Dr. Philippe Huot uses experimental models of Parkinson’s disease (PD) to develop new drugs for the disease.
“My laboratory focusses equally on discovering therapies to alleviate uncontrollable movements caused by PD and on looking for a total cure” says Dr. Huot, who trained in neurology at Université Laval and received his PhD from the University of Toronto, where he did post-doctoral research in movement disorders. After a term on the faculty of Université de Montréal, he joined The Neuro in May, 2017.
His lab seeks to further the understanding of the neuro-chemistry and neuro-anatomy of the basal ganglia, a fascinating group of brain structures, under normal conditions as well as in Parkinson’s disease, a neuro-degenerative disease that affects as many as 1% of the population aged over 60. They are on a journey that will bring them closer to a cure to Parkinson’s disease. They also seek to discover drugs that will provide greater relief of parkinsonian disability and treatment-related complications, e.g. dyskinesia, motor fluctuations and visual hallucinations.
To this end, they use a wealth of in vivo approaches, including
- Behavioural pharmacology in experimental models of Parkinson’s disease
- Determination of the pharmacokinetic profile of investigational drugs in different pre-clinical models (LC-MS/MS)
- Positron emission tomography (PET)
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- Computed tomography (CT) scanning
- Intra-cerebral stereotaxic delivery of substances
They will also use a breadth of post-mortem techniques, including
- Auto-radiographic receptor/transporter binding in brain tissue
- Western blotting
- Immuno-histochemistry and stereological neuronal counting
- In situ hybridisation
Funding:
The Weston Brain Institute
The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research
Fonds de Recherche Québec – Santé
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Healthy Brains for Healthy Lives
Parkinson Canada
