Bernard Thebaud profile picture

Contact Information

Bernard Thebaud, MD, PhD
613-737-8899 ext 73905
bthebaud@ohri.ca

ORCID logo https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1844-7145

Bernard Thebaud

Senior Scientist, Regenerative Medicine Program
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Neonatologist, Department of Pediatrics
The Ottawa Hospital and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario
Professor, Department of Pediatrics
University of Ottawa
Partnership Research Chair, Regenerative Medicine
University of Ottawa

Research Interests

Our lab is interested in making discoveries in the lab and moving them into the clinic. Our focus is currently on developing stem cell-based therapies for patients with incurable lung diseases. Chronic lung diseases will be the 3rd killer in man by 2020. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a chronic lung disease that follows ventilator and oxygen treatment for acute failure to breath in babies born very prematurely (24-28 weeks gestation instead of 40). BPD is a major complication of prematurity with a short- and long-term burden for infants and their families. Our body contains stem cells, a pool of cells that help organs to grow and to repair. One example of a promising cell therapy we are pursuing is umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stromal (stem) cells because we showed that these cells can heal the lung of newborn rats exposed to high oxygen (BPD animal model). Our research has the potential to provide a breakthrough therapy that will improve not only the lung disease, but also the overall outcome of premature babies. Ultimately, our findings may extend to other lung diseases such as asthma, cystic fibrosis or acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Brief Biography

Dr. Bernard Thébaud is a clinician-scientist with a focus on the clinical translation of stem cell-based therapies for lung diseases. Dr. Thébaud is a senior scientist with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute (CHEO RI), and a neonatologist with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), where he provides care to critically ill newborns. He is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa and holds the uOttawa Partnership Research Chair in Regenerative Medicine.

Dr. Thébaud obtained his MD at the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France in 1991 and trained in pediatrics and neonatology at the University Paris V in Paris, France, where he also obtained his MSc and PhD. He then completed a 2 year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Thébaud has participated on numerous peer reviews committees and scientific advisory boards at the international, national and provincial level, including NIH and CIHR. He has over 120 peer-reviewed publications, and given over 80 lectures at leading international meetings and institutions in the past 5 years. He was a Canada Research Chair from 2005-2012. He received the “Rising Star in Perinatal Research” award from the CIHR Institute for Human Development, Child and Youth Health in 2008, and the “Best in Current Canadian Child Health Research” Sanofi Pasteur Research Award in 2007.

Selected Publications

Lithopoulos MA, Toussay X, Zhong S, Xu L, Mustafa SB, Ouellette J, Freitas-Andrade M, Comin CC, Bassam HA, Baker AN, Sun Y, Wakem M, Moreira AG, Blanco CL, Vadivel A, Tsilfidis C, Seidner SR, Slack RS, Lagace DC, Wang J, Lacoste B, Thébaud B. Neonatal hyperoxia in mice triggers long-term cognitive deficits via impairments in cerebrovascular function and neurogenesis. J Clin Invest. 2022 Sep 22:e146095.

Lithopoulos MA, Strueby L, O'Reilly M, Zhong S, Möbius MA, Eaton F, Fung M, Hurskainen M, Cyr-Depauw C, Suen C, Xu L, Collins JJP, Vadivel A, Stewart DJ, Burger D, Thébaud B. Pulmonary and neurologic effects of mesenchymal stromal cell extracellular vesicles in a multifactorial lung injury model. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2022 Mar 14. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202012-4520OC.

Hurskainen M, Mizikova I, Cook DP, Andersson N, Cyr-Depauw C, Lesage F, Helle E, Renesme L, Jankov RP, Heikinheimo M, Vanderhyden BC, Thébaud B. Single cell transcriptomic analysis of murine lung development on hyperoxia-induced damage. Nat Commun. 2021 Mar 10;12(1):1565.

Thébaud B
, Lalu M, Renesme L, van Katwyk S, Presseau J, Thavorn K, Cobey KD, Hutton B, Moher D, Soll RF, Fergusson D. Benefits and obstacles to cell therapy in neonates: The INCuBAToR (Innovative Neonatal Cellular Therapy for Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia: Accelerating Translation of Research). Stem Cells Transl Med. 2021 Jul;10(7):968-975.

Kang MH, van Lieshout LP, Xu L, Domm JM, Vadivel A, Renesme L, Mühlfeld C, Hurskainen M, Mizikova I, Pei Y, van Vloten JP, Thomas SP, Milazzo C, Cyr-Depauw C, Whitsett JA, Nogee LM, Wootton SK, Thébaud B. A lung tropic AAV vector improves survival in a mouse model of surfactant B deficiency. Nat Commun. 2020 Aug 6;11(1):3929.

Augustine S, Cheng W, Avey MT, Chan ML, Lingappa SMC, Hutton B, Thébaud B. Are all stem cells equal? Systematic review, evidence map, and meta-analyses of preclinical stem cell-based therapies for bronchopulmonary dysplasia: concise review. Stem Cells Transl Med. 2020 Feb;9(2):158-168.

Thébaud B, Goss KN, Laughon M, Whitsett JA, Abman SH, Steinhorn RH, Aschner JL, Davis PG, McGrath-Morrow SA, Soll RF, Jobe AH. Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2019 Nov 14;5(1):78.

Augustine S, Avey MT, Harrison B, Locke T, Ghannad M, Moher D, Thébaud B. Mesenchymal stromal cell therapy in bronchopulmonary dysplasia: systematic review and meta-analysis of preclinical studies. Stem Cell Transl Med. 2017 Dec;6(12):2079-2093.

Alphonse RS, Vadivel A, Zhong S, McConaghy S, Ohls R, Yoder MC, Thébaud B. A method to isolate and culture lung vascular endothelial colony-forming cells. Nat Protoc. 2015 Nov;10(11):1697-708.

Alphonse RS, Vadivel A, Fung M, Shelley WC, Critser PJ, Ionescu L, O’Reilly M, Ohls RK, McConaghy S, Eaton F, Zhong S, Yoder M, Thébaud B. Existence, functional impairment and lung repair potential of endothelial colony forming cells in oxygen-induced arrested alveolar growth. Circulation. 2014 May 27;129(21):2144-57.

Pierro M, Ionescu L, Montemurro T, Vadivel A, Weissmann G, Oudit G, Emery D, Bodiga S, Eaton F, Péault B, Mosca F, Lazzari L, Thébaud B. Short-term, long-term and paracrine effect of human umbilical cord-derived stem cells in lung injury prevention and repair in experimental bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Thorax. 2013 May;68(5):475-84.

Luong C, Rey-Perra J, Vadivel A, Gilmour G, Sauve Y, Koonen D, Walker D, Todd KG, Gressens P, Kassiri Z, Nadeem K, Morgan B, Eaton F, Dyck JR, Archer SL,? Thébaud B. Antenatal sildenafil treatment attenuates pulmonary hypertension in experimental congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Circulation. 2011 May 17;123(19):2120-31.

van Haaften T, Byrne R, Bonnet S, Rochefort GY, Akabutu J, GJ Rey-Parra, Bouchentouf M, Galipeau J, Haromy A, Eaton F, Chen M, Hashimoto K, Abley D, Korbutt G, Archer SL, Thébaud B. Airway delivery of mesenchymal stem cells prevents arrested alveolar growth in neonatal lung injury in rats. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2009; 180(11):1131-42.

Thébaud B, Ladha F, Michelakis E, Sawika M, Thurston G, Eaton F, Hashimoto K, Harry G, Haromy A, Korbutt G, Archer SL. Vascular endothelial growth factor gene therapy increases survival, promotes lung angiogenesis, and prevents alveolar damage in hyperoxia-induced lung injury: evidence that angiogenesis participates in alveolarization. Circulation. 2005 Oct 18;112(16):2477-86. 

Diseases, conditions and populations of interest





Research and clinical approaches