Dr. Poirier received his undergraduate training at Université de Montréal in biochemistry. Shortly after, he joined Dr. André Barbeau’s group at the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal where he completed his Ph.D. on the neurobiology of Parkinson’s disease and the neurotoxicity of MPTP and Aluminum. He was then invited to join the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Consortium of Southern California in Los Angeles as research associate. It is in California that he discovered the important role of apolipoprotein E, a key cholesterol trans-porter that acts as a powerful modulator of brain repair and, serves as a key player in Alzheimer’s disease pathophysiology. McGill University and the Douglas Institute recruited him back in the spring of 89 to establish a research program specialised in neurodegenerative diseases with a strong focus on Alzheimer’s disease genetics.