معرفی
Simon Duchesne is a Full Professor in the Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, and a Researcher at the Quebec City Mental Health Institute. He serves as Research Co-Section Head and leads the Neuroimaging platform for the Consortium d’Identification précoce de la maladie d’Alzheimer – Québec and the Canadian Consortium for Neurodegeneration and Aging.
His educational background includes a B.Eng. in Engineering Physics from the Royal Military College of Canada (1993), followed by an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from McGill University (2005).
Dr. Duchesne's research focuses on neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer's, using neuroimaging (MRI), biomarkers, and machine learning to enable early diagnosis. His work includes developing models of normal brain aging from 2,800 healthy adult scans and identifying biomarkers for disorders like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and epilepsy. He aims to detect abnormalities decades before symptom onset to enable preventative interventions.
His recent publications (2023-2025) emphasize Alzheimer's biomarkers, multimodal neuroimaging, machine learning applications, and intersections between metabolic disorders (e.g., diabetes) and neurodegeneration. He also contributes to clinical guidelines for Alzheimer's disease-modifying therapies and investigates exercise interventions for brain health preservation.
Scientific awards:
- Fonds de recherche Québec-Santé Junior Scholar
Dr. Duchesne mentors eight graduate students and has secured major funding from CIHR (including a $500,000 Project grant for brain health modeling), FRQ-Santé, CFI, NSERC, and the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada. His team includes research professors and administrative staff advancing neurodegenerative disease research.
He leads the MEDIC laboratory at the Quebec City Mental Health Institute and is establishing the Unité de Neuroimagerie de Québec, a cutting-edge 3T/7T imaging platform. His leadership extends to co-founding True Positive MD Inc. (a brain imaging spin-off) and directing international scientific conferences including MICCAI 2017.
