The Douglas’s Scientific Director, Brigitte Kieffer, was among four scientists honored on may 14th on Parliament Hill for their work . The event was a McGill initiative. 

Brigitte Kieffer is also a Professor of Psychiatry and the Monique H. Bourgeois Chair in Pervasive Developmental Disorders at the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University.

Dr. Kieffer graduated from the University of Strasbourg, where she later became a Professor. She then went on to become Research Director at the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm) in France. She developed her main research activity at the Institut de génétique et de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire (IGBMC) in Strasbourg in 2001 and directed this institute from 2012 to 2013.

Between 2001 and 2012, she received three major awards from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the French Académie des sciences. She was also named a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and was made as a Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honour by the President of the French Republic. In December 2013, she was elected Membre of the French Académie des sciences.

Dr. Kieffer lends us her international reputation and expertise in molecular neurobiology, particularly in the field of opiate receptors. Her work had a major impact on research in addiction, mood disorders and other mental illnesses such as autism.