Profile
Jean-Pierre Perreault earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in biochemistry at the Université de Montréal in 1986, 1988 and 1990, respectively. He then held a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University. In 1993, he joined the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Université de Sherbrooke, where he is now a full professor in the Department of Biochemistry. Since June 2017, he has served as the university’s Vice-Rector for Research and Graduate Studies.
A molecular biologist and an expert in RNA and viroid enzymology, Dr. Perreault holds the Université de Sherbrooke Research Chair in RNA Structure and Genomics. From 2005 to 2012, he held the Canada Research Chair in Genomics and Catalytic RNA. He has overseen the development of new gene-inactivation applications based on fundamental discoveries made in his laboratory.
Dr. Perreault has held a number of research-administration positions at the Université de Sherbrooke, including Chair of the Department of Biochemistry (2004 to 2010), Associate Dean for Development in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (2009 to 2010), and Vice-Dean for Research and Graduate Studies (2010 to 2017). His achievements include establishing the endowment fund for that faculty’s graduate research scholarships program. As Vice-Rector for Research and Graduate Studies at the Université de Sherbrooke, he has taken a number of initiatives that have more than doubled the university’s revenues from research over the past seven years, raising it from the 18th to the 10th ranking among all Canadian universities.
Dr. Perreault was the founding director of the Centre of Excellence in RNA Biology Research from 1999 to 2009 and one of the co-founders of the RiboClub, a group of Canadian researchers who study RNA. He served as President of the Canadian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology (renamed the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences under his leadership) and served on its board of directors for several years. He was appointed as a member of the board of directors of Acfas in 2020 and served as its President from 2021 to 2024.