Cynthia Gagnon
Investigator
Professor, Rehabilitation, Université de Sherbrooke; Researcher, FRQS Centre de recherche du CRCHUS
Visiting Professor, uOttawa and CHEO-RI
NMD4C Involvement: Pillar 2: Clinical Research, Pillar 3: Clinical Practice Research, Theme 5: Open Science
Email CynthiaBiography
Cynthia is a senior career-award researcher specializing in adult genetic neuromuscular disorders. She holds a professorial appointment at the School of Rehabilitation at the University of Sherbrooke. She is the scientific director of the Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les maladies neuromusculaires (GRIMN) and is a researcher at the Centre de recherche Charles-Le Moyne-Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean sur les innovations en santé.
Cynthia trained as an occupational therapist at McGill University. She has a doctoral degree in experimental medicine from Laval University and pursued a postdoctoral fellowship in program evaluation at Montreal University. Her work aims at improving clinical care and speeding up trial readiness in the most prevalent neuromuscular diseases in Canada. Her main interest is to document the natural history of the disease through an interdisciplinary perspective to be able to document the progression of the disease and to identify significant predictor and explanatory factors related to participation in daily activities and social roles of patients such as work and autonomous living. Her other interest is to define the best outcome measures to assess potential therapeutic targets such as muscle strength, fatigue or cognitive functions. She also works on developing knowledge translation strategies related to rare diseases to ensure effective and just-in-time knowledge translation to the interdisciplinary team through different strategies including wiki, articles, clinical practice guidelines to improve clinical care for patients and their families.
She is involved in several international projects in relation to myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) and autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS).
Within NMD4C, Cynthia is lead for knowledge translation.
Recent Publications
Sansone, VA, Lizio, A, Ferrari Aggradi, CR, Greco, LC, Gagnon, C, Subramony, S et al.. Longitudinal Psychometric Properties of the Myotonic Dystrophy Health Index in a Large Multicenter Cohort of People Living With Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1. Muscle Nerve. 2026. PMID:42115131
Fortin, J, Gaudet, I, Côté, I, Gagnon, C, Gallais, B. Short-term course of the neuropsychological profile in myotonic dystrophy type 1: a 12-month longitudinal study. BMC Neurol. 2026. PMID:42050457
Leeuwenberg, KE, Sansone, VA, Hamel, J, Hung, M, Dekdebrun, JM, Lizio, A et al.. Prospective Study of Video Hand Opening Time as a Quantitative Measurement of Myotonia in Patients With Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1. Neurology. 2026.106 (7)e214747 PMID:41747205
Chénier, S, Doré, M, Paquet, M, Bastien, A, Mercier, L, Baby, V et al.. Emerging Forms of Avian Orthoreovirus Infection in Turkeys in Québec, Canada, Associated with Tenosynovitis, Hepatitis, and Encephalitis (2020-2022). Avian Dis. 2025.69 (4)355-366 PMID:41738847
Fortin, J, Synofzik, M, Pedneault-Tremblay, ÉA, Hermle, D, Thieme, A, Timmann, D et al.. The Cerebellar Cognitive-Affective Syndrome Scale Reveals Consistent, Early, and Progressive Neuropsychological Deficits in Autosomal-Recessive Spastic Ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay: A Large International Cross-Sectional Study. Mov Disord. 2026.41 (4)1034-1040 PMID:41669957
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