Sentinel North Scientific Meeting – November 2 to 4

Québec City, October 27, 2021 – More than 400 participants from academia, northern organizations, federal and provincial governments, and the public and private sectors from Canada and abroad are expected to virtually join the 2021 Sentinel North Scientific Meeting from November 2 to 4 to discuss the transformation of the northern environment and its impact on human health. 

Now in its fourth year, this scientific meeting is a hub for the exchange and generation of knowledge at multiple scales – from microbiomes to ecosystems – and the development of innovative technologies and predictive models aimed at sustainable health and development in the North. This significant annual event brings together a large interdisciplinary research community, with Université Laval at its core.

Research with impact for the environment, health, and innovation in the North
The Sentinel North community is engaged in a race against climate change to better understand the coupled human-environment system in the North. Some of its recent findings and advances include:

• A team discovered high levels of selenoneine in the blood of Nunavik Inuit and the maqtaaq (beluga skin and blubber) they eat. Selenoneine may help reduce methylmercury toxicity. 
• Research focused on the microbiome has led to the first genomic portrait of cyanobacteria and identified the compounds that allow them to survive under extreme conditions. This breakthrough is of great interest for the development of new drugs.
• A powerful, narrow-spectrum laser source has been developed to improve our ability to detect emissions of methane, a major greenhouse gas, in the North.

The work of many researchers will be shared through 150 presentations and posters, with keynote addresses by:

• Vincenzo Di Marzo (Professor, Medicine, Université Laval): New avenues of biomolecular microbiome research in the context of emerging health problems in northern populations
• Audrey Durand (Professor, Computer Science and Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Engineering, Université Laval): L’apprentissage par renforcement et ses applications en santé et en écologie
• Roberto Grilli (Professor, Institute of Environmental Geosciences, CNRS-Université Grenoble Alpes): Fast and real-time monitoring of dissolved gases: From 3D mapping to in situ isotopic ratio measurements
• Sylvain Moineau (Professor, Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Bioinformatics, Université Laval): CRISPR, the memory of past viral infections

“The Sentinel North Scientific Meeting is a fertile ground for sharing ideas and an opportunity to mobilize an entire research community to find solutions to the complex problems arising from climate change. The results presented at the meeting will help the world develop concrete responses to these major challenges,” said Yves De Koninck, Scientific Co-director of Sentinel North.

Full program: https://sentinellenord.ulaval.ca/en/scientific-meeting-2021

Free registration before November 1 at noon: https://event.fourwaves.com/rssn2021/registration

About Sentinel North
Through Sentinel North, Université Laval encourages the convergence of expertise, transformative research, the development of new technologies, and the training of a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers working to improve our understanding of the northern environment and its impact on humans and their health. The program is made possible, in part, by major financial support from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, in addition to financial support from the Fonds de recherche du Québec. https://sentinellenord.ulaval.ca/en/