On May 5, 2023, the CRCHUM Interdisciplinary Conference will host Julie Lavoie a researcher in the Cardiometabolic Research Theme and she is full professor and director of the School of Kinesiology and physical activity sciences at the Université de Montréal.

Preeclampsia is a gestational condition for which the only treatment is preterm delivery. Projects in Julie Lavoie’s lab demonstrate that physical training can prevent or reduce the severity of this condition in mouse models or in women. In this seminar, these data, as well as the potential mechanisms that have been identified, will be presented. Given the important effect of physical activity on preventing preeclampsia and several gestational cardiometabolic disorders, Julie Lavoie's team has initiated a study evaluating the practice of physicians and nurses in their discussions with pregnant women regarding physical activity. The preliminary data collected at the CRCHUM will be presented.

Julie Lavoie, PhD, is the director of the School of Kinesiology and physical activity sciences at the Université de Montréal and a researcher at the CHUM Research Center in the Cardiometabolic Research theme. Julie Lavoie has two major lines of research program in her laboratory:

1. understanding the mechanisms by which exercise training can prevent preeclampsia and improve reproduction and
2. investigating the involvement of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in adipose tissue on obesity and on obesity-associated diseases such as hypertension, metabolic syndrome and diabetes.

To address these themes, she uses preeclampsia animal models and novel transgenic hypertensive mice models for the renin-angiotensin system as well as her CFI funded platform for “Evaluating the cardiometabolic impact of exercise training on maternal and offspring outcomes in models of preeclampsia”. Her work is funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Since 2015, she is an active member in the scientific committee of the Canadian Hypertension Congress. Moreover, Julie Lavoie is actively implicated in different scientific and academic committees at her institutions and for funding agencies.

The goal of the Interdisciplinary conferences is to allow you to learn more about the work of our researchers and to encourage collaborations among the Research Centre’s different Research Themes.

They are intended for the entire scientific community of the CRCHUM and are offered two to three times per month.