Dr. Philippe Gros, PhD, was formerly Deputy Vice-President, Research and Innovation, and is currently Chief Scientific Officer of the D2R program at 黑料网爆吃瓜. Dr. Gros is a Distinguished James 黑料网爆吃瓜 Professor of the Department of Biochemistry and the founding member of the 黑料网爆吃瓜 Center for the Study of Complex Traits. He is also a member of the 黑料网爆吃瓜 International Center for Tuberculosis, and the Goodman Cancer Research Institute and is an associate member of the Departments of Human Genetics and of Microbiology and Immunology.
With Dr. Mark Lathrop, Dr. Gros is also a co-founder of the Dahdaleh Institute of Genomic Medicine. His main area of investigation concerns the genetic analysis of susceptibility to infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, inflammatory conditions such as inflammatory bowel diseases and multiple sclerosis, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson鈥檚 disease.
He has received several prestigious awards since 2008 including, the Wilder Penfield Prize (Gouvernement du Qu茅bec; 2008), the Killam Prize in Health Sciences (Canada Council of the Arts, 2008), the Champion of Genetics Awards (GeneCure Foundation, 2011), the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, 2013), the McLaughlin Medal (Royal Society of Canada, 2014), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Chair, College of Reviewers (one of fifteen/2016). He is an Officer of the Order of Canada (2016) and was elected Chevalier de l鈥橭rdre national du Qu茅bec in 2019. He acts as an advisor for several organizations, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. His experience in the biotechnology sector includes the co-founding of PhageTech, Emerillon Therapeutics (Xenon) and Corbin Therapeutics.
Current Research Projects听
Dr. Gros鈥檚 laboratory uses a genetic approach to study host mechanisms of defence against mycobacterial infections (M. tuberculosis, M. bovis BCG vaccine). Projects include studying the MSMD syndrome (Mendelian Susceptibility to Mycobacterial Disease), presenting clinically as disseminated mycobacterial infection following Bacille Calmette-Gu茅rin (BCG) vaccination, and/or recurrent bouts of tuberculosis. Having discovered that deficiency in transcription factors IRF1 and IRF8 causes severe immunodeficiencies expressed as defects in the number and activity of myeloid and lymphoid cells, and severe infections including MSMD, the lab catalogued all the genes transcribed by the IRF1/IRF8 heterodimer in myeloid cells. The group showed that inactivation of several of these genes causes primary immunodeficiencies (including MSMD) and that their dysregulation is associated with human chronic inflammatory diseases. Having generated monogenic mouse models for many of these genes and human mutations, the group studies their mechanism of action and contribution to anti-mycobacterial defences.
Email: philippe.gros [at] mcgill.ca
