Thérèse Di Paolo

In addition to being a senior investigator at the CHU de Quebec–Université Laval Research Center and professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy at Laval University, Dr. Di Paolo is also an associate professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. She received the Janssen-Ortho pharmaceutical research award from the Association of Faculties of Pharmacy of Canada (2002); the Heinz Lehmann prize from the Canadian College of Neuopsychopharmacology, 2003; distinctions: Femmes réussite region Chaudière Appalache, Journal Économique de Québec, 2004, Femme de mérite, YWCA of Québec, Science and technology category, 2006, Empreintes d’elles, YWCA, honoring 400 women, 400^th anniversary of Québec City, 2008 and the Diamond prize for excellence in Fundamental Research, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Québec, Québec City, 2015.

Dr. Di Paolo has published over 295 peer-reviewed articles and 470 summaries. Her research interest is on Parkinson’s disease and L-Dopa-induced dyskinesias in the post-mortem human brains of Parkinson’s disease patients, non-human primates, and rodent models of Parkinson. This research was and is currently funded by the CIHR, NSERC, Parkinson Society Canada, CQDM, NIH and contracts from Prexton Therapeutics, Novartis, and Merck Serono. 

In recent years, her research has focused on the glutamatergic neurotransmission and the implication of ionotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptors. Various specific antagonists, positive and negative allosteric modulators of glutamate receptors were investigated to inhibit or prevent the development of L-Dopa-induced dyskinesias. Drugs of various pharmacological activities are also investigated in her laboratory including, serotoninergic drugs, omega-3, plasmalogens and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). She recently investigated the effect of a subthalamic lesion on L-Dopa-induced dyskinesias in parkinsonian monkeys, and is now working on the effect of deep stimulation in this area of the brain.

A major research endeavour in her laboratory is also to investigate neuroprotection in a mouse model of Parkinson’s Disease. Repurposing drugs used to treat various endocrine conditions were found to be neuroprotective such as estrogen, progesterone, the selective estrogen receptor modulator raloxifene, and the 5α-reductase inhibitor, dutasteride. Novel non-genomic mechanisms of action were investigated in this neuroprotection, including the implication of the membrane estrogen receptor (GPER1) and the effect of cholesterol on membrane microviscosity.