Prof. Jasna Kriz MD, PhD
Professor
Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences
Faculty of Medicine
Université Laval
Quebec City (QC), Canada

Jasna Kriz is Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, Québec, Canada. Dr Kriz obtained her MD at University of Rijeka, Croatia, and PhD (collaborative program with McGill University in Montreal , Canada) followed by a postdoctoral training at Dept. Neurology & Neurosurgery at McGill University where she studied the role of resident glial cells and neuroinflammation in the pathogenesis of  chronic neurodegenerative disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).  In 2004 she moved to Université Laval where she formed her research group.

Research Interests:  Dr Kriz research program focuses on the role of microglia/macrophages and innate immune response in the context of acute and chronic neurodegeneration. Her initial studies provided one of the first in vivo evidence of neuroprotective potential of microglia in injured brain. To visualize microglial activation, neuronal stress and innate immune cascade from the brains of living animals she created series of mouse models of bioluminescence and fluorescence allowing the non-invasive and time-lapse imaging of immune response in adult and neonatal brains.  Currently her research group focuses on studying the role of RNA binding proteins such as SRSF3 in the regulation of innate immunity in healthy and diseased brain.

During her career, Dr Kriz acted as regular member of several national and international Peer review committee panels including Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and more recently FRQS (Le Funds de recherche du Québec en santé). In 2006 she was awarded prestigious Career Award from the R&D/HRF/CIHR (Canadian Institutes for Health Research), followed by a Senior Scholarship Award from FRQS. From 2013-2019 she acted as a member of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board of ALS Canada (SMAC).