Principal Investigator
Dr. Sylvia Villeneuve, Canada Research Chair in Early Detection of Alzheimer’s disease
Dr. Villeneuve is an Associate Professor at McGill University in the department of Psychiatry, and a member of the Integrated Program in Neuroscience. She is also an Associate Member of the Neurology and Neurosurgery department, within the Faculty of Medicine. She is Director of the StoP-AD Centre and its PREVENT-AD program at the Research Centre of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. She is also an Associate Member of the McGill University Research Centre for Studies in Aging. Read More
Dr. Villeneuve did a first postdoctoral fellowship under the supervision of Professor William Jagust at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley. A central focus of her research was to examine the interplay between beta-amyloid deposition, vascular diseases, and cognition in the preclinical phase of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Villeneuve did a second postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University under the supervision of Professor Todd Parrish and in collaboration with the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center. This second training involved the proposing of a multimodal MR-based imaging battery to determine the predictive value of neurovascular insults, such as deterioration of the blood-brain barrier or reduced cerebral vascular reactivity, to detect early changes associated with amyloid pathology. Dr. Villeneuve received her PhD at the Université de Montréal under the supervision of Professor Sylvie Belleville and has been a member of the Ordre des Psychologues du Québec since 2009.
Dr. Villeneuve’s work is currently supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Contact: villeneuve.sylvia(/at/)gmail.com
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Postdoctoral Researchers

Cherie Strikwerda-Brown, Faculty of Medicine Richard & Edith Strauss and Mitacs Accelerate Fellow
Cherie is a qualified Clinical Neuropsychologist, completing her clinical Master’s training at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She worked clinically for 2 years before commencing her PhD at the University of Sydney, where she studied the cognitive and neurobiological underpinnings of self-referential processing in frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, using MRI and psychological tasks. Her postdoctoral project in the Villeneuve lab will focus on the relationship between personality traits, functional connectivity, and Alzheimer’s disease pathology in preclinical AD. Outside of the lab, she loves to travel, run, and try new restaurants.
Contact: cherie.strikwerda-brown(/at/)mail.mcgill.ca
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Valentin Ourry
Valentin is a post-doctoral fellow in the Villeneuve Lab. He received his BA and MSc in Neurosciences from the University of Caen, France. He then obtained his PhD in Psychology from the University of Caen in 2021, under the supervision of Dr. Rauchs in the Chetelat Lab. As a member of the Villeneuve Lab, he will continue to study lifestyle factors and Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers using multimodal imaging in aging and preclinical Alzheimer’s disease. Outside the lab, he enjoys playing classical and flamenco guitar and fly fishing Canada’s exceptional rivers.
Contact: valentin.ourry(/at/)gmail.com
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