Dr. Geneviève Bernard, MD, MSc, FRCPc

Dr. Geneviève Bernard received her Medical Degree (2002) and Master’s degree in Neurosciences (2003) from Université de Montréal. She completed her residency in Pediatric Neurology at McGill University (2008) and her fellowship in Neurogenetics and Movement Disorders at Université de Montréal (2011) under the supervision of Pr. Bernard Brais, Pr. Guy A Rouleau and Dr. Sylvain Chouinard. She started her career as an independent investigator and pediatric neurologist in October 2011 at the Montreal Children’s Hospital of the McGill University Health Center (MUHC) and MUHC Research Institute. She is the recipient of the Research Scholar Junior 1 salary award from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec en Santé (2012-2016) and the Canadian Institute of Health Research New Investigator salary award (2017-2022). She is currently an Associate Professor at McGill University, in the Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Pediatrics and Human Genetics and a member of the Division of Medical Genetics at the MUHC. Dr. Bernard and her team, together with her international collaborators, discovered the three genes responsible for 4H leukodystrophy, for EPRS-related leukodystrophy and contributed to the discovery of the causal gene for HEMS (Hypomyelination of Early Myelinating structures). Dr. Bernard published, in collaboration with Dr. Nicole Wolf (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and numerous international collaborators, the largest clinical, radiological and genetic characterization study on 4H leukodystrophy. Dr. Bernard published more than 75 peer-reviewed publications, including some in high impact factor journals such as Am J Hum Genet, Arch Neurol, Mov Disord, Ann Neurol, Neurology, and Nat Commun, several book chapters and numerous abstracts. She is the Canadian representative on several international consortia, including the Global Leukodystrophy InitiAtive (GLIA).