ABOUT US

OUR VISION

EMBRACING PATIENTS’ HETEROGENEITY TO DEVELOP EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS

More than 80 million of individuals worldwide are affected by either neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) or major psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BP). Without effective treatments, the burden on patients, their families and society will continue to increase in the coming years. Despite decades of research, there are still only limited treatments and no cures available for most brain diseases. In most cases, we do not even know which cellular pathways and molecular targets to prioritize for drug discovery. The main challenges slowing down research are:

  • Patients’ clinical, pathological and genetic heterogeneity which may partly explain the failures of past “one size fits all” clinical trials
  • The relative inaccessibility of patients’ brain tissue to conduct research on

NCADD INITIATIVE

Through the Neuro-CERVO Alliance for Drug Discovery in Brain Diseases (NCADD) initiative, we want to address these challenges. It is time for research to fully embrace patients’ heterogeneity, and incorporate all aspects of it into our analysis. We decided to carry out a comprehensive characterization of patients, both at the clinical and cellular levels, and use all collected data to stratify them into distinct subgroups. The disease profile of each subgroup can then be studied, guiding us towards biomarker discovery, development of more personalized therapies and targeted clinical trials.

For more details, see our Discovery.

PARTNERS

We are benefiting from our multiple partners’ expertise to characterize patients’ samples with cutting-edge tools and techniques. As part of NCADD, we want to contribute to making Quebec a leader in the life sciences field, by helping our local partners further develop their technologies through feedback loops and collaboration.

Click here to discover our partners.

OPEN SCIENCE POLICY

As we believe in enabling breakthroughs through transparency and accessibility of results, all resources are developed within a collaborative Open Science environment.

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DISCOVERY

Our project is divided in 3 main objectives:

PATIENTS’ DEEP CHARACTERIZATION

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DATA INTEGRATION AND PATIENT STRATIFICATION

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TECHNOLOGICAL
DEVELOPMENT

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PATIENTS’ DEEP CHARACTERIZATION – FROM THE CLINIC TO THE LAB AND BACK

Collaborating with organizations and programs such as the the Neuro Genomics Partnership (NGP), the Quebec Parkinson Network and the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in neurophotonics, we recruit patients suffering from PD, SZ or BP and characterize them clinically via various tests such as brain imaging and neuropsychological evaluations. We also collect samples from these patients, such as blood or urine, which are sent to the lab to generate patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC).

Such pluripotent cells have the ability to be transformed into any existing cell, including neurons. This addresses one of our biggest research challenges: the inaccessibility of patients’ brain tissue. Using these cells, we can generate both two dimensional neuronal cultures and 3D brain organoids, on which we can run a battery of experiments to deeply characterize patients at the cellular level.

Notably, we will use innovative high-end microscopy techniques, through our collaboration with CERVO Neurophotonics center in Quebec. Eventually, we are hoping discoveries arising from this multimodal characterization will help design potential treatments to be brought back to the clinic.

DATA INTEGRATION AND PATIENT STRATIFICATION – ONE STEP TOWARDS PERSONALIZED THERAPIES

With our team of experts and biotech partners, we will extract information from our various assays, and integrate all information into an artificial intelligence-based method to classify patients and stratify them into distinct subgroups. The disease profile of each subgroup will then be studied, to deliver specific novel biomarkers and mechanistic targets for drug development.

TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT – HELPING PARTNERS THRIVE

NCADD is a hub for technological development. Through our research efforts, and by giving our private partners access to patient samples, data and the use of iPSC models, we aim at helping them validate and improve their existing technologies, develop new tools and expand their portfolios. Interested in collaborating with us?

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OUR TEAM

Passionate scientists from two of the most important academic research centers in Quebec – the Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital (The Neuro) and CERVO Brain Research Centre of the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

YVES DE KÖNINCK

Project leader

CERVO Research Center

EDWARD FON

Project leader

The Neuro

Management and business development

MARC LUSSIER

Executive Director, Objective 3 leader

The Neuro

FREDERIQUE LARROQUETTE

Director of Scientific Operations, Objective 3 leader

The Neuro

SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVE LEADERS

THOMAS DURCAN

Objective 1 leader

The Neuro

PIERRE MARQUET

Objective 1 leader

CERVO Research Center

RHALENA THOMAS

Director of analytics, Objective 2 leader

The Neuro

YASSER ITURRIA MEDINA

Objective 2 leader

The Neuro

ANTOINE ALLARD

Objective 2 leader

CERVO Research Center

PATRICK DESROSIERS

Objective 2 leader

CERVO Research Center

MARIE-EVE PAQUET

Objective 3 leader

CERVO Research Center

NCADD GOVERNANCE

NCADD operates through its representative bodies: the steering and research oversight committees composed of external experts, project leaders, the project management team and groups of leaders for each scientific objective