Villeneuve lab members Frédéric, Yara, Jonathan, Sophie, Ting and Bery presented some of their recent work at this year’s Québec Bio-imaging Network Scientific Day, held at the Université de Sherbrooke. Dr. Sylvia Villeneuve was awarded the Rising Star in Bio-Imaging in Quebec and gave a keynote lecture on her research goals and recent findings. Her talk is available here. Thank you to the organizing committee for a wonderful conference! [Presentations]
 

Julie Gonneaud’s latest paper was published in Nature Communications. Here, we developed a model that predicts brain age across the lifespan from resting state fMRI data using machine learning techniques. In the context of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD), our model revealed that the presymptomatic phase of autosomal dominant AD is characterized by accelerated functional brain aging. [Papers]

All of us at the Villeneuve Lab enjoyed attending this year’s AAIC. Moreover, Marianne Chapleau and Cherie Strikwerda-Brown were in Denver to give talks on their recent work at the lab. [Presentations]

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Villeneuve received a 4-year project grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for the Development and validation of blood biomarkers for the detection of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.
Principal Investigator: Sylvia Villeneuve
Co-investigators: Simon Ducharme, Maiya Geddes, Judes Poirier, Nathan Spreng

Villeneuve lab members Marianne, Cherie, Frédéric, and Hazal presented some of their recent work at this year’s Québec Bio-imaging Network Scientific Days. Many thanks to the organizing committee! [Posters]

Theresa Köbe’s latest paper was just published in NeuroImage. In this study of the PREVENT-AD cohort, we found associations between changes in default-mode network connectivity and vascular risk factors. [Papers]

Alexa successfully defended her PhD thesis “Brain and behavioural factors across the lifespan and Alzheimer’s disease” virtually. Congratulations!

Julie Gonneaud’s paper “Association of education with Aβ burden in preclinical familial and sporadic Alzheimer disease” has been published in Neurology. [Papers]

Dr. Sylvia Villeneuve was invited to Nilearn Dev Days 2020, where she spoke about using machine learning to predict brain age in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease. Her talk is available here.

Villeneuve lab members Alexa, Frédéric and Hazal presented their recent work at the 12th Annual Québec Bio-imaging Network (QBIN) Scientific Day. [Posters] [Photos]

Theresa Köbe’s article “Association of Vascular Risk Factors With ß-Amyloid Peptide and Tau Burdens in Cognitively Unimpaired Individuals and Its Interaction With Vascular Medication Use” has been published in JAMA Network Open. In this cohort study of older adults at higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease, we show that vascular medication use moderates the association between vascular risk factors and amyloid burden. [Papers]

Melissa McSweeney and Alexa Pichet Binette’s article “Intermediate flortaucipir uptake is associated with Aβ-PET and CSF-tau in asymptomatic adults” has been published in Neurology. In this cohort study of cognitively normal older adults at risk of Alzheimer’s disease, we find that relatively low tau (flortaucipir) values measured by positron emission tomography are associated with markers of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease. [Papers]

Alexa Pichet Binette gave a talk entitled “Brain and behavioral factors across lifespan and Alzheimer’s disease continuum” as part of the CIC Lecture Series at the Douglas Research Centre.

Pierre-François Meyer’s article “Characterization of Alzheimer Disease Biomarker Discrepancies Using Cerebrospinal Fluid Phosphorylated Tau and AV1451 Positron Emission Tomography” has been published in JAMA Neurology. In this cohort study, we find that Alzheimer’s disease-related tau abnormality may be detected earlier in cerebrospinal fluid than by positron emission tomography, before apparent cognitive decline. [Papers]

Dr. Villeneuve, along with Alexa Pichet Binette, Hazal Ozlen, and Pierre-François Meyer, attended this year’s Human Amyloid Imaging conference (HAI 2020) in Miami. Dr. Villeneuve presided over a didactic session; Pierre gave a talk; Alexa, Hazal and Pierre presented posters of their recent work. [Presentations] [Photos]

Theresa Köbe has completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Villeneuve Lab. Keep an eye out for publications of her research on vascular risk factors in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.
Theresa will continue her research at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Dresden, Germany, in the lab of Dr. Miranka Wirth. She will further investigate vascular mechanisms in healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease, with a goal of identifying interventional strategies to maintain a healthy brain in older age and reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Pierre-François successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Immune mechanisms as predictors of cognitive impairment and therapeutic targets in pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease.” Congratulations!

The Canadian television series Découverte featured Dr. Villeneuve and the work of the PREVENT-AD research group in an episode about Alzheimer’s disease. This episode aired on October 6, 2019 on ICI Radio-Canada Télé and can be watched online here.

The Villeneuve Lab team bids farewell to Melissa McSweeney, our first graduating Master’s student. Melissa joined our lab in August 2017 and has been a Master’s student for the last 2 years. Melissa has contributed significantly to the lab and has helped manage the lab. We wish her all the best with her new career.

Congrats to Alexa, Hazal and Pierre on receiving Healthy Brains for Healthy Lives (HBHL) Fellowships for the upcoming year.

We would like to give a warm welcome to two new lab members: Frédéric St-Onge and Jordana Remz. Frédéric joined us from Quebec City as our new doctoral student. Frédéric will aim to predict, as early as possible, cognitively healthy individuals who will develop cognitive impairment over time, using a combination of clinical and neuroimaging variables. Jordana is currently working on different modalities in neuroimaging and focuses her efforts on the automation of data processing. You can read more about Frédéric and Jordana, including their previous work and some of their interests, on our lab members page.

The Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2019 conference took place in Los Angeles from July 14–18. Dr. Villeneuve, along with Julie Gonneaud, Alexa Pichet Binette, Theresa Köbe, and Pierre-François Meyer attended the AAIC to present some of their recent work. Alexa, Julie, and Theresa presented their posters at the conference and Pierre-François gave a talk about his work. [Photos]

2019 Annual Research Day of Douglas Hospital Research Centre and McGill Department of Psychiatry was on Tuesday, June 11, 2019. This is an important event, which highlights the vital contributions of our students and postdocs to the Douglas and McGill communities. Pierre-François Meyer gave a presentation, while Theresa Köbe and Melissa McSweeney presented their posters. [Photos]

The Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) 2019 conference took place in Rome from June 9 – 13. OHBM brings together researchers from all over the world who have made cutting-edge neuroscientific discoveries with the use of neuroimaging. At OHBM, Alexa Pichet Binette presented her poster “Gray matter volume and whole-brain pattern organization across the lifespan and Alzheimer’s disease”.

The Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform (CONP) is a large open data pool where researchers can publish, share, and access neuroscience research data. It improves the accessibility of data with the goal of collaboration among researchers, research efficiency, and rapid scientific discovery. The first annual meeting of CONP took place at the end of April in Toronto. Dr. Sylvia Villeneuve and Jennifer Tremblay-Mercier took part in the two-day conference which featured talks about open neuroscience’s role in accelerating scientific breakthroughs and how researchers can maintain the accessibility of freely available data.

In April 2019, the Canadian television series Discovery visited 3 laboratories at the Douglas for their segment covering Artificial Intelligence and new discoveries in the field of Alzheimer’s research. Dr. Judes Poirier and Dr. Villeneuve’s lab took part in this filming session as well as Dr. Mallar Chakravarty, a PREVENT-AD collaborator. We would like to extend a special thanks to the participants who generously agreed to be in the eye of the camera, and were filmed during their PET scan, MRI scan, and while playing with the crew to enact “fake” memory testing. The episode will air on SRC in September. We will keep you posted on the air date and time!

Villeneuve lab members Theresa, Pierre, and Alexa presented their recent projects using poster and video presentations at the 11th Quebec Bio-Imaging Network (QBIN) Scientific Day.

We are happy to announce that Dr. Villeneuve have received a 5-year grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for the project entitled “Preventing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease pathology by targeting the effects of lifestyle factors and personality traits.“

Principal Investigator: Villeneuve, Sylvia C
Co-Investigators: Breitner, John C; Collins, D. Louis; Poirier, Judes; Rajah, M. Natasha N; Soucy, Jean-Paul; Vachon-Presseau, Etienne

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Dr. Villeneuve, along with Theresa, Alexa, Pierre, and Melissa attended this year’s Human Amyloid Imaging (HAI) conference in Miami to present some of their recent work. You can check their posters here: [Posters]

[photo gallery]

Anne is a post-doctoral researcher at DNZE Magdeburg Site, Germany. She will collaborate with the Villeneuve lab to study the relations between memory dysregulation and amyloid and tau proteins using task-fMRI data from Prevent-AD.

Congratulations to Julie Gonneaud for receiving best poster and best abstract prizes from the Montreal AI & Neuroscience (MAIN) conference 2018 and McConnell BIC retreat event for her recent project entitled “The preclinical phase of autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by accelerated brain aging.” [poster]

A very warm Merry Christmas to all, from the Villeneuve lab team.

Alexa presented her research entitled “Behavioral factors are differentially associated with amyloid and tau burden in older adults with a family history of Alzheimer’s disease” at the NeuroQAM Science day 2018 for which she received the best oral presentation award.

On November 15, the annual gala event was held for the participants of the PREVENT-AD study. The day was punctuated by presentations by Drs. Judes Poirier and Sylvia Villeneuve on the latest advances in Alzheimer’s disease research and future developments in the study. During the meal, participants, researchers, and students were able to talk together. A huge thank you to our participants who, as always, showed much dedication and involvement this year. [Photo gallery]

Villeneuve lab members Mari-Elise, Theresa, Morteza, and Kaitlin presented the progress of their research projects to other students and faculty at the Douglas Hospital Research Blitz event.

The annual Villeneuve lab’s retreat took place at La Conception, Quebec. For three days, the team explored novel research ideas through brainstorming sessions and hackathons, while enjoying the picturesque nature and home-cooked foods together. [Photo gallery]

[Photo gallery]

Dr. Villeneuve alongside Julie, Alexa, and Morteza attended Dr. William E. Klunk’s lecture on “Amyloid Imaging: Influence of Very Advanced Age and Genetic Alterations” at Montreal Neurological Institute.
Dr Klunk is one of the most renowned researcher in the field of amyloid PET imaging. In 2001, Dr. Klunk and colleagues created the PiB tracer, allowing for the first time a non-invasive method for quantifying Alzheimer’s pathology in humans.

Villeneuve Lab members: Julie, Theresa, Alexa, Morteza, and Melissa attended the educational course organized alongside the 6th Biennial Conference on Rest State and Connectivity that was held in Montreal this year. They learned more about cutting-edge structural and functional connectivity analyses, as well as the utility of machine learning algorithms in neuroimaging.
Julie and Alexa also attended the main conference. Julie presented her most recent project, a predictive model of age based on functional connectivity to then look at differences in the preclinical phase of AD [poster].

Group photo recreated in the style of brain connectivity artwork using the DeepArt machine learning algorithm.

Dr Villeneuve has been invited to the VU University of Amsterdam in Netherlands as an external member of the Sander Verfaillie thesis defence committee. Sander was a Ph.D. candidate at the Alzheimer Center of the VU University Medical Center and worked on subjective memory complaints by integrating PET and MRI imaging. He joined Villeneuve lab in 2016-17 for a research project. The results of his project were recently published [Paper].
Sander defended his thesis entitled “Neuroimaging in subjective cognitive decline: incipient Alzheimer’s disease unmasked” with great success. Congratulations!

Dr. Villeneuve, along with Julie Gonneaud, Alexa Pichet Binette, Theresa Köbe, Melissa McSweeney, Pierre-François Meyer and Etienne Vachon-Presseau attended this year’s AAIC conference in Chicago to present some of their recent work. Alexa, Melissa, and Pierre gave a talk about their work, and Theresa and Julie presented their posters at the conference. [Photos]

Alexa presented her work on associations of neuropsychiatric and personality factors with amyloid and tau PET measures. An insight into how these characteristics may shape AD risk. Pierre presented work showing that CSF protein markers of key AD-related biological pathways may indicate resilience to Alzheimer pathology. Alexa and Pierre received a CIHR Honorable Mention and Gold award respectively for their presentations at CSHRF 2018! Congratulations to you both!

Last week, on Friday, June 22th, the Villeneuve lab students attended the 3rd edition of the NeuroSymposium. This symposium is an inter-university initiative whose aim is to build an active community of young neuroscientists across Quebec. This great initiative is organized by students across the province, and Alexa is among to co-founders of the event. Melissa presented her work and other lab members helped during the day.

2018 Annual Research Day of Douglas Hospital Research Centre and McGill Department of Psychiatry was on last Tuesday, June 5, 2018. This is an important event, which highlights the vital contributions of our students and postdocs to the Douglas and McGill communities. Julie and Pierre gave a presentation, while Alexa and Melissa presented their posters. Prizes were awarded for the best oral and poster presentations and Alexa won the prize for “Best Poster Presentation”. [Photos]

Pierre and Alexa attended the graduate course “Biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases” at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, organized by Drs. Michael Schöll, Henrik Zetterberg, Kerstin Heurling & Kaj Blennow. The week was filled with talks related to CSF and PET biomarkers by leading experts in the field. It was a fun and productive week in the beautiful city of Gothenburg!

We would like to give a warm welcome to our new lab member Morteza Pishnamazi. Morteza joined us from Tehran, Iran as a Rotation program Ph.D. student in the Integrated Program in Neuroscience at McGill University. At Villeneuve Lab, he will study the association between baseline Aβ and tau deposition loads and temporal changes in gray matter volume in pre-symptomatic senile individuals at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
You can read more about Morteza, including their previous work and some of their interests, on our people page.

Their abstracts got accepted and they will be presenting their work at Villeneuve Lab at both Alzheimer’s Imaging Consortium (AIC) and Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) which will take place in Chicago on July 2018.
Melissa: “Early Increase in Tau-PET Signal Is Associated with Aβ Burden, CSF p-Tau Levels, and Cognition in Cognitively Normal Late-Middle-Aged Adults”
Alexa: “Neuropsychiatric Burden Is Related to Increased Amyloid but Not Tau Deposition in Late-Middle-Aged Cognitively Normal Individuals with a Family History of Alzheimer’s Disease”
Julie: “Genetic and Environmental Factors Are Differentially Related to Aβ Burden in the Presymptomatic Phase of Autosomal Dominant and Sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease”
Theresa: “Cerebral GABA, resting-state functional connectivity and memory function in Alzheimer’s disease”
Pierre: “CSF Immune Markers Predict Decreased AD Symptom Severity and Progression”

We would like to give a warm welcome to our new lab member Theresa Köbe. Theresa joined us from Berlin, Germany as a Postdoctoral Student. Her project here focuses on the impact of vascular burden on preclinical Alzheimer’s disease pathology.
You can read more about Theresa, including their previous work and some of their interests, on our people page.

The Alzforum weekly newsletter featured an article by Madolyn Bowman Rogers covering Dr. Villeneuve’s paper. You can read the article here.26 Feb 2018Dr. Villeneuve and her team had the chance to be interviewed by TVA and Radio Canada on February 26th. The interviews are about Dr. Villeneuve’s recent publication on the link between amyloid accumulation and proximity to parental symptom onset in individuals with a family history of Alzheimer’s disease. You can watch the interview with TVA here and the one with Radio-Canada here. You can also access the press release published by McGill University on this study here.

A new article by Dr. Villeneuve: “Proximity to parental symptom onset and amyloid burden in sporadic Alzheimer’s disease”, has been published in JAMA Neurology. This study shows that as individuals with a family history of sporadic AD approach the age of their parent at symptom onset, they are more likely to show amyloid burden. This finding was confirmed in three different cohorts and was independent of their biological age.

Dr. Villeneuve, along with Julie Gonneaud and Alexa Pichet Binette attended this year’s HAI conference in Miami to present some of their recent works. Julie gave a talk comparing sporadic AD and autosomal dominant AD, and Alexa presented her poster at the conference. [Photos]

A new article by Sander Verfaillie, “Subjective cognitive decline is associated with altered default mode network connectivity in individuals with a family history of Alzheimer’s Disease” published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging feature research on the subjective cognitive decline, brain connectivity pattern and family history of dementia.

The Villeneuve Lab wishes everyone a happy new year! Photos

Congrats to Julie on receiving Human Amyloid Imaging conference travel fellowship to attend at the conference that will be held in January 17-19, 2018 in Miami, FL.

Congrats to Julie and Melissa on receiving Réseau De Bio-Imagerie Du Québec scholarship (RBIQ-QBIN) for the upcoming conference. Julie was ranked first amongst 57 participants.

A new article “White matter structure in older adults moderates the benefit of sleep spindles on motor memory consolidation” published in Journal of Neuroscience features research on memory, brain structure, and sleep.

A new article “Highly efficient solid phase-supported radiosynthesis of [¹¹ C]PiB using tC18 cartridge as a “3-in-1” production entity.” published in Journal of Labelled Compounds and Radiopharmaceuticals features research on Amyloid imaging and Positron Emission Tomography.

We would like to give a warm welcome to our new lab member Melissa McSweeney. Melissa joined us from Chicago as a master’s Student. Her project here focuses on the roles of sleep and cognitive fluctuations in Alzheimer’s disease. Melissa already presented her previous work during Integrated Program in Neuroscience Retreat with Alexa. We are excited to work with her and know she will contribute significantly to our lab’s growth.
You can read more about Melissa, including their previous work and some of their interests, on our people page.

The Villeneuve Lab enjoyed a retreat at Sainte-Anne-des-Lacs. The team worked on the upcoming projects. We also enjoyed the beautiful nature and some delicious food afterward!

The posters, which were presented by Dr. Villeneuve, along with students Alexa Pichet Binette and Pierre-François Meyer, and consultant Etienne Vachon-Presseau at this year’s AAIC conference in London, are now available on our website [link to posters].

Dr. Villeneuve, along with students Alexa Pichet Binette and Pierre-François Meyer, and consultant Etienne Vachon-Presseau attended this year’s AAIC conference in London to present some of their recent work [link to posters]. Villeneuve Lab alumnus Sander Verfaille was also in attendance, and gave a talk on subjective cognitive complaints; a project he worked on during his time in the lab.

Congrats to Pierre et Alexa who received travel awards from the Alzheimer’s Association to attend/assist at the international Alzheimer’s Conference (AAIC) that will be held in July in London.

We would like to give a warm welcome to two new lab members: Julie Gonneaud and Sander Verfaillie. Julie comes to us from France as a postdoctoral researcher. Her project here focuses on the detection of early biomarker changes in asymptomatic individuals with a familial risk of Alzheimer’s Disease. Sander hails from the Netherlands and is here as a graduate researcher. His Ph.D. project aims to investigate the earliest brain changes leading to Alzheimer’s Disease in cognitively intact individuals.
You can read more about Julie and Sander, including their previous work and some of their interests, on our people page.

A recent article on Alzforum noted the presence of the Villeneuve Lab at the AAIC, particularly Jake Vogel’s presentation. The article is entitled “Amyloid and Neurodegeneration Have Different Underlying Genetics.”
Jake Vogel gave his AAIC talk on AD-like patterns of gray matter volume, default mode network connectivity and their association with time till parental symptom onset in sporadic Alzheimer’s disease.
Alexa Pichet Binette also presented a poster at AAIC 2016, relating high CSF tau to reduced hippocampal volume and subjective cognitive decline in healthy elderly with amyloid pathology.You can find more Villeneuve Lab posters and presentations under the Publications heading above.

Dr. Villeneuve received one of the grants as a principal investigator, and the other as a co-investigator – both from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
The first project aims to establish a better understanding of the impact of vascular health on Alzheimer’s disease pathology and clinical expression.

Principal Investigator: Villeneuve, Sylvia C
Co-Investigators: Breitner, John C; Evans, Alan C; Gauthier, Serge G; Hoge, Richard D; Poirier, Judes; Rosa-Neto, Pedro

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The second project aims to investigate the distinctive neuropathology underlying abnormal cognitive decline in remotely concussed former athletes.
Principal Investigator: De Beaumont, Louis
Co-Investigators: Evans, Alan C; Gauthier, Serge G; Henry, Luke C; Poirier, Judes; Tremblay, Sébastien; Villeneuve, Sylvia C

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Congratulations to Alexa Pichet Binette and Jake Vogel, both of whom received grants this month. Alexa received an Alzheimer’s Society of Canada doctoral scholarship of $60,000 to study the early vascular brain changes and related protective factors in elderly at risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Jacob received an Alzheimer’s Imaging Consortium travel scholarship and an Alzheimer’s Association International Conference travel scholarship.
Dr. Villeneuve also received the Biomedical New Investigator Grant this month, jointly funded by the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada and Brain Canada. The grant consists of $225,000, for tracking Alzheimer’s disease progression at the earliest stages using amyloid and tau PET scans.

The PERFORM Applied Bioimaging Centre, run out of Concordia University, is a unique facility that aims to improve health through prevention. The centre hosted their first Methodological Workshop on May 20^th, 2016, on the topic of “Longitudinal Analysis with Neuroimaging Data”. Dr. Villeneuve was an invited speaker, giving a talk on Imaging Amyloid Proteins in Aging and Dementia. The inaugural event was a great success!

The grant was for $100,000 to develop an online platform to assess health and lifestyle habits in a cohort of ~300 cognitively normal individuals with a family history of Alzheimer’s disease.

The John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) is described as a “strategic investment tool designed to help institutions attract and retain the very best of today’s and tomorrow’s researchers funding”. The funding is associated with a Canada Research Chair amounting to $250,000.

The chair is in Early Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease and consists of $500,000.