Nathalie Arbour has been appointed as the Claude Bertrand Chair in Neurosurgery at the Université de Montréal for the first five-year term. She will hold the chair from February 12, 2019 to February 11, 2024. She succeeds Dr. Jean-François Cailhier, nephrologist at the CHUM and associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Montreal. He has been in this position for the past five years.

"My goal will be to build a bank of biological samples and clinical data to identify diagnostic and prognostic markers for neurosurgical pathologies," says Dr. Arbour. Such a bank will identify pathobiological mechanisms and distinguish new therapeutic targets complementary to neurosurgical interventions.

The Claude Bertrand Chair in Neurosurgery at the Université de Montréal was created on May 16, 2005 with $ 1.5 million in funding from the Claude Bertrand Scholarship, a registered charity, the CHUM Foundation and various donors gathered to honor the work of Dr. Claude Bertrand, an internationally renowned neurosurgeon.

The purpose of this Chair is to promote clinical and basic research in a training environment in neurosurgery; to enable clinical neurosurgeons to participate actively, in a clinical context, in the production of knowledge and the discovery of therapies in their areas of expertise (functional neurosurgery, vascular neurosurgery, neuro-oncology, neuropediatrics, etc.); to provide future neurosurgeons with a scientific exposure that will allow them to benefit their patients throughout their careers and to attract foreign students and researchers who recognize the expertise of the community.