Sylvie Lesage, PhD
Associate Professor of Microbiology, Infectiology & Immunology
Biographical Sketch
Sylvie Lesage obtained her BSc degree in Immunology at McGill
University in 1995. She subsequently completed a 4-year PhD program in Experimental
Medicine under the supervision of Dr Patrice Hugo, where she acquired expertise in
central T cell tolerance mechanisms. From 1999 to 2002, she pursued her post-doctoral
training in the world-renowned laboratory of Dr Christopher C. Goodnow in Australia.
There, she attempted to understand the concepts of T cell tolerance in type 1
diabetes. By using various mouse models she showed that mice developing disease
exhibited defects in T cell tolerance and she undertook the characterization of these
defects at a molecular and genetic level. From 2003 to 2005, she completed a second
post-doctoral training under the supervision of Dr Marika Sarfati in Montreal. During
that training period, Dr Lesage was exposed to human immunology and learned to
transpose knowledge from mouse to human.
Since September 2005, Dr Lesage was appointed as Assistant
Professor at the University of Montreal and was promoted to Associate Professor, in
June 1st 2010. She has established her research laboratory at the
Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. Her main research interest is aimed at restoring the
immune balance to prevent the onset or abrogate the progression of type 1 diabetes.
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Click here for PubMed listing
Research Interests
Our research goals are aimed at defining homeostatic regulation of
cell populations composing the immune system and to identify their impact on the
susceptibility of complex genetic diseases such as autoimmune diseases and cancer.
In particular, we study variations of T cell and dendritic cell
sub-populations in various strains of mice. The ultimate goal is to increase our
understanding of the cellular population dynamics in the immune system. This research
will provide the basis for cellular therapy protocols aimed at restoring the immune
balance to prevent the onset or abrogate the progression of various auto-immune
diseases and lymphoid cancers.
Technologies: congenic and transgenic mice, cellular immunology,
multiparametric flow cytometry, genetic association studies of polymorphisms.
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