Eric Dumont received his Ph.D. in Pharmacodynamics and Biochemistry from the Universit de Montreal in 1999. He was a postdoctoral trainee at Universite Laval from 1999 to 2001 where he studied the neurobiology of stress and anxiety under the co-supervision of Drs. Guy Drolet and Denis Pare. He completed his postdoctoral formation at the Vollum Institute in Portland (Oregon, USA) where he studied drugs of abuse-induced synaptic adaptations under the supervision of Dr. John T. Williams. He is now Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences at Queen's University. The overall goal of Dr. Dumont's research program is to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying compulsive behaviours. His laboratory attacks this question using a multi-faceted systems biological approach that considers critical and causal factors at the molecular, cellular, systems and behavioral levels. From a technical perspective, his laboratory combines a broad range of molecular, surgical, behavioral, and electrophysiological techniques that are essential for conducting state-of-the-art research in neurophysiology.
Research Interests
My research program aims at understanding the neurophysiological mechanisms governing behaviors in mammals. In particular, I try to understand how the brain resolves the adaptive conflict imposed by engagement in individual/species surviving behaviors despite several threats or negative consequences. In fact, numerous human mental health diseases including anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and obsessive-compulsive disorders seem to result from a poor neurophysiological resolution of this conflict and we strive to discover the underlying cellular and molecular dysfunctions.