Overview

Jean DaSilva is Head of Radiochemistry at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and Professor in the Departments of Medicine (Cardiology) and Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

Background

DaSilva graduated from the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada, in Chemistry, Radiation Sciences and Pharmacology. He completed post-doctoral fellowships in PET Radiochemistry at the Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, Orsay, France, and at the University of Michigan in the United States. He was recruited to the University of Toronto PET Centre as a Radiochemistry Scientist and appointed to Psychiatry, Pharmacology, and the Institutes of Medical Sciences and Neurosciences. In 2002, DaSilva joined the National Cardiac PET Centre at the Heart Institute to lead the Radiochemistry Program. He holds a cross-appointment with the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa, and supervises several PDF, graduate and undergraduate trainees. He has served on various Canadian grant review committees, and has published over 90 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters. He is a Principle Investigator on various grants from CIHR, HSFO, ASNC and CFI.

Recognized internationally as a leader in Radiochemistry, DaSilva has expertise in the development and characterization of established and novel molecular probes. Using pharmacological studies in animals and in vitro assays, he carries out leading-edge work in translational research from chemistry to small animals and human PET imaging. He performed pioneering work on novel tracers currently used in clinic in other PET centres, including monoamine transporter inhibitors, dopamine receptor agonists, and phosphodiesterase-4 ligands for imaging cAMP-signal transduction.