Mona Nemer, (born 1957) is a
Lebanese-
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
scientist specializing in molecular genetics and cardiac regeneration. She was formerly a professor of
pharmacology
Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...
at the
University of Montreal
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
and the Director of the Cardiac Development Research Unit at the
Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal
Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM), (also known, in English, as Montreal Clinical Research Institute), is a medical research institute affiliated with Université de Montréal. Its work focuses mainly on cellular biology, molecula ...
(IRCM) where she held a Tier 1
Canada Research Chair
Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program.
Program goals
The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...
in Cardiovascular Cell Differentiation.
She is a professor of
biochemistry
Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
at the
University of Ottawa
The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...
's Faculty of Medicine, and also served as Vice-President, Research at the University of Ottawa from 2006 to 2017.
On September 26, 2017, Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...
announced that after a selection process, Nemer was chosen as Canada's new
Chief Science Advisor – the first national science advisor since 2008.
Early life
Nemer was born in
Beirut, Lebanon
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint of ...
in 1957 where she found her passion for chemistry.
At the age of 17, she and her classmates successfully advocated to create a science stream at her all-girls school.
She left Lebanon during the
civil war
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
and moved to Kansas where she obtained a bachelor's degree in 1977, majoring in chemistry with minors in French and mathematics at
Wichita State University
Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...
.
In the summer of 1977, Nemer visited
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
with friends. The visit convinced her to attend graduate school in the city.
She went on to complete a PhD in
bio-organic chemistry from
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
in 1982
under the supervision of
Kelvin Ogilvie.
Career
Nemer's research focused on
cardiac
The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...
formation and function – specifically the understanding of the molecular mechanisms that register the genetic expression of cardiac cells. She is best known for isolating genes that regulate
ventricular hypertrophy
Ventricular hypertrophy (VH) is thickening of the walls of a ventricle (lower chamber) of the heart. Although left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is more common, right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH), as well as concurrent hypertrophy of both ventri ...
which manifests itself in an increase volume of the heart and a thickening of the myocardial wall. Her work has contributed to the development of
diagnostic tests
A medical test is a medical procedure performed to screening (medicine), detect, medical diagnosis, diagnose, or monitoring (medicine), monitor diseases, disease processes, susceptibility, or to determine a course of treatment. Medical tests suc ...
for heart failure and the genetics of cardiac
birth defects. Nemer has published over 150 scientific research articles to date, with over 10,000 citations and an h-index of 63. She has also trained over 100 students from Canada and other countries.
VP Research, University of Ottawa
Nemer served as Vice-President, Research at the University of Ottawa from 2006 to 2017, and also served as the Director of the Cardiac Development Research Unit at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM).
Nemer founded the University of Ottawa's annual greeting card design competition.
Chief Science Advisor of Canada
On Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, following a selection process, Nemer was appointed as Canada's new Chief Science Advisor for a three-year appointment.
This role was previously eliminated in 2008 by the previous government, led by Prime Minister
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
.
As Chief Science Advisor, Nemer is responsible for providing impartial scientific advice to the Prime Minister (
Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...
) and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry (
François-Philippe Champagne) and Cabinet. She is also responsible for providing guidelines for to ensure that government science is publicly accessible, that scientists can speak freely about their work as well as for promoting Canadian science both nationally and internationally.
In addition, Nemer reports annually on the activities of her office and the state of federal government science in Canada.
Following 100 days as the Chief Science Advisor, Nemer released a letter outlining her office's plans for 2018, which included developing scientific integrity policies and guidelines, recommending guidelines to ensure government scientists can speak freely about their research and preparing a framework to allow for open public access to federal government science.
On July 30, 2018, Nemer's office published the ''Model Policy on Scientific Integrity'' in order to safeguard through collective agreements government scientists' right to speak.
This was developed in partnership with the
Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) is the largest multi-professional labour union in Canada, representing some 60,000 public service professionals employed at the federal and some provincial and territorial levels ...
(PIPSC), officials at the
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and the federal research community.
Her office has also established an Independent Expert Panel on Aquaculture Science, chaired by Nemer, to provide appropriate scientific evidence in policy decisions related to
aquaculture
Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...
and impacts on the marine environment.
Open Science
As part of her mandate to provide guidelines to ensure that government science is fully available to the public, the Chief Science Advisor and her office worked with international and domestic colleagues to develop the Roadmap for Open Science announced by
Navdeep Bains
Navdeep Singh Bains (born June 16, 1977) is a Canadian politician who served as Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry from 2015 to 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, he represented the riding of Mississauga—Malton in the House of Com ...
, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, on February 26, 2020.
COVID-19
In February 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in Canada, Mona Nemer as the Chief Science Advisor rapidly assembled the COVID-19 Expert Panel, a group of distinguished researchers and practitioners in infectious disease research and treatment, disease modeling and the behavioural sciences. This group of experts along with several other groups and task forces, has enabled throughout the pandemic emerging scientific information about COVID-19 to flow swiftly through to the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The Chief Science Advisor and the expert groups have published several reports focusing on emerging issues brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic such as long-term care homes, COVID-19 in children, the role of ventilation and the considerations for using vaccine certifications.
Mandate renewal
On October 1, 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Nemer's reappointment for another two years, effective September 25, 2020.
On July 11, 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Nemer's reappointment for another two years, effective September 25, 2022.
Controversies
On 27 March 2020, Nemer told the host of
CBC Radio
CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...
's ''
Quirks and Quarks'' that the country needs randomly to test at least one per cent of the population to determine whether
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
is as lethal as the population is led to believe.
Nemer's "observations are right at the centre of a global clash of scientists over COVID-19 data and estimates of the seriousness of the pandemic," says
Terence Corcoran
Terence "Terry" Dollard Corcoran (born November 6, 1942) is columnist and comment editor for the Financial Post section of the Toronto-based ''National Post''.
Biography and works
Born in Montreal, Quebec, Corcoran received a Bachelor of Journali ...
, a writer at the ''
National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...
''.
Corcoran observed that the grim warnings of
Neil Ferguson's team at
Imperial College
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
have been contradicted by
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
epidemiologists led by
Sunetra Gupta.
On 3 April, Corcoran pointed out that only proper sampling such as that advocated by Nemer will reveal the truth, and that in the omnishambles caused by reaction to the coronavirus pandemic, governments already have "adopted massive and unprecedented interventions into the economic and daily lives of every individual".
Honours and awards
*1994 –
Marcel-Piché Prize
*2001 – Fellow of the
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...
[
*2003 – ]Léo-Pariseau Prize
The Léo-Pariseau Prize is a Québécois prize which is awarded annually to a distinguished individual working in the field of biological or health sciences. The prize is awarded by the Association francophone pour le savoir ( Acfas), and is named ...
*2009 – Knight of the National Order of Merit (France)
*2009 – Knight of the National Order of Quebec
The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as ''l'Ordre national du Québec'', and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is an order of merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Gove ...
*2014 – Member of the Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
*2018 – Arthur Wynne Gold Medal
Selected publications
* Bruneau, Benoit G.; Nemer, Georges; Schmitt, Joachim P.; Charron, Frédéric; Robitaille, Lynda; Caron, Sophie; Conner, David A.; Gessler, Manfred; Nemer, Mona (2001–09). "A Murine Model of Holt-Oram Syndrome Defines Roles of the T-box Transcription Factor Tbx5 in Cardiogenesis and Disease". ''Cell
Cell most often refers to:
* Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life
Cell may also refer to:
Locations
* Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...
''. 106 (6): 709–721. doi:10.1016/s0092-8674(01)00493-7.
* Genest, Jacques; McPherson, Ruth; Frohlich, Jiri; Anderson, Todd; Campbell, Norm; Carpentier, André; Couture, Patrick; Dufour, Robert; Fodor, George (2009–10). "2009 Canadian Cardiovascular Society/Canadian guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of dyslipidemia and prevention of cardiovascular disease in the adult – 2009 recommendations". ''Canadian Journal of Cardiology''. 25 (10): 567–579. doi:10.1016/s0828-282x(09)70715-9.
* Durocher, Daniel; Charron, Frédéric; Warren, René; Schwartz, Robert J.; Nemer, Mona (1997-09-15). "The cardiac transcription factors Nkx2‐5 and GATA‐4 are mutual cofactors". ''The EMBO Journal
''The EMBO Journal'' is a semi-monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on full-length papers describing original research of general interest in molecular biology and related areas. The editor-in-chief is Facundo D. Batista (Harvard Medic ...
''. 16 (18): 5687–5696. doi:10.1093/emboj/16.18.5687.
* Burns, Kimberly; Duggan, Brenda; Atkinson, Eric A.; Famulski, Konrad S.; Nemer, Mona; Bleackley, R. Chris; Michalak, Marek (1994–02). "Modulation of gene expression by calreticulin binding to the glucocorticoid receptor". ''Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
''. 367 (6462): 476–480. doi:10.1038/367476a0.
* Paradis, Pierre; Dali-Youcef, Nassim; Paradis, François W.; Thibault, Gaétan; Nemer, Mona (2000-01-18). "Overexpression of angiotensin II type I receptor in cardiomyocytes induces cardiac hypertrophy and remodeling". ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Sci ...
''. 97 (2): 931–936. doi:10.1073/pnas.97.2.931.
* Morin, Steves; Charron, Frédéric; Robitaille, Lynda; Nemer, Mona (2000-05-02). "GATA‐dependent recruitment of MEF2 proteins to target promoters". ''The EMBO Journal
''The EMBO Journal'' is a semi-monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on full-length papers describing original research of general interest in molecular biology and related areas. The editor-in-chief is Facundo D. Batista (Harvard Medic ...
''. 19 (9): 2046–2055. doi:10.1093/emboj/19.9.2046.
* Drouin, J.; Sun, Y.L.; Chamberland, M.; Gauthier, Y.; De Léan, A.; Nemer, M.; Schmidt, T.J. (1993–01). "Novel glucocorticoid receptor complex with DNA element of the hormone-repressed POMC gene". ''The EMBO Journal
''The EMBO Journal'' is a semi-monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on full-length papers describing original research of general interest in molecular biology and related areas. The editor-in-chief is Facundo D. Batista (Harvard Medic ...
''. 12 (1): 145–156. doi:10.1002/j.1460-2075.1993.tb05640.x.
* Grepin, C.; Nemer, G.; Nemer, M. (1997-06-15). "Enhanced cardiogenesis in embryonic stem cells overexpressing the GATA-4 transcription factor". ''Development
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development hell, when a project is stuck in development
*Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
*Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped
*Photographi ...
''. 124 (12): 2387–2395.
* Sepulveda, Jorge L.; Belaguli, Narashimaswamy; Nigam, Vishal; Chen, Ching-Yi; Nemer, Mona; Schwartz, Robert J. (1998-06-01). "GATA-4 and Nkx-2.5 Coactivate Nkx-2 DNA Binding Targets: Role for Regulating Early Cardiac Gene Expression". ''Molecular and Cellular Biology
''Molecular and Cellular Biology'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of molecular and cellular biology. It is published by the American Society for Microbiology and the editor-in-chief is Peter Tontonoz (University ...
''. 18 (6): 3405–3415. doi:10.1128/MCB.18.6.3405.
* Viger, R. S.; Mertineit, C.; Trasler, J. M.; Nemer, M. (1998-07-15). "Transcription factor GATA-4 is expressed in a sexually dimorphic pattern during mouse gonadal development and is a potent activator of the Mullerian inhibiting substance promoter". ''Development
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development hell, when a project is stuck in development
*Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
*Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped
*Photographi ...
''. 125 (14): 2665–2675.
References
External links
University of Ottawa, Vice-President, Research – Biography of Mona Nemer
Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal – Executive Committee
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemer, Mona
Living people
Canadian women geneticists
Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite
Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
University of Ottawa faculty
Université de Montréal faculty
Lebanese women scientists
Lebanese chemists
Canadian biochemists
Canadian people of Lebanese descent
Knights of the National Order of Quebec
Members of the Order of Canada
Canadian geneticists
Scientists from Ontario
1957 births
21st-century Canadian women scientists
21st-century Canadian chemists