Basil Petrof

Dr. Basil Petrof received his MD degree from Laval University and then completed training in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at McGill University, and Sleep Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. After obtaining a Clinician-Scientist Award from the Medical Research Council of Canada, he pursued a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Center for Respiratory Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Since joining the faculty at McGill, Dr. Petrof has led a well funded and productive research program encompassing both basic and clinical research. In addition to his role as Director of the McGill Respiratory Division, Dr. Petrof holds leadership positions as Director of the Meakins-Christie Laboratories and Co-Leader of the Program for Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases at the MUHC Research Institute. He has mentored and fostered the careers of many clinician and PhD scientists from around the world.

Dr. Petrof’s main clinical interests are in the areas of sleep-disordered breathing and neuromuscular causes of respiratory failure. His research program focuses on respiratory muscle weakness in the critically ill, the influence of systemic and local inflammation on diaphragm injury and repair, and the pathogenesis of respiratory failure in muscular dystrophy.