Yves De Koninck

Professor of Psychiatry & Neuroscience - Université Laval

Director of Research of the  Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux (CIUSSS) de la Capitale-Nationale

Scientific Director, Quebec Mental Health Institute (Institut Universitaire en santé mentale de Québec)

Director, Neurophotonics Centre

Leader, Canadian Neurophotonics Platform

Founder - Quebec Pain Research Network

Yves de Koninck studies the the physiological, pharmacological and anatomical bases of the transmission of signals between neurons. He is interested in chemical mechanisms associated with the integration of sensory signals in the spinal cord, specifically those related to the transmission of pain influx.
Dr. De Koninck has expertise in synaptic physiology, biophysics, in vivo and patch clamp electrophysiology, cellular imaging in brain slices, confocal and non-linear microscopy, optical super-resolution, fiberoptics-based applications, optogenetics, noise analysis and computational approaches.
His group currently focuses on synaptic mechanisms implicating amino-acids  creating inhibition or excitation, and neuropeptides such as endorphins.
To study the alteration of the chemical transmission inside the central nervous system upon lesion, techniques such as patch clamp are used to detect faint synaptic events. High resolution techniques allow for studying the activity of individual receptors while maintaining the neuronal functional connections intact.

 His recent research interests include:

• The integration of sensory signals in the spinal cord and the brain, and in particular the cellular changes associated with the development of chronic pain and other pathological conditions of the central nervous system.
• Mathematical modeling of the functions of neurons.
• The development of new imaging techniques to study neuronal function.  
• Changes in synaptic physiology during aging.  

View Yves De Koninck's CV