Associate professor
Pharmacy - Direction
Faculty of Pharmacy

Pr. Jessica Deslauriers is a researcher within the Neurosciences program of the CRCHU de Québec-Université Laval, and an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Université Laval.

Pr. Deslauriers completed her graduate studies in physiology at Université de Sherbrooke under the supervision of Drs. Sylvain Grignon and Philippe Sarret. She investigated the role of prenatal inflammation in the development of psychotic-like and depressive-like behaviors in mice. She then pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California San Diego and Veterans Affairs San Diego Medical Center under the supervision of Dr. Victoria Risbrough. The preclinical and clinical studies conducted by Pr. Deslauriers helped to gain a better understanding of the role of the inflammatory response following psychological trauma in the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She acquired a strong expertise in pharmacology, molecular biology, neurodevelopmental models of psychiatric disorders, behavioral neuroscience, and the study of immune signaling pathways.

Susceptibility to post-traumatic disorders: towards personalized medicine in psychiatry

Ninety percent of the population has experienced or will experience a traumatic event during their life, and more than half of these individuals develop psychiatric symptoms, such as PTSD, schizophrenia, or depression. The currently available treatments have limited efficacy. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop novel pharmacological therapies.

Pr. Deslauriers’ laboratory at the CRCHU de Québec-Université Laval uses translational and multidisciplinary approaches (1) to understand the mechanisms of susceptibility to psychological trauma, with a primary focus on immune signaling pathways; (2) to identify inflammatory and exosomal biomarkers of increased susceptibility to trauma; and (3) to use personalized medicine by targeting pharmacological approaches based on molecular and pathophysiological characteristics specific to the patient or the “at-risk” individual. Dr. Deslauriers uses a methodology translatable from rodents to humans, including behavioral paradigms, innovative molecular techniques, as well as genetic and chemogenetic approaches.

The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. - Steve Jobs