Jacques SimardPh.D.

Jacques Simard holds a Canadian Research Chair in Oncogenetics since 2001. He is Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Laval University’s School of Medicine, and is a scientist at the CHUL since 1990.

He is the author of more than 430 publications, review articles and book chapters. His research focuses on the genetic susceptibility of hormone-dependent cancers, including breast, ovarian and prostate cancer. Specifically, he participated in the characterization of the impact of mutations in the breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. He has been Director of the Interdisciplinary Health Research International Team on Breast Cancer Susceptibility (INHERIT BRCAs), an international interdisciplinary health research team on genetic susceptibility to breast cancer funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) 2001 -2007, which was renewed in 2008 for five years as the CIHR Team in Familial Risks of Breast Cancer. The establishment of this international team has allowed Dr. Simard to pursue numerous collaborations allowing him to accelerate the development of his oncogenetics research activities. Indeed, his close collaboration with several international consortia, notably the Breast Cancer Consortium Consortium (BCAC) and the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1 and BRCA2 (CIMBA), has led to a significant increase in the validity and the impact of scientific breakthroughs to improve the identification of women at increased risk of developing breast cancer which should benefit most from a better adapted clinical follow-up.

He is currently the principal investigator of a large-scale interdisciplinary project funded by Génome Québec/Genome Canada/CIHR/Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation (2013-2018) entitled Personalized Risk Stratification for Prevention and Early Detection of Breast Cancer (PERSPECTIVE), bringing together 27 co-researchers including fundamentalists, biostatisticians and clinicians from Quebec, Ontario, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany. This project is designed to develop the tools needed to implement a risk stratification approach that will target breast cancer screening in women most likely to develop the disease. In this context, recommendations on the starting age and frequency of mammography screening could be adapted for women’s individual risk of breast cancer. Indeed, risk stratification will better serve the subpopulation of younger women, who are at high risk of developing breast cancer, and who are currently missed by the standard age-based screening program as a criterion for eligibility. Since breast cancer in these young women often has a poorer prognosis, earlier detection and follow-up would improve survival rates, provide less aggressive treatment, reduce side effects, and increase their quality of life.

Pr. Simard is also a partner on two large European Commission Horizon 2020 (2015-2020) projects entitled BRIDGES (Breast Cancer Risk after Diagnostic Gene Sequencing) and B-CAST (Breast Cancer Stratification: Understanding the Determinants of Risk and Prognosis of Molecular Subtypes). Briefly, the BRIDGES project aims to develop a targeted prevention program for breast cancer, specifically to promote the health of women with a family history of the disease. In achieving its objectives, the BRIDGES program will improve targeted prevention of breast cancer, primarily in the context of oncogenetic clinics for breast cancer. To that end, Pr. Simard is the Principal Investigator of a grant from the Ministry of the Economy, Science and Innovation ($ 1.5 million) entitled PRÉVENTION (Predisposition, Prediction and Prevention of Breast Cancer), to substantially increase the collaboration of his interdisciplinary team with the BRIDGES project in order to validate and increase the impact of the discoveries made under the PERSPECTIVE project.