Mathieu Dubé Email & Phone Number

Région De Montréal, Canada

Despite highly active antiretroviral therapy, HIV continues to impose a life-long burden to infected people. Current therapies are not curative, and fail to purge totally infected cells. New therapeutic approaches are under study, and the most promising seek to bolster host's own immune system. However, HIV-specific CD4 and CD8 T cells show signs of dysfunction during chronic infection, even under treatment, thus favoring the persistence of elusive HIV-infected reservoir cells. In Dr Kaufmann lab, we study the complex interrelation between HIV reservoir cells and HIV-specific CD4 and CD8 T cells. Our hopes are that by better understanding this interface, we could break vicious the circle that is HIV-mediated immune dysfunction and restore a fully armed immune system.

Inrs-Institut Armand-Frappier

In the team of Dr. Pierre Talbot at the INRS-IAF, I studied human Coronaviruses, respiratory viruses causing mild to severe infections of the upper respiratory tract. Our team investigates an understudied consequence of Coronavirus infection. In circumstances that remain to be clarified, this virus colonizes the central nervous system where it could be involved in exacerbation of degenerative neurological diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases and multiple sclerosis. My personal goal is to understand how the virus accesses the central nervous system from the upper respiratory tract and then propagates within the brain.

Albert Einstein College Of Medicine

As a post-doctoral fellow under the supervision of Dr. Margaret Kielian, I developed tools to study Rubella virus entry and secretion. We used this virus as a model for Togavirus. I identified Ca2+ as a critical co-factor of Rubella virus endosomal fusion. Studying this virus, which has only human as a reservoir, helped us understand determinants of Togavirus transmission compared to arthropod-borne Alphaviruses.

Institut De Recherches Cliniques De Montréal

Under the supervision of Dr. Éric Cohen at the Université de Montréal, and then at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal, I investigated the function of a small accessory protein of HIV-1, the amphipathic protein Vpu. Our team described mechanisms by which this small adapter protein hijacks cellular factors to downregulate the primary HIV-1 receptor CD4 and counter BST-2/Tetherin, an IFN-regulated restriction factor otherwise involved in cell defense against enveloped viruses. We further found Vpu able to sequester and cause degradation of these factors through proteosomal and lysosomal degradation pathways. Our work shed light on HIV-1-host cell interplay, and uncover putative means to interfere with HIV-1 replication.

Ph.D, Virology And Immunology

M.Sc, Microbiology And Immunology

B.Sc, Biological Sciences: Microbiology