Lucie Germain

Lucie Germain is a full professor in the Department of Surgery. At the CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center, she served as the director of the Regenerative Medicine axis until 2014. Her work, focused on postnatal stem cells and tissue reconstruction, has led to four clinical trials involving the use of autologous human reconstructed tissues for the treatment of venous ulcers, severely burned patients, deficiencies in corneal limbal stem cells, and a patient with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa.

Professor Germain has published nearly 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 45 book chapters, and review articles, and has given over 135 presentations and seminars as an invited speaker. In 2015, her significant contribution to health research was recognized by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Foundation program, which granted her seven years of financial support. The Canadian Research Chairs program also recognized Professor Germain as a world leader in the field of stem cells and regenerative medicine, awarding her a Tier 2 Chair in 2001 and a Tier 1 Chair in 2015. From 2014 to 2018, she served as Vice-Dean of Research and Graduate Studies at the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval. In 2013, she was elected a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. She received the Bernard Léo-Pariseau Prize from the ACFAS (2022) and was inducted as a Fellow of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society International in 2024.

The application of her research to improve patient care is at the heart of her motivations. She also holds the Research Chair on Laboratory-Reconstructed Organs and their Clinical Applications, granted by the Université Laval Foundation.

Her research is dedicated to the reconstruction of human tissues, primarily the skin, cornea, blood vessels, and heart valves, for both experimental and clinical applications. Tissue models developed by Professor Germain are used for physiological, pathophysiological, or pharmacotoxicological studies. She particularly seeks to understand the molecular signals that promote the maintenance of stem cells in culture or control their differentiation.

She is also actively working to improve the functionality of reconstructed tissues by adding melanocytes to bilayered skin, to enhance pigmentation and protection against UV rays. A significant aspect of her research focuses on reducing the time required for the production of quality reconstructed tissues and adding skin appendages (hair, sweat glands, and sebaceous glands) to these skin substitutes. Finally, she is also working on combining tissue engineering and gene therapy to treat genetic diseases affecting the skin, such as epidermolysis bullosa.