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Marcel Behr

Dr. Marcel A. Behr

McGill University Health Centre
1001 boul Décarie
Glen Site Block E, Office #EM3.3212
Montréal, QC H4A 3J1 Canada

Office Phone: (514) 934 1934 x42815
Email: marcel.behr [at] mcgill.ca
Website: www.mcgill.ca/molepi

Research

Focus

Marcel Behr was the Founding Director of the McGill International TB Centre. He completed a BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Toronto, an MD at Queen’s University and residency training in Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology at McGill University. He also completed an MSc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill University and then did post-doctoral training in molecular epidemiology and bacterial genomics, with Peter Small, at Stanford University. He is currently a Professor of Medicine at McGill University and Associate Director of the Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (www.idigh.ca). In addition to research activities, he attends on the Infectious Diseases consult service, he works in the TB clinic of the MUHC and he directs the mycobacteriology laboratory of the OptiLab Grappe-CUSM.

Marcel’s research employs genomic methods to study the epidemiology and pathogenesis of TB and other mycobacterial infections. His research is supported by a Foundation Grant from the CIHR and he also enjoys an active collaboration with the Structure-Based Drug Discovery Coalition (www.thesgc.org/sddc) for the development of novel anti-mycobacterial treatments. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, reviews and book chapters. In recognition of his work, he has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the Royal Society of Canada and the American Academy of Microbiology.

Keywords

Tuberculosis, BCG, molecular microbiology, genomics, molecular epidemiology, non-tuberculous mycobacteria, NOD2, N-glycolyl muramyl dipeptide

Selected Publications

Pai M, Behr MA, Dowdy D, Djedda K, Divangahi M, Boehme C, Ginsberg A, Swaminathan S, Spigelman M, Getahun H, Menzies D, Raviglione M. Tuberculosis. Nature Reviews Disease Primers 2016 Oct 27;2:16076. doi:10.1038/nrdp.2016.76
Behr MA, Edelstein P, Ramakrishnan L. Revisiting timetable of tuberculosis. BMJ. 2018 Aug 23;362:k2738. doi: 10.1136/bmj.k2738.
Duffy SC, Srinivasan S, Schilling MA, Stuber T, Danchuk SN, Michael JS, Venkatesan M, Bansal N, Maan S, Jindal N, Chaudhary D, Dandapat P, Katani R, Chothe S, Veerasami M, Robbe-Austerman S, Juleff N, Kapur V, Behr MA. Reconsidering Mycobacterium bovis as a proxy for zoonotic tuberculosis: a molecular epidemiological surveillance study. Lancet Microbe. 2020 Jun;1(2):e66-e73. doi: 10.1016/S2666-5247(20)30038-0.
Ghanem M, Dube J-Y, Wang J, McIntosh F, Houle D, Domenech P, Reed MB, Raman S, Buter J, Minnaard AJ, Moody DB, Behr MA. Heterologous production of 1-tuberculosinyladenosine in Mycobacterium kansasii models pathoevolution towards the transcellular lifestyle of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. mBio. 2020 Oct 20;11(5):e02645-20. doi: 10.1128/mBio.02645-20.
Sullivan J, Lupien A, Kalthoff E, Hamela C, Taylor L, Munro K, Schmeing M, Kremer L, Behr AM. Efficacy of epetraborole against Mycobacterium abscessus is increased with norvaline. PLoS Pathog. 2021 Oct 12;17(10):e1009965. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1009965.