معرفی
Charles Bourque is a Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and a Senior Scientist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC). He holds the James McGill Chair in Neurobiology of Hydration and is affiliated with the Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Program and Centre for Translational Biology at the RI-MUHC.
Dr. Bourque obtained his Certificate in Biophysics from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole (1984) and his Ph.D. in Physiology from McGill University (1985). Following post-doctoral training in Pharmacology at University College London, he joined McGill University's Centre for Research in Neuroscience.
His research focuses on how the brain monitors and regulates body hydration, blood sodium levels, and core temperature. His laboratory investigates the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which networks of thermosensitive and osmosensitive neurons communicate with the central clock and other brain cells to preserve homeostasis. The team studies how these mechanisms control thirst perception and vasopressin secretion, with particular relevance to clinical conditions including dehydration, heart failure, MDMA toxicity, traumatic brain injury, and hypertension.
Analysis of Dr. Bourque's recent publications reveals a strong focus on osmoregulation, thermosensation, and circadian control of fluid balance. His work increasingly examines the role of ion channels (particularly TRP channels), glial-neuronal interactions, and sex-specific differences in neural regulation of body fluid homeostasis. Recent studies also investigate the impact of high dietary salt on neuronal function and the neural basis of drug-induced hyponatremia.
Dr. Bourque has received numerous prestigious honors including:
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2016)
- Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2019)
- Joseph Erlanger Distinguished Lecturer Award from the American Physiological Society
- President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience (2020-2021)
He has also received the Jacques Benoit Lectureship, Stevenson Lectureship, Distinguished Lectureship from the University of Saskatchewan, and the Mortyn Jones Memorial Lecture & Medal.
Dr. Bourque mentors several graduate students and postdoctoral fellows including Anzala Murtaz (Ph.D. student studying traumatic brain injury and circadian rhythms), Joshua Wyrosdic (Ph.D. student examining effects of MDMA on hypothalamic neurons), Julie O'Reilly (Ph.D. student investigating lateral head impact on vasopressin neurons), and Mary Lapierre (CIHR Banting Postdoctoral Fellow studying central osmosensing and homeostasis).
The Bourque Lab operates within the Centre for Research in Neuroscience at the RI-MUHC, utilizing advanced techniques including electrophysiology, pharmacology, biophysics, patch-clamp, optogenetics, and various imaging methods to study neural mechanisms of osmoregulation and thermosensation. The lab's work bridges basic neuroscience with clinical applications related to fluid balance disorders.