In a special section of the newspaper Le Devoir published for the 50 years of the “Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé”, FRQS, Yves De Koninck explains the importance of this funding agency for Quebec researchers, and the advantage it gives then at the national and international level. Read the full article in the September 13 edition of Le Devoir (in French only): Le FRQS, un soutien essentiel pour les chercheurs

Listen to a recent interview with Jean-Martin Beaulieu, who recently won the 2014 IMHRO / Johnson & Johnson Rising Star Translational Research Award. He explains his research and his aim to develop safer, targeted mood stabilizing drugs by testing, in cell culture and in mice, small molecules which his past research suggests might replicate the therapeutic effect of lithium with minimal side effect.
The interview is available here:
https://www.imhro.org/brain-waves/developing-safer-mood-stabilizers-dr-jean-martin-beaulieu.
You can also post questions for Dr. Beaulieu until August 29th.

The recent discoveries by Robert Bonin and Yves De Koninck are featured on PBS’s Nova Next website.  The article features interviews with pain specialists Allan Basbaum, from the University of California, San Francisco and Ted Price, from University of Texas-Dallas, in addition to Université Laval’s De Koninck.  Read the article on the Nova Next website, or read the original research article in Nature Neuroscience. 

Listen to Yves De Koninck in conversation with Kerri Smith explain the recent publication by Bonin and De Koninck in Nature Neuroscience.
The segment begins at 13:15 in the player below, or go to the Nature website to select the third segment directly.

Congratulations to Jean Martin Beaulieu who was recently awarded an IMHRO/Johnson & Johnson Rising Star Award, accompanied by a $250 000 grant over 3 years.

Read more in Le Fil, Université Laval’s community newspaper. (French only)

A study published in the scientific journal Nature Neuroscience by Yves De Koninck and Robert Bonin, two researchers at Université Laval, reveals that it is possible to relieve pain hypersensitivity using a new method that involves rekindling pain so that it can subsequently be erased. This discovery could lead to novel means to alleviate chronic pain.

Université Laval published a press release about this important discovery

Read the original research article in Nature Neuroscience:
Bonin RP, De Koninck Y. A spinal analog of memory reconsolidation enables reversal of hyperalgesia. Nat Neuroscience 2014 Jul 6. doi: 10.1038/nn.3758.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”678″,”attributes”:{“class”:”media-image alignleft size-medium wp-image-1457″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”style”:””,”width”:”300″,”height”:”200″,”alt”:”10470923_660585097364988_5498245926556749155_n”}}]]The annual retreat of the members of the Neurophysics research group was held at the Forêt Montmorency, June 19 and 20 2014. Picture of the event are available on the Neurophotonics Centre Facebook page.

The three teams that made the best presentations at the “Frontiers in Neurophotonics” Summer School were awarded a prize. The winners are:

• Sabrina Tazerart and Matthew Parsons (first place)
• Qiuqiang Zhan, Arutyun Bagramyan, and Joey Grochmal (second place)
• Jonathan Bumstead and Fadwa Joud (third place)

We wish to congratulate the winners for their excellent work, but also all the Summer School participants for their interest and enthusiasm.
Mario Méthot, Summer School Coordinator

You can view more pictures of the Summer School on our Facebook page

Marc Bergeron received the Marlene Reimer Brain Star of the year award at the 8th Annual Canadian Association for Neuroscience meeting. This award is given to the highest ranking Brain Star Award of the year. Brain Star awards are given by the Institutes of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction of the CIHR and are designed to recognize the excellence of research done in Canada by students and trainees in all fields and disciplines covered by the Institute.

Marc Bergeron shares this prize with Martin Gagnon, co-first author of the prized article in Nature Medicine (Gagnon, Bergeron, et al.). Marc is pictured here with Yves De Koninck, under whose supervision this work was done, and Sam David, President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience.

Francesco Ferrini, another trainee in the Yves De Koninck’s laboratory, was recognized as one of the top three Brain Star awardees, for an article published in Nature Neuroscience (Ferrini, Trang et al.). This prize was shared with Tuan Trang, co-first author of the publication.

Both Bergeron and Ferrini were invited by the CIHR to present their research at the 8th Annual Canadian Association for Neuroscience meeting.

Congratulations to Guillaume Lavertu, doctoral student at Université Laval with Yves De Koninck, who was named Star student by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé for the month of May.

Highlighted article: Enhancing K–Cl co-transport restores normal spinothalamic sensory coding in a neuropathic pain model Published in: BRAIN, 137; 724-738, 2014.