Team Cardiovascular:
William’s team induces heart failure (HF)by various surgical and pharmacological methods: coronary ligation (MI), trans-aortic constriction (TAC), aorto-caval shunt (ACS), etc. Two-hit (2-hit) models creating HF with preserved or reduced ejection fraction (HFpEF or HFrEF) are used routinely to reproduce human HF progression.​
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The team combines invasive hemodynamics with imaging and telemetry to measure all aspects of cardiac function and remodeling in mice, rats, rabbits.
Team R&D:
This is where most projects start: New models are designed in collaboration with YOUR team, and Emilie’s team turns them into sensitive, reproducible, and translatable Discovery tools.​
Under Emilie’s direction, unique models of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), preeclampsia, hemorrhagic shock, heart failure due to volume overload, as well as countless others have been validated, published, and have since joined the mainstream in preclinical drug research.​
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Team Respiratory Diseases:
Under the leadership of Sandra Gagnon, the team handles disease induction and symptoms monitoring using non-invasive plethysmography and forced oscillometry, as well as telemetry implants for respiratory function.​
Sandra and Camille bring expertise in small-animal inhalation and nebulization, and routinely administer dry powders and liquids as therapies over weeks and months.​
Team Safety:
Refka and Helene lead Team Safety with tolerability assays ensuring the integrity of cardiac, vascular, respiratory, and CNS function. In addition, the team regularly monitors renal and hepatic function.​
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Safety assessment uses healthy animals: while disease induction is not an issue, exotic routes of administration –such as stereotaxic intracerebroventricular injection (ICV) are commonplace for Refka and Helene’s team. They work closely with IPST’s Quality Assurance Unit to ensure the GLP-compliance of their studies, fit for regulatory filing.​
Team Inflammation:
The Inflammatory Diseases Team handles the fastest growing group of indications at IPST. Whether the induction is chemical or surgical, or immune-triggered, Rachel and Maxime’s teams test models of pulmonary, renal, hepatic fibrosis, sclerosis, and auto-immune diseases. ​
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Their models combine functional assessment with biomarkers quantification and histological analysis to maximize the predictive power of the tests.​
Team histology:
Dr. Biernat wears many hats at IPST. She is our veterinarian and trusted authority on animal care and use, as well as our histopathologist—guiding stain selection and immunohistochemistry targets, overseeing tissue and slide preparation, and interpreting the resulting images. She also advises our surgical teams and, when the stakes are high, is not afraid to pick up the forceps herself.
She plays a central role in AAALAC and OLAW accreditation, IACUC activities, and the technical training of all personnel involved in animal research.
Team Cell biology:
“The service team within the service company” is how we describe Marie-Claude’s team of cell and molecular biologists and laboratory scientists. They transform samples generated by IPST’s animal-model teams into meaningful biochemical and bioanalytical data through quantitative ELISA, gene-expression analysis, genotyping, cell culture, flow cytometry and other specialized assays. They also conduct in vitro drug testing to explore mechanisms of action and strengthen the interpretation of functional and disease-related findings.
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Driven by the expertise and versatility of the Cell Biology Team, IPST’s in vitro services have become an increasingly important part of our integrated drug-discovery capabilities.
Team Big Data:
Blending traditional IT expertise with the latest in connected technologies is what the Big Data Team does. They protect the integrity and security of IPST’s data servers, automate processes to improve efficiency and, rather importantly, make sure the network actually works.
A flagship project for “Big Daddy” Stéphane Njemen is the integration of artificial intelligence into IPST’s database-search tools. Our proprietary Animal Disease Models Genomics Database is expanding rapidly, with the need to interrogate expression patterns for thousands of genes across dozens of human diseases—exactly the kind of big-data problem AI was made to solve.
