Leora Yetnikoff, a doctoral student at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, has been awarded financial assistance through the Canada Graduate Scholarships—Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplements.

This scholarship will help Leora Yetnikoff continue her research project in Paris, in collaboration with Bruno Giros, PhD, at INSERM and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC). She is planning to leave at the end of the summer for a four-month stay in the City of Light. Of course, her trip will not consist simply of café au lait and croissants! One of her goals will be to explore a number of laboratory techniques that she can later incorporate into her research at the Douglas.

A doctoral student in neuroscience in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, Leora Yetnikoff is working to better understand the possible mechanisms of the effects of drug abuse, such as amphetamine abuse, on brain plasticity. She will also use animal models to identify the ways that individual brains react to drugs.

She is part of the team of Cecilia Flores, PhD, a Douglas researcher who is particularly interested in the dysfunction of the dopaminergic system in relation to schizophrenia and drug addiction. “I congratulate Leora on this award, which recognizes the excellence of her work; we are proud to have her on our research team,” said Cecilia Flores.

The Douglas wishes Leora Yetnikoff a great trip and hopes that she will find some time to send us a few postcards!