Annual Report
2024-2025 Annual Report
Researchers, the student community and the professional staff who make up our research teams at the Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier universaitaire de Sherbrooke (CRCHUS) are once again offering us discoveries and advances that bring hope.
Discoveries of the year
Creating Viruses to Fight Cancer
What if viruses could be used… to treat cancer? This is the bold premise of virotherapy, an approach that involves engineering certain viruses to target cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue.
Until recently, designing such customized viruses was highly complex. However, Taha Azad and his team have developed a rapid and efficient solution.
Their approach enables the creation of a wide range of “armed” viruses capable of stimulating the immune system to more effectively recognize and eliminate cancer cells.
The results are striking: In preclinical models of skin cancer, tumours were eradicated. This represents a major breakthrough that could pave the way for new, more powerful and targeted anticancer therapies.
Improving the Prediction of Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes affects approximately one in seven pregnant women worldwide. It can complicate pregnancy and delivery, as well as increase health risks for the child, including high birth weight and a greater likelihood of developing obesity and diabetes later in life.
In collaboration with Luigi Bouchard and a team of colleagues, Dr. Marie-France Hivert discovered that a placental protein known as IGFBP1 may play a key role in the development of gestational diabetes. Consequently, this protein may also help regulate blood glucose levels during pregnancy.
By analyzing blood and placental samples from 1,200 women, the researchers observed that IGFBP1 levels could serve as an early biomarker to identify pregnant women who are at higher risk, even before the onset of the disease.
This discovery could lead to the development of a simple blood test, enabling earlier screening for gestational diabetes and improved prevention of related complications. It represents a promising advance for the health of pregnant women and their children.
Hope for Earlier Detection of ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that destroys motor neurons, leading to progressive muscle weakness and paralysis over time. In the absence of a definitive diagnostic test, ALS is often diagnosed late, when the disease is already at an advanced stage.
To address this challenge, Brigitte Guérin and her team developed a new medical imaging tool capable of detecting an abnormal protein associated with ALS. When tested in mice with a genetic form of the disease, this approach yielded promising results. The findings suggest that earlier screening and more accurate monitoring of disease progression may be possible in the near future.
Conducted in collaboration with pharmaceutical company AL-S Pharma AG, this research also led to the filing of an international patent, paving the way for the development of a clinical tool for people living with ALS. This major advance offers renewed hope!
More Accurate Sensors for Real-Time Physiological Monitoring
What if we could monitor what is happening inside the body in real time? This is the promise of biosensors, small devices capable of highly targeted molecular detection.
Some of these sensors, known as E-AB sensors, rely on aptamers, which are short strands of DNA or RNA designed to bind to a specific target molecule. However, not all regions of these sequences are directly involved in detection. By shortening aptamers, researchers believe they can improve the sensors’ sensitivity and precision, as molecular recognition would occur closer to the electrode surface.
Philippe Dauphin-Ducharme and his team investigated how these aptamers interact with their targets using nuclear magnetic resonance, a technique that enables detailed observation of molecular behaviour. By combining these experimental data with computational modelling, they identified the regions that are most critical for effective detection.
The outcome is a deeper understanding of sensor function and the potential to design devices that are more efficient, faster to develop, and less costly—paving the way for more reliable real-time monitoring within the human body.
Early Exposure to Screens: What is the Real Impact?
It is well known that young children are particularly attracted to tablets, but what is their true impact on early development? Caroline Fitzpatrick and Gabrielle Garon-Carrier investigated this question.
Their research showed that children who frequently used a tablet around the age of 3.5 years tended to display higher levels of anger and frustration one year later, at 4.5 years old. Moreover, children who were more prone to anger at 4.5 years were also those who used tablets even more frequently by the age of 5.5 years. These findings suggest a potential vicious cycle: The earlier children are exposed to screens, the more challenges they may face in regulating their emotions, which in turn may lead to increased screen use over time.
Overall, the results highlight the importance of supportive, balanced, and developmentally appropriate guidance regarding screen use from an early age.
Rethinking Access to Alcohol
Binge drinking—defined as the rapid consumption of large amounts of alcohol—primarily affects young adults and is associated with adverse health outcomes. In Canada, each province regulates alcohol sales through its own policies and distribution systems.
Martine Shareck and Stephanie Sersli examined how the density and accessibility of alcohol outlets influence drinking behaviours among young adults in Quebec and British Columbia. The study revealed an unexpected finding: Greater access to alcohol was associated with lower levels of binge drinking in British Columbia, but with a slightly higher risk of binge drinking in Quebec. These results indicate that the impact of alcohol access is not uniform and depends on local context and patterns of consumption.
Such findings provide valuable insights for the development of tailored public policies that consider the specific social and regulatory realities of each province.