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CADASIL and Notch3 from bedside to bench - CRCHUM Prestige Conference

- 4 min
Rhian Touyz

We are delighted to welcome Professor Rhian Touyz as our very first guest speaker in the CRCHUM Prestige Conference series. Professor Touyz is the Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center and the Dr. Phil Gold Chair in medicine at McGill University, and Chair Emeritus of the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

Professor Touyz is a world-renowned authority in the areas of vascular biology and hypertension, a prolific clinician-scientist, a generous and inspiring mentor and a collegial leader. In 2021, she returned to Quebec after spending ten years in Glasgow, Scotland.

About the conference

The conference "CADASIL and Notch3 from bedside to bench: defining new therapeutic targets for vascular dementia" will be held in person on December 5th, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Followed by a networking event until 6 p.m.

Notch3 mutations cause Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoenephalopathy (CADASIL), which predisposes to premature vascular dementia and stroke. CADASIL is a small vessel disease of the brain characterized by vascular dysfunction and granular osmiophilic material accumulation. There are no treatments for CADASIL.

We demonstrated that systemic vessels are also impacted by Notch3 mutations. However molecular mechanisms underlying the vasculopathy remain elusive. We discovered that gain of function Notch3 mutations signal through Rho kinase and involve ER stress and impaired redox-sensitive and eNOS/sGC/cGMP pathways.

Targeting the Rho kinase pathway may be an attractive therapeutic strategy to promote vascular health in small vessel disease associated with vascular dementia.

December 5th, 4 to 6 p.m.

CRCHUM Amphitheatre
900, Saint-Denis Street, 5th floor
R05.212A and R05.212B

4 p.m. to 5 p.m.: Amphitheatre
5 p.m. to 6 p.m.: Networking event at the agora – with mocktails, non-alcoholic beer and snacks

To help us with planning, please register below:

Register here

About Rhian Touyz

Pr Touyz, is the Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. She is the Dr. Phil Gold Chair in Medicine McGill University, Montreal, Canada and British Heart Foundation (BHF) Emeritus Chair.

She was recruited to Montreal in September 2021 after serving 10 years as the Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences (ICAMS) and BHF Chair and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. She also directed the BHF Centre of Research Excellence in vascular biomedicine at the University of Glasgow.

Her background

Professor Rhian Touyz, a clinician-scientist, received her BSc(Hons)(1980), MBBCh(1984), MSc(1986) and PhD(1992) in South Africa. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal (CRIM) in 1996 and then progressed the scientific/academic ladder to become Staff Scientist and Professor in the CRIM, University of Montreal.

In 2005 she was recruited to the Kidney Research Centre, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Univeristy of Ottawa, where she was the Canada Research Chair in Hypertension Tier 1, until 2011 when she was recruited to the University of Glasgow to direct the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences.

Furthermore, Professor Touyz is the editor-in-chief of Hypertension and associate editor of Pharmacological Reviews. She is past editor of Clinical Science. She contributes to best clinical practice and co-chaired CHEP for clinical guidelines. She is a committee member for Guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology and is co-chair of the 2024 ESC guidelines on hypertension.

In depth

She is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci), the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE), the College of Physicians and Surgeons (FRCP), AHA (FAHA), European Society of Cardiology (FESC) and Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (FCAHS).

She played major leadership roles in premier hypertension organizations: President-Canadian Hypertension Society, Chair-High BP Research Council (AHA), President-International Society of Hypertension and President-European Council of Cardiovascular Research. 

Professor Touyz serves on scientific advisory boards and expert panels of numerous international institutions including the Max Delbruck Centre for Molecular Medicine, Berlin; INSERM, L'Unite de Recherche de L'Institut du Thorax, Nantes, France ; Mayo Clinic Cardiovascular Research Center,USA; MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, UK; the Wellcome Trust Physiology in Health and Disease, UK.

Her research

She has a particular interest in translational research where her discovery science impacts care of patients with hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Her research focuses on molecular and vascular biology of hypertension and target organ damage, particularly:

  1. vascular signaling and redox biology;
  2. adipose biology and cardiometabolic disease;
  3. cardiovascular toxicity of anti-cancer drugs;
  4. small vessel disease and vascular dementia;
  5. pathophysiology and management of human hypertension.

CADASIL and Notch3 from bedside to bench - CRCHUM Prestige Conference

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