Principal Investigator

Career

Dr. Marie-Ève Tremblay (she/her) has completed her B.Sc. in Sciences biologiques, as well as M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Sciences neurologiques at Université de Montreal (QC), Canada in 2000, 2003 and 2004, respectively. In 2005-2009, she completed her first post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Ania K. Majewska in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy and Center for Visual Sciences at the University of Rochester (NY), United States. Between 2009-2011, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the lab of Drs. Chiara Cirelli and Giulio Tononi at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin, Madison (WI), United States. In 2013, Marie-Ève became an Assistant Professor in the Molecular Medicine Department, Université Laval, Quebec (QC), Canada, and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2018, which she held until 2020. She was a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Neuroimmune plasticity in health and plasticityfrom 2017–2020. During this period, she became an Adjunct Professor at the Neurology and Neurosurgery Department of the McGill University, Montreal (QC), Canada. In 2020, Marie-Ève accepted the position of Associate professor at the Division of Medical Sciences of the University of Victoria (BC), Canada, with a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Neurobiology of Aging and Cognition. At the same time, she became an Affiliate Associate professor at the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at UBC (BC), Canada. In July of 2023, Dr. Tremblay was promoted to Full Professor at the Division of Medical Sciences of the University of Victoria (BC), Canada, and was elected a Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists in November 2023.

Leadership & Achievements

Dr. Marie-Ève Tremblay’s work revealed that microglia, which are the brain’s immune cells, actively remodel neuronal circuits during normal physiological conditions. Her original discovery, published in PLoS Biology (Tremblay et al., 2010), was cited 1552 times. It was recommended by Faculty of 1000, publicized twice in Nature, and presented to the public in New Scientist and Médecine/Sciences. Her follow-up work in GLIA (Tremblay et al., 2012) was also influential, with 324 citations received. These findings stimulated the development of a new field of research investigating the roles of microglia in the healthy brain. The mini-symposium “The role of microglia in the healthy brain” that she organized and chaired at the 2011 Society for Neuroscience meeting contributed to the launch of this new field, was attended by 800+ participants, and resulted in a publication in The Journal of Neuroscience (Tremblay et al., 2011) cited 1100 times.

As an independent investigator, she has identified fractalkine signaling as an important neuron-microglia pathway that underlies stress-induced cognitive impairment. This work resulted in a co-senior author publication in Brain Behavior and Immunity (Milior et al., 2016; 226 citations) that was selected for the journal’s cover page. It was preceded by a review article in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience cited 309 times (Paolicelli et al., 2014). At the same time, she has identified “dark microglia” as a microglial subset rare in healthy adult mice that becomes highly prevalent upon chronic stress, aging, fractalkine signaling deficiency, and Alzheimer’s disease pathology. This work published in GLIA (Bisht et al., 2016) was cited 352 times and notably discussed in the New Scientist. Her follow-up work further uncovered these cells following maternal immune activation (induced by viral infection), considered a main risk factor for neurodevelopmental disorders, and in Huntington’s disease pathology (Hui et al., 2018 Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience and Savage et al., 2020, Journal of Neuroinflammation, respectively cited 141 times and 65 times). These findings which were notably discussed in a review article in Neurobiology of Stress cited 328 times (Bisht et al., 2018) revealed that dark microglia contribute to the pathological remodeling of neuronal circuits, across stress-induced plasticity, aging, and in various disease conditions. This research into dark microglia is expected to provide novel therapies specifically targeting the microglial subset implicated in synaptic loss and cognitive decline. This work is at the heart of her Tier II Canada Research Chair in Neurobiology of Aging and Cognition research program.

Supporting the importance of this research, Dr. Tremblay was ranked among the 1% most highly cited researchers cross-fields by Clarivate in 2021, 2022, and 2023. She was also ranked 3^rd World Microglial Expert by Expertscape for 85 eligible papers cited between 2011 and 2021. Her career goal is to become a world leader in the development of innovative therapies normalizing microglial functions upon the exposure to various environmental risk factors for disease throughout life. Her independent research funding has included so far 33 research grants, 12 as a principal investigator, 4 as a co-principal investigator, 16 as a co-investigator, and 1 as a project partner, in addition to research contracts with Med-Life Discoveries LP and the Vagus Nerve Society as a principal investigator. She also received 3 CFI Leaders Grant to acquire cutting-edge microscopy systems specially customized for the study of neuroimmune interactions. Her expertise is internationally recognized. With her diverse research team which has included over 120 trainees from high school, college, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels, as well as research technicians and assistants, she has contributed to several collaborative studies in the fields of neuroscience, reproduction, nutrition, (immuno)metabolism, and immunology (e.g., published in Cell, Nature Methods, Science Translational Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Cell Reports, Nature Neuroscience, PLoS Biology, eLife, Communications Biology, PNAS). She was invited to present her work 167 times, as seminars, lectures at symposia, specialized courses, and meetings. Currently, she has 215 publications that were cited 16,075 times, corresponding to an h-index of 60 and i10-index of 142 (Google Scholar).  Despite the pandemic, she has had her most productive years so far since moving to Victoria, with 21 manuscripts published in 2020, 28 manuscripts in 2021, 31 manuscripts in 2022, 31 manuscripts in 2023 and 16 published/in press so far in 2024.

Last updated in August 2024.