Dr. Luc Vallières is a full professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Université Laval and a researcher in neuroimmunology in the Neuroscience Unit at the Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval.
He began his career in 2002 after a postdoctoral training at the Salk Institute in California in the field of postnatal neurogenesis (1998-2001). This training was preceded by a doctorate in physiology at Laval University (1993-1998) and a bachelor’s degree in biology at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (1990-1993).
Dr. Vallières is studying two diseases that afflict the central nervous system: multiple sclerosis and brain cancer. His research program aims to better understand how immune cells are regulated in these diseases in the hope of finding a way to neutralize or stimulate them for therapeutic purposes. This program is well funded by the CIHR, NSERC and Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
He has made a significant contribution to the field of neuroimmunology by discovering a population of immune cells that constantly patrols the blood vessels of the nervous system and by elucidating mechanisms that govern their recruitment and functions under inflammatory conditions.
His research led to an international patent claiming the first ever drug that would specifically calm the neutrophil, an immune cell normally beneficial, but that can be involved in many inflammatory diseases.
Among his external activities, he is chairing the organizing committee of the 16th Congress of the International Society of Neuroimmunology (ISNI 2023), which will take place at the Québec City Convention Centre in August 2023.
