Professor Michèle Desjardins
Michèle Desjardins is a professor in the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics, and Optics at Université Laval in Québec City, Canada. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and completed a PhD in biomedical engineering under joint supervision at Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI) and Polytechnique Montréal. She then pursued postdoctoral training in neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego. Her research program, carried out with a team of graduate students, aims to leverage imaging and modelling tools to study the brain, with a particular focus on interactions between blood vessels and neurons. This work combines the design of in vivo mouse brain imaging systems with the development of mathematical and numerical models of brain networks. Ongoing projects investigate the evolution of neuronal and vascular networks during aging, as well as the modulation of brain activity by arousal state. She also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in a range of subjects, including mathematics for engineers, experimental optics, the history of physics, and medical imaging.
Select publications
- Gaudreault F et Desjardins M. Microvascular structure variability explains variance in fMRI functional connectivity, Brain Structure and Function, Volume 230, article number 39 (2024).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-025-02899-4 - Guilbert J, Légaré A, De Koninck P, Desrosiers P, Desjardins M. Toward an integrative neurovascular framework for studying brain networks, Neurophotonics, 9(3), 032211 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.NPh.9.3.032211
- Genois É, Gagnon L, Desjardins M. Modeling of vascular space occupancy and BOLD functional MRI from first principles using real microvascular angiograms. Magn Reson Med. 2020; 85: 456–468.
https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.28429 - Michèle Desjardins, Kıvılcım Kılıç, Martin Thunemann, Celine Mateo, Dominic Holland, Christopher G.L. Ferri, Jonathan A. Cremonesi, Baoqiang Li, Qun Cheng, Kimberly L. Weldy, Payam A. Saisan, David Kleinfeld, Takaki Komiyama, Thomas T. Liu, Robert Bussell, Eric C. Wong, Miriam Scadeng, Andrew K. Dunn, David A. Boas, Sava Sakadžić, Joseph B. Mandeville, Richard B. Buxton, Anders M. Dale, Anna Devor, Awake Mouse Imaging: From Two-Photon Microscopy to Blood Oxygen Level–Dependent Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Volume 4, Issue 6, Pages 533-542 (2019).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2018.12.002 - M. Desjardins, R. Berti, J. Lefebvre, S. Dubeau, et F. Lesage, Aging-related differences in cerebral capillary blood flow in anesthetized rats, Neurobiol. Aging, vol. 35, no 8, p. 1947-1955, (2014).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2014.01.136
