Francis Beaudry Email Address

Associate Professor and Professeur Agrég

Université de Montréal was added to Crunchbase.

There is a critical unmet medical need for treatment of patients (i.e. animal or humans) suffering from chronic pain leading to functional impairment. Developing new therapeutics for pain management is a challenge because it required the use of experimental animal models, where we do induce pain. There are numerous limitations, including ethical considerations, technical challenges and cost. Therefore, it is imperative to develop new strategies leading to a paradigm shift in how we develop new therapeutics to alleviate pain. To lessen the reliance on experimental animal models, determining specific patient molecular characteristics is key. Molecular fingerprinting for precision therapies is the heart of the precision medicine. This new paradigm is a departure from the “one-size-fits-all” traditional approach and prioritize patient characteristics (i.e. molecular and phenotypic). Specifically, a comprehensive molecular profiling using proteomic technologies of characterized patients can be used to develop targeted and more specific pain therapies to improve clinical outcomes in veterinary or human patients. We used state-of-the-art technologies to: 1) Perform comprehensive characterization of molecular signatures underlying chronic or inflammatory pain; 2) Develop innovative mass spectrometry analytical strategies with increased detection sensitivity that allow to precisely study protein target engagement and identify new bioactive molecules and new targets for pain treatment; 3) Develop and validate alternatives and high-throughput methods to evaluate drug candidate's efficacy using C. elegans in order to fulfill ethical objectives but also to widen the number of candidates tested. We strive to develop innovative solutions to resolve the unmet needs in drug treatment of chronic pain. The research performed in our laboratory involves the use of advance analytical techniques including mass spectrometry, medicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetic modeling, In Vitro and In Vivo models, behavior evaluation systems, computational chemistry and biology. The research program is central to the formation of highly qualify personal including MSc, PhD and post-doc students. Our laboratory welcome regularly qualified new students and we are open to develop part-time MSc and PhD programs to assist industrial prospects to acquire new research skills. Specialties: Mass Spectrometry, Proteomics, Bioanalysis, Pharmacology, Medicinal chemistry