Scientific Advisory
Board

Robert Hegele

Chair of the IRCM Scientific Advisory Board
Distinguished University Professor, Western University (London, Canada)
 

Dr. Hegele studies the genetics of lipids, diabetes and heart disease, and has discovered the molecular genetic basis of 20 human diseases, including hepatic lipase deficiency, partial lipodystrophy, Oji-Cree type 2 diabetes and endocrine-cerebro-osteodysplasia (ECO) syndrome. He has contributed to international treatment guidelines for hypertriglyceridemia, and to national treatment guidelines for cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes.

Victoria Sanz-Moreno

Professor of Cancer Cell Biology, Barts Cancer Institute,
Queen Mary University of London (UK)

Dr. Sanz-Moreno’s research focuses on how the cytoskeleton of cancer cells regulates transcriptional rewiring during tumour growth and dissemination. She is interested in how ROCK and the actomyosin cytoskeleton cross-talks with transcription factors, and how this communication influences metastatic behaviour in both cancer cells and the tumour microenvironment. She combines 'OMICs', microscopy in 3D matrices, molecular biology, animal models and digital pathology in patients.

Kodi Ravichandran

Division Chief, Immunobiology,
Department of Pathology & Immunology,
Washington University (St-Louis, USA)

Dr. Ravichandran’s work examines the molecules and mechanisms involved in how we remove billions of cells that turnover daily in our bodies, the mechanisms by which this clearance process is regulated during homeostasis, and how impairments in this process can influence a variety of inflammatory diseases. His laboratory has made key contributions to our current knowledge of the key phagocytes coordinate the many steps in efferocytosis.

Benoit Bruneau

Director, Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease,
Professor, Department of Pediatrics,
UC San Francisco (USA)

Dr. Bruneau is broadly interested in understanding how genes are turned on and off during human development, and how this process is controlled during the formation of the heart in the embryo. Specifically, his team is investigating how errors in this process cause congenital heart disease. He uses mouse models and human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to unravel the transcription factor networks that regulate sets of genes critical for heart development.