Executive committee of the SNC

The activitis and priorities of the SNC are determined by its director, together with an executive committee including the following people:

Louis-Eric Trudeau (director, member ex offico), department of pharmacology and physiology faculty of medicine

Andrea Green, department of neurosciences, faculty of medicine

Daniel Lévesque, faculty of pharmacy

Matthieu Vanni, school of optometry

Rikard Blunk, department of physics, faculty of arts and sciences

Marco Bonizzato, department of electrical engineering, École polytechnique

General description of research themes

The SNC is a research group focussed on nervous system circuitry. We are organized in two research axes and four research themes that reflect its composition and recent growth as well as collaborations within and between its axes. Three cross-axis themes highlight the interactions among members of the two axes:

1. Cellular and molecular neuroscience.

2. Systems neuroscience.

3. Pathophysiology of brain diseases

4. Development of novel research tools and approaches

Axis 1) Neurotransmission, synaptic plasticity, ionic channels and development of research tools.

This axis is represented by scientists from many departments including Lacaille, Robitaille (Neurosciences), Desgroseillers, Legault (Biochemistry), Girouard, Samaha, Talbot, D’Avanzo and Trudeau (Pharmacology and physiology, Lévesque, Drouin-Ouellet (Faculty of Pharmacy, Blunk (department of physics), Masson (department of chemistry) and Vanni (school of optometry). Interactions between members allow the optimization of technical platforms in molecular biology, electrophysiolgy and electrochemistry, cellular imaging, confocal microscopy and development of new neurotransmitter sensors. Much of the research is focussed on exploring the fine mechanisms of synaptic transmission and glial-neuronal signalling in the normal brain and in diseases of the brain.

Axis 2) Sensori-motor integration, brain imaging and behavior.

This axis is also represented by members of multiple departments and faculties, including Amzica, Kolta, Rainville, Rugta and Lavigne (Faculty of dentistry), Cisek, Dancause, Drew, Dubuc, Gossard, Green, Kalaska, Kolta et Martinez (department of neurosciences), Bengio (department of mathematics and operational research) and Cohen-Adad and Provost (École Polytechnique). Many of the members take advantage of primate models and of computational neuroscience methods. There is growing use of artificial intelligence approaches and of novel brain imaging modalities.