Welcome to the Villeneuve Lab
The Villeneuve Lab is interested in how the brain ages, with a specific focus on factors that modify the association between brain lesions and cognitive performance. Our research is motivated by the fact that more than 25% of older adults are considered cognitively normal despite the presence of beta-amyloid in their brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. This fact suggests that other factors interact with beta-amyloid to trigger cognitive deficits in Alzheimer’s disease. It also suggests that actions can be taken to prevent or postpone disease-related symptoms. The main focus of the Villeneuve Lab’s research is therefore to examine the factors that protect against, or worsen, the development of cognitive deficits in age-related neurodegenerative diseases.
We use a multi-tier approach that includes molecular PET imaging, MRI imaging, neuropsychological testing and genetics, combined with analytic tools such as deep learning, lasso regression and partial least squares regression.
Visit our research page to learn more about our ongoing projects.
We work in close collaboration with the StoP-AD Centre, which is also directed by Dr. Sylvia Villeneuve.
Recent News
| Dr. Villeneuve receives grant from the Weston Family Foundation October 2024 Dr. Villeneuve was a awarded a “Brain Health: Sleep 2023” grant, funded by the Weston Family Foundation. This funding will allow Dr. Villeneuve and her team to investigate associations between sleep quality and the progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), as well as to test whether a drug originally developed to treat insomnia can prevent the accumulation of AD pathology. |
|
| McGill IPN Retreat September 2024 At the annual retreat of the Integrated Program in Neuroscience at McGill University, Ting Qiu and Jonathan Gallego Rudolf co-chaired the symposium “Multimodal neuroimaging biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease” and each gave a talk, and Alfonso Fajardo-Valdez presented a poster. [Photos] [Presentations] |
|
| New article from the Villeneuve lab September 2024 Jonathan Gallego-Rudolf’s article “Synergistic association of Aβ and tau pathology with cortical neurophysiology and cognitive decline in asymptomatic older adults” has been published in Nature Neuroscience. Our study shows that early deposition of Aβ and tau proteins in the brain synergistically affect neural activity in asymptomatic older adults at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. We show that Aβ deposition parallels an enhancement of fast-frequency neurophysiological activity, while tau deposition promotes a shift towards neurophysiological activity slowing, related to cognitive decline. This evidence supports a long-standing hypothesis that Aβ and tau differentially affect neural activity in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s, previously only shown in animal or computational models. Check out the full publication. [Papers] [Media and Press] |
|
| Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2024 August 2024 Villeneuve lab members appreciated participating in AAIC 2024 in Philadelphia. Alfonso, Daniel, Jonathan, Mohammadali, Valentin and Yara presented their research at poster sessions. Bery, Jonathan and Valentin gave oral presentations, and Yara co-chaired a session on fluid biomarkers. Thanks to everyone at AAIC for an enlightening and enjoyable conference. [Presentations] [Photos] |
|
| Recent awards June 2024 Congratulations to Jonathan Gallego Rudolf on receiving a Roger J. Paiement Outreach Award to present his work at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia and to Amelie Metz on receiving a Marie Giguère Travel Award to present her work at the Organization for Human Brain Mapping’s Annual Meeting in Seoul. Also, a Douglas Open Science Award was awarded to Mohammadali Javanray, Ting Qiu and Jonathan Gallego Rudolf for their project “Open access neuroimaging data derivatives from the PREVENT-AD cohort.” Funding for this award was made possible through the Douglas Foundation and the Tanenbaum Open Science Institute at the Montreal Neurological Institute. |
|
| QBIN Scientific Day May 2024 Villeneuve lab members attended this year’s Québec Bio-imaging Network Scientific Day, held at Concordia University. Ting, Mohammadali, Jonathan and Brandon presented flash talks on their latest research. Brandon received a “best presentation” award. [Presentations] [Photos] |
|
| Healthy Brains Healthy Lives Symposium May 2024 Jonathan was invited to give a flash talk and Amelie presented her recent work at a poster session at the 2024 HBHL Symposium at McGill University. [Presentations] |
|
| Amelie receives FRQS scholarship May 2024 Congratulations to Amelie Metz on having been awarded an FRQS doctoral scholarship! |
|
| New Article from the Villeneuve Lab April 2024 Ting Qiu’s article “Structural white matter properties and cognitive resilience to tau pathology” has been published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia. Our study demonstrates that the macro- and micro-structural properties of the brain’s white matter contribute to cognitive resilience against Alzheimer’s disease, particularly against tau pathology. Our results further reveal that education and vascular health aid in optimizing white matter properties, offering potential strategies to mitigate cognitive decline. [Papers] |
|
| More lab news here. |
