Research Axis
Metabolic and Cardiovascular Health Axis
Research Theme
Cardiometabolic and vascular health: from genetics to environmental approaches
Address
CHUSJ - Centre de Recherche
Phone
514-345-4931, ext. 3272
As a researcher and nutritionist, my research interests concern mainly nutrigenomics, lipid metabolism, inflammatory and oxidative processes, cardiometabolic pathologies, inflammatory bowel diseases, genetics, epigenetics, metabolic aspects of complex diseases, as well as the role of nutrition in disease development.
- One of our main research interest concerns the cardiometabolic late effects afflicting pediatric cancer survivors. As a matter of fact, a large proportion of childhood cancer survivors will develop cardiometabolic complications later in life, partly due to treatment toxicity. Among these secondary effects, we observe a higher risk for obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension and dyslipidemia, all components of the metabolic syndrome. Our team studies these long-term deleterious effects of cancer treatments as well as their underlying mechanisms, namely changes in gut microbiota and their metabolites, in relation with epigenetic processes, inflammation and oxidative stress.
- We also work at implementing nutritional and nutrigenomic interventions for children with cancer and their family in order to develop personalized therapies that will improve the quality of their diet and prevent long-term cardiometabolic complications.
- Our laboratory also investigates the involvement of metabolism in the physiopathology of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, a disease for which the cause remains enigmatic. For instance, we work in understanding the role of gastro-intestinal peptides and adipokines in the disease development and evolution, in relation with genetics, intestinal microbiota, oxidative stress, inflammation and vitamins/mineral status.
- We are also studying the role of oxidative stress in relation to nutrition, in the physiopathology of inflammatory bowel diseases, namely Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. These complex diseases that increase the risk of developing cancer implicate important mechanisms such as changes in gut microbiota and in epigenetic regulations. Hence, our laboratory investigates the impact of diverse nutritional molecules in inflammatory processes and disease evolution in consideration to the patients’ genetic background.