Belleannée, Clémence PhD - Regular researcher


Associate professor - Université Laval

(1) Reproduction, mother and child health axis, Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec

(2) Obstetrics, gynaecology and reproduction axis, Faculty of Medicine

Research interest

In Canada, infertility problems affect close to 10% of couples wishing to have children. Despite screening carried out in clinics, close to a third of infertility cases are of unknown origin and cannot be properly diagnosed or treated. In this context, our laboratory studies the fundamental mechanisms that control the physiology of reproductive systems to improve diagnostic tests and develop appropriate treatments.

The specialized cells of reproductive systems have developed communication channels between themselves to control the male and female gamete’s environment and optimize the chance of successful fertilization. The membrane vesicles released by cells in biological fluids have appeared in the past few years as possible important communication vectors in the regulation of biological systems. Our research theme involves studying, in the male reproductive system, the role of extracellular vesicles in the transport of genetic information through small non-coding RNAs called microRNAs and in the regulation of important cellular functions in the control of gamete’s fertilization power.  Using in vitro and in vivo approaches on murine models and human seminal plasma, we study the involvement of microRNAs and extracellular vesicles in the physio-pathology of reproductive systems and we evaluate their potential as non-invasive markers for the diagnostic of dysfunction associated with infertility problems.

 

Expertise

Male infertility Epididymis MicroRNAs Vésicules extracellulaires

Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec (CHUL)

2705 boul. Laurier
Québec (QC) Canada
G1V 4G2
(418) 525-4444 extension : 47789
Fax : (418) 654-2783
Clemence.Belleannee@crchudequebec.ulaval.ca

Postdoctoral fellowship: Physiologie de la Reproduction, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA, USA)

PhD: Biologie de la Reproduction, Université François Rabelais (Tours, France)

MSc: Sciences de la vie, Université d'Angers (Angers, France)


2 Latest projects

  • Rôle novateur du récepteur pro-inflammatoire P2Y14 en reproduction masculine
  • Cross-species combination of cohort and intervention studies to assess common metabolic factors related to infertility and the use of functional lipids for its treatment