Speaker

Aurélie de Rus Jacquet

Assistant Professor
Université Laval

Aurelie de Rus Jacquet is a group leader in the Neurosciences axis of the Centre de Recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval, and an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval. She is a neurobiologist and an ethnopharmacologist specializing in the study of Parkinson’s disease. Her research led her to document the traditional uses of neuroprotective plants in remote areas of the world, and test their pro-health effects in cellular models of Parkinson’s disease. She discovered that a subset of botanical extracts mitigates the loss dopaminergic neurons and potentiates the neuroprotective role of astrocytes. Using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived models of Parkinson’s disease, Dr. de Rus Jacquet currently investigates the role of non-neuronal cells in disease onset and progression with the goal to guide new drug screening strategies. Her work has been featured in online articles, radio interviews and podcasts.