Martin Simard, PhD
Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, Canada
Former RTI Lab: Postdoctoral fellow, Mello Lab
Training period: 2002 - 2004
Awards: CIHR Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Martin Simard, Ph.D., holds a Research Chair of the Fonds de Recherche-Santé du Québec and is professor in the Department of molecular biology, medical biochemistry, and pathology of the Laval University School of Medicine. His research group aims to better understand how small non-coding RNAs can so efficiently control gene expression, in animals. Those molecules able to precisely control the protein production (the genes) in cells, have promptly being proposed to be implicated in different pathologies such as different types of cancers and recent scientific studies have proven their roles. The contribution of theses tiny molecules to our understanding of the cell, as well as their great potential in the detection and treatment of different diseases, makes this field of research among the most active in medical biology. His work focuses on the identification of cellular molecules that participate in the biological role of small non-coding RNAs, on understanding their roles and defining their implication in the development of different pathologies, such as cancers. At term, our studies will contribute to gather new insights about how theses tiny molecules contribute to cell function, and to develop new therapeutic strategies using the small non-coding RNAs.