cycle; identification of new surface receptors that allow HIV binding/entry.  Proud member of the CanCURE team (http://www.cancurehiv.org/)

Physician and retired Full Professor

Dr Sylvie Trottier is an infectious diseases specialist and adjunct researcher at the CHU de Québec and (retired) full clinical professor at the Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology at Université Laval. She did her post-doctoral training at the Clinical Immunology Institute of Göteborg, Sweden. Dr Trottier is author of 77 peer-reviewed articles, 96 communications at international congresses and symposiums, and 122 conferences as invited speaker. Dr Trottier is the Director of the clinical research unit at the IDRC. She supervises multiple phases I to IV trials with new antibacterial and antiviral drugs, as well as with biological response modifiers and preventive or therapeutic vaccines in development. Dr Trottier is Head of the Unit for research, teaching, and treatment of AIDS (called “UHRESS”) at the CHUL hospital. This clinic offers to seropositive patients the possibility to be enrolled in research protocols, in collaboration with the canadian network for HIV clinical trials. Dr Trottier is member of the advisory committee of the Canadian Association for HIV Research (CAHR). She was honored in 2008 by the Farha Foundation for her outstanding contribution to the fight against AIDS, by being the recipient of the Prize “Hommage aux Héros”.

Associate Professor and Teaching Physician