Guy Poirier

Prof. Poirier undertook doctoral studies in molecular endocrinology under the direction of Dr. Fernand Labrie at Laval University in 1970. He then completed postdoctoral internships in the laboratory of Professor Gordon Dixon where he clarified the role of Poly(ADP-Ribosylation) (PARylation) in the regulation of histones, thus determining its main research theme.

In 1975, he obtained a position as professor of biology at the University of Sherbrooke, then started his laboratory. Prof. Poirier was the recipient of the prestigious Eleanor Roosevelt Fellowship Award from the American Cancer Institute and IUCC to continue his research at ISREC in Switzerland as an associate researcher. After his return to Sherbrooke, he settled permanently at Laval University, first in the Cancer Research Center at the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec (CRC) then at the CHUL Research Center. There he started a platform oriented towards the analysis of peptides and proteins which would become the Proteomic Platform of the Research Center of the CHU de Québec.

An important contribution of Prof. Poirier was the co-discovery of caspases, which are proteases essential for apoptosis. He then returned to his initial area of research with a second year of study and research at the ICRF (Cancer Research UK) in 1992 (second Eleanor Roosevelt Fellowship Award). At that time, the ICRF brought together eight very high-level researchers including Tim Hunt (2001 Nobel prize) and Tomas Lindahl (2015 Nobel prize). Back in Québec, his research in proteomics received particular attention. In 2002, he obtained a Canada Research Chair in Targeted Proteomics (CIHR), renewed in 2009. During the same period, he established the foundations of the Canadian National Proteomic Network (CNPN) of which he was the founding president.

In parallel with his work on PARylation mechanisms, Prof. Poirier was involved in the discovery of a new mode of cell death, called Parthanatos, in collaboration with researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In 2014, he had the honor of receiving an Honoris Causa doctorate from the University of Rennes-1 (France) and the first Diamond Prize from CHU de Québec for fundamental research. Note that Prof. Poirier was the recipient of the CNPN Tony Pawson Prize for his contribution to the field of proteomics research.

Currently, Prof. Poirier’s work aims to understand the molecular mechanisms that modulate the clinical response to PARP inhibitors. Based on the concept of synthetic lethality, the research group led by Prof. Poirier targets new therapeutic approaches, alone or in combination, in the context of tumors presenting mutations in DNA repair genes via the mechanism of homologous recombination. This work is carried out in collaboration with researchers from the CHU de Québec and the University of Alberta. An important part of his work lies in the identification of PARylated substrates and proteins with affinity for PAR. Prof. Poirier’s laboratory has been a leader in this field for over 20 years and was a pioneer in the study of PARylation by mass spectrometry.