Antoine G. Godin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Département de psychiatrie & neurosciences
Université Laval
CERVO Brain Research Centre
Sentinel North Partnership Research Chair on Probing Life and the Environment with Light
Antoine Godin is an assistant professor at Université Laval’s Faculty of Medicine. He holds a doctorate in physics from McGill University (2011) and develops new methods for probing otherwise imperceptible phenomena in living tissues. Antoine Godin studies complex biological processes in intact cells using fluorescence microscopy.
Through his work, he seeks to gain a better understanding of how molecular phenomena influence tissue organization and tissue function. He is interested in the impact of the brain’s continuous reorganization at different stages of the development of neurological and brain disorders.
Ph.D. in Physics McGill
During my doctoral research (McGill 2011), I developed a technique coined Spatial Intensity Distribution Analysis (SpIDA) (Godin PNAS 2011, Swift & Godin PNAS 2011, Godin Biophys J 2015). This technique reveals protein oligomeric states, receptor trafficking, and cellular activity to understand complex biological processes in cells. Since, I have expanded the applicability of this technique to study high order oligomers and ion channel stoichiometry at the level of the synapse in the spinal cord (Lorenzo & Godin Nat. Commun. 2020, Ferrini Nat. Commun. 2020,). To uncover the impact of the distributions of ion channels and transporters in cellular networks on the homeostasis and cellular activity, I developed analytical tools that were recently generalized or scaled to multiple protein targets involved in pain pathologies and neurodegenerative diseases (Dedek Brain 2019 & 2022, and Keramidis Brain 2023).
Postdoctoral fellow in Bordeaux France
During my postdoctoral fellowship (Université de Bordeaux) in Laurent Cognet's Lab, I developed expertise in optics and single-molecule imaging and was awarded 2 postdoctoral scholarships including one from FRQNT. Using innovative optical nano-imaging, combining carbon nanotube tracking and super-resolution near-infrared (NIR) microscopy, we revealed the structure and viscoelastic properties of the extracellular space (ECS) of the intact brain. These findings have led to several published reports (Danné & Godin ACS Photonics 2017, Gao Nanomaterials 2017, Danné ACS Nano 2018). I used NIR fluorescent nanoprobes that allow deep tissue imaging and worked on innovative nano-imaging approaches to reveal the live brain ECS organization and viscoelastic properties (Godin Nat. Nanotechnol. 2017). I al led a project on the characterization of NIR nanohybrids allowing super-resolution microscopy applications in tissue (Science Advances 2019). This approach, based on novel optical nanohybrids, carbon nanotubes functionalized with photo-switching molecules, constitutes the first milestone for generating super-resolution applications in the NIR. My group build upon this to expand our understanding of the role of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in cellular homeostasis and cell signalling to provide new insights of its role on neuropathological disease and identify specific biomarkers of brain disorders.