I am from Quebec where I received my PhD. in Pharmacology at the University of Montreal where I studied the metabolism of drugs in pathological conditions. I am interested in the phenomenon of multidrug resistance to chemotherapy. During the last two years, I worked as a post-doc in Dr. Holland's lab to identify and characterize the side population in glioma mouse models. We observed that the side population cells have stem cell characteristics, are highly tumorigenic and resistant to chemotherapy. We found that one important mechanism regulating the SP phenotype is the activation of Akt.
