BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES René Roy BSc, PhD (Université de Montréal) Full Professor Department of Chemistry, Université de Québec à Montréal Dr. René Roy, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Medicinal Chemistry from 2004 to 2011, is an expert in medicinal chemistry. He completed his PhD in organic chemistry at Université de Montréal in 1980 before going on to work at the National Research Council’s Institute for Biological Sciences in Ottawa from 1980 to 1985. He then joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Ottawa, where he taught until 2003. He returned to Montréal to work at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Dr. Roy uses modern organic chemistry to study how neoglycoconjugates and polymers can be developed and used to combat diseases related to glycoproteins. His innovations in glycan structures (such as glycopolymers and glycodendrimers) have shed light on multivalent molecular recognition mechanisms. Dr. Roy is founder and Director of UQAM’s PharmaQÀM research group, consisting of some 20 professors with shared interests in pharmaceutical research. He was chairman of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry from 2002 to 2004, and head of the ACS awards committee in 2005. He was Associate Director and subsequently Director of the Ottawa­ Carleton Chemistry Institute (1993­1996 and 1996­1999 respectively) before becoming Associate Director again in 2000. In 1997 he received the Hoffmann­La Roche award for his contribution to medicinal chemistry. In 2000, he was named the University of Ottawa Science Faculty’s “Researcher of the Year.” He also received an Ottawa Life Sciences Council Achievement Award and Rotary International Paul Harris Fellowship for his work on the first synthetic vaccine against H. influenza type B (Hib), work carried out with Cuban researchers. In 2001, he received the National Research Council Royalty Sharing Award for his work on the meningitis C vaccine, and in 2003 the Melville L. Wolfrom award from the ACS Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry for his contributions to glycochemistry. In 2005, he and his Cuban colleagues received the Tech Museum Award—Technology Benefiting Humanity for their work on the Hib vaccine, today used in the Cuban public health service. That same year, he was named “Personality of the Week” by Montréal daily La Presse and received a Gold Medal from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). In 2006, he was chosen as the 30th annual Probst Memorial Lecturer by the Southern Illinois University for his work on vaccines for children in developing nations. RESEARCH INTERESTS Author of more than 230 publications (including many speciality sections) and editor of two books on vaccines and glycomimetics, Dr. Roy has been instrumental in creating and marketing two meningitis vaccines. His special interest in carbohydrate chemistry spans more than three decades. He has also created a breast cancer vaccine prototype. He recently developed an alternative way to combat bacterial infections by synthesizing a new family of molecular architectures called glycodendrimers. His work on these molecules, classed as nanotechnologies, has been hailed by Québec­Science as one of the 10 most important discoveries in 2008—the second time in less than three years that Dr. Roy has been singled out by the journal. His current interests include designing new dendrimers and dendronized polymers for use in water purification and in the detection and treatment of blue­green algae.