Full professor
Department of Surgery
Faculty of Medicine

Professor Fradette is a full professor in the department of surgery of the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval and has been a researcher at the CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center since 2005. After a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry (1991-1994, Université Laval) and a doctorate in molecular cell biology on epithelial stem cells of the skin (1994-1999, Université Laval, with L. Germain, LOEX), she specialized in gene therapy during her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh (1999-2004, with J. Glorioso III, U Pittsburgh, PA, USA). Her current research program is based on the use in regenerative medicine of human stem cells extracted from adipose tissue. From 2015 to 2022, she was the director of the Quebec network ThéCell for cell, tissue and gene therapy, a thematic network supported by the FRQS.

Development of reconstructed tissues as 3D tools in vitro and for clinical applications

Professor Fradette’s research program is based on the use of an abundant and promising cellular source: multipotent stem cells extracted from human adipose tissue (ASCs). Her team’s work aims to study and use these stem cells in tissue engineering, in order to recreate various tissues (connective, skin, adipose and bone tissues) for which there is a shortage for transplantation. For example, tissues that recreate the metabolism of human adipocytes in a 3D tissue context are in vitro research tools that will rapidly advance our knowledge of pharmaco-toxicology on adipose cells. Additionally, adipose tissue is important in surgery to rebuild damaged or lost tissue following accidents, deep burns, or resections of tumors of all sizes, such as mastectomies after breast cancer.

Her work aims at a better understanding of adipocyte-endothelial cell interactions, the effects of inflammation on the blood capillaries of adipose tissue, the impact of the extracellular matrix on adipogenesis and in tissue remodeling under normal and pathological conditions. Current research also aims to promote vascularization and the development of thick tissues under xenogen-free culture conditions (without animal proteins) which is compatible with clinical application.

Her preclinical work includes determining the therapeutic efficacy of manipulable 3D biological dressings produced by tissue engineering from adipose tissue stem cells on the healing of skin wounds. In particular, complex wounds that are difficult to heal such as wounds in irradiated skin (side effect of radiotherapy following breast cancer for example) are studied. The capacity of biological dressings to stimulate the various healing processes of cutaneous wounds is thus evaluated in vitro and in preclinical studies in vivo.