Dr. Roxanne Deslauriers

If you ask Dr. Roxanne Deslauriers why a career in science is important, she points to the ways that discoveries in science improve our health and quality of life. It’s easy to see why she is so passionate about her work. She is currently Director of Research for the National Research Council Institute for Biodiagnostics (NRC- IBD) in Winnipeg, an institute that develops non-invasive techniques and technologies for diagnosing and monitoring medical conditions.

The researchers at the institute use magnetic resonance or “MR” technology to detect and study a wide variety of conditions including breast and prostate cancer, fetal alcohol syndrome, heart disease, and stroke. More specifically, Dr. Deslauriers uses MR to study the effects of new surgical procedures on the hearts and the brains of living animals to help understand the effectiveness of such techniques on humans.

Dr. Deslauriers is also involved in projects designed to increase the success of organ transplants. For example, when doctors detect that a patient’s body is rejecting a kidney transplant, it’s very important to prevent the transplant from being a failure. Using MR, researchers at the Institute and medical colleagues at the University of Manitoba are trying to identify a kind of “biochemical signature” in the kidney’s tissue that might hint at the potential for trouble before things start to go terribly wrong. And that just might give doctors the chance to come up with better ways to ensure that transplants will be successful in the long run.

Functional MRI activation in brain regions during movement.

Early Influences

Fascinated by living things as a child, Roxanne was a Girl Guide who collected and catalogued leaves and flowers and read articles from Scientific American whenever she had the chance. For role models, she looked to the host of a half-hour television show, the only French language television program on science that was available at the time.

Growing up in Quebec at a time when girls were not considered to have what it takes to become scientists, she was accepted in Science at Université Laval and specialized in Experimental Biology. Dr. Deslauriers says that earning a scholarship was the key to attending graduate school. “Keeping a scholarship meant hard work and lots of it, but once I started studying science, I never questioned that a scientist was what I wanted to be.”

The Road to Research

A number of summer jobs in research laboratories gave Dr. Deslauriers a chance to learn about different areas of science, and made her realize what she didn’t want to do with her career. “Knowing what you don’t want to do,” she believes, “is important to being happy with what you decide to make of your career path.” She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Université Laval, and then obtained her PhD from the University of Ottawa. Dr. Deslauriers conducted the experimental work for her PhD at NRC.

Why a Career in Government?

Working for the government gives Dr. Deslauriers the chance to pursue her scientific interests in depth and help to benefit the lives of Canadians. Being able to concentrate on a few key problems over years of research helps her to contribute to our overall understanding of how the human body works, how it is affected by disease and how technology can be used to monitor diseases and the way the body repairs itself. She feels that the environment for scientific research in the government gives scientists a unique opportunity to develop expertise in a given area of science or technology without the pressures that come with the corporate world of immediate gains and profits. It gives researchers the room to work through setbacks and failures to achieve long-term success not only in basic science, but in technological areas as well.

Dr. Deslauriers’ success is evident. She has published over 200 scientific articles. She received a Queen’s Jubilee medal for her work in 2002, and is a fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Tips for Success

While achieving success at school is important, Dr. Deslauriers believes that it’s not necessarily the greatest marks that make a great scientist. A scientist also needs to have critical thinking skills, the discipline to persevere through adversity, and the ability to find creative solutions to major problems. “Some failure along the way is almost a prerequisite to becoming a great scientist. Initial failure often happens because you have chosen to tackle a difficult problem, it gives you an opportunity to develop new ways of approaching problems. Solving difficult problems is a great confidence builder.”