IRIC - Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer

Published on May 31, 2023

IRIC is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Philippe Roux as Scientific Director the Institute. The Council of the Université de Montréal recently ratified the recommendation of IRIC’s Board of Directors for a two-year term. Professor Roux thus becomes the third Scientific Director in the history of the Institute, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2023. He succeeds to Professor Marc Therrien, who has held the position with distinction since 2013.

“First of all, I would like to thank Marc Therrien for his work as the Institute’s Scientific Director for the past ten years,” says Michel Bouvier, IRIC’s Chief Executive Officer. “Under his leadership, IRIC’s reputation and scientific excellence have continued to grow. I wish the best success to Philippe Roux, who will succeed him. His vision, determination and commitment will benefit our Institute.”

Philippe Roux has been a Principal Investigator at IRIC since 2006, where he heads the Cell Signaling and Proteomics Research Unit. He is also a full professor in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology of the Faculty of Medicine of the Université de Montréal.

In addition to his research and teaching activities, Professor Roux has chaired IRIC’s Strategic Projects Committee (SPC) since 2012. The SPC evaluates research projects submitted by IRIC teams for funding through philanthropic sources. Under his leadership, over $8 million was granted to the most deserving projects. Several of them have taken advantage of this leverage to become large-scale projects.

“It is with honor that I will try to build on what was put in place by my predecessors to continue the growth of our Institute,” says Professor Roux. “I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues, our student and postdoctoral community, and our dedicated staff in the pursuit of our threefold mission.”

Philippe Roux obtained his PhD in molecular neuroscience from McGill University in 2002, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer biology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA.

At IRIC, Philippe Roux and his team are dedicated to understanding the molecular mechanisms by which oncogenes transform a normal cell into a cancerous one. This knowledge is crucial for identifying new therapeutic targets and better understanding the molecular causes of treatment resistance, opening up new perspectives in the fight against cancer.

As IRIC’s Scientific Director, Philippe Roux will be responsible for the Institute’s strategic research plan and scientific programming. He will coordinate research infrastructure development activities, major funding applications to granting agencies, and the recruitment of principal investigators. He will also support IRIC researchers in their academic careers.

Multiple missions accomplished for Marc Therrien

Appointed Scientific Director of IRIC in 2013, Marc Therrien completed his mandate on May 31. IRIC would like to extend its warmest thanks to Professor Therrien for his many years of service, during which a number of challenges, including a global pandemic, were brilliantly met.

During his term, five researchers were recruited to the Institute, and as many research units were created, helping to increase the diversity of expertise at IRIC. He was also instrumental in setting up various processes (evaluation of researchers, mandatory internal review of grant applications) and committees. On his initiative, IRIC’s annual scientific retreat is held jointly with other partner units or institutions every two years.

A founding member of the Institute, Marc Therrien has headed a laboratory at IRIC since 2003. He will continue his research work at IRIC at the end of his mandate at the scientific direction. His research team studies the signaling mechanisms involved in cell proliferation and differentiation, more specifically those of the intracellular RAS-MAPK signaling pathway. Disruption of these mechanisms underlies a large number of cancers.