Dr. Philippe Huot uses experimental models of Parkinson鈥檚 disease (PD) to develop new drugs for the disease.
鈥淢y laboratory focusses equally on discovering therapies to alleviate uncontrollable movements caused by PD and on looking for a total cure鈥� says Dr. Huot, who trained in neurology at Universit茅 Laval and received his PhD from the University of Toronto, where he did post-doctoral research in movement disorders. After a term on the faculty of Universit茅 de Montr茅al, he joined The Neuro in May, 2017.
His lab seeks to further the understanding of the neuro-chemistry and neuro-anatomy of the basal ganglia, a fascinating group of brain structures, under normal conditions as well as in Parkinson鈥檚 disease, a neuro-degenerative disease that affects as many as 1% of the population aged over 60. They are on a journey that will bring them closer to a cure to Parkinson鈥檚 disease. They also seek to discover drugs that will provide greater relief of parkinsonian disability and treatment-related complications, e.g. dyskinesia, motor fluctuations and visual hallucinations.
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To this end, they use a wealth of in vivo approaches, including
- Behavioural pharmacology in experimental models of Parkinson鈥檚 disease
- Determination of the pharmacokinetic profile of investigational drugs in different pre-clinical models (LC-MS/MS)
- Positron emission tomography (PET)
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- Computed tomography (CT) scanning
- Intra-cerebral stereotaxic delivery of substances
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They will also use a breadth of post-mortem techniques, including
- Auto-radiographic receptor/transporter binding in brain tissue
- Western blotting
- Immuno-histochemistry and stereological neuronal counting
- In situ hybridisation
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Funding:
The Weston Brain Institute
The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson鈥檚 Research
Fonds de Recherche Qu茅bec 鈥� Sant茅
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Healthy Brains for Healthy Lives
Parkinson Canada
