Prof. Michel Bouvier

Prof. Michel Bouvier, PhD, is the Chairman of Kainova Therapeutics’ Scientific Advisory Board. He is a recognized KOL in G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a major class of cell surface receptors, central to numerous physiological processes. His scientific expertise relates to GPCR mechanisms relevant to different therapeutic areas, including immuno-oncology and inflammation.

Michel Bouvier is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Université de Montréal and Principal Investigator at the Molecular Pharmacology Research Unit of the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC). Prof. Bouvier has been CEO of IRIC from 2014 to 2024. His research has contributed to several established concepts in GPCR biology, including inverse agonism, pharmacological chaperones for misfolded GPCRs, and ligand-biased signaling.

He also pioneered the development of bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET)-based approaches which are widely used to study receptor interactions and functional. These concepts are now integrated in Kainova Therapeutics’ technological platform bioSens-All®.

Earlier in his career, Prof. Bouvier completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Duke University under Nobel laureate Robert Lefkowitz, focusing of GPCR regulation. His scientific contributions have been recognized with distinctions such as the Killam Prize in Health Sciences, the Wilder-Penfield Prize, the Julius Axelrod Pharmacology Prize of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the Senior Investigator Award from the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences and the Merck-Frosst award from the Canadian Society of Biochemistry and Cellular & Molecular Biology.

Prof. Bouvier is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and of the Royal Society of Canada as well as a Knight of the National Order of Quebec. He holds a Ph.D. in Neurological Sciences from the Université de Montréal.