Dr. Tremblay received her PhD in Sciences neurologiques at Université de Montréal in 2009. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy and Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester from 2009 – 2011 and in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2011 – 2012.

Dr. Tremblay came to the University of Victoria from the Université Laval in Quebec, where she was an Associate Professor in the Molecular Medicine Department. While at the Université Laval, Dr. Tremblay received a CIHR Foundation Scheme grant and a Canada Research Chair, Tier II in Neuroimmune Plasticity in Health and Therapy, among other impressive grants and awards. She has developed national and international prominence for her work, and has collaborated with many scientists. She also supports diversity and inclusivity, whether she is recruiting trainees or organizing events that include speaker panels.

Dr. Tremblay’s postdoctoral work revealed that microglia, which are the brain’s immune cells, actively remodel neuronal circuits during normal physiological conditions. As an independent investigator, she identified fractalkine signaling as an important neuron-microglia pathway that underlies stress-induced cognitive impairment. she has also identified “dark microglia” as a microglial subset rare in healthy adult mice that becomes prevalent upon chronic psychological stress, aging, fractalkine signaling deficiency, and Alzheimer’s disease pathology.  She has contributed to several collaborative studies in the fields of neuroscience, reproduction, nutrition, metabolism, and immunology.

Her research focuses on aging and cognition, using both animal and human brain models to explore the significance of microglial remodelling of neuronal circuits and elimination of synapses in the pathogenesis of brain disorders. She has developed state-of-the-art expertise in non-invasive imaging of the brain—combining chronic longitudinal two-photon in vivo imaging and correlative immunocytochemical electron microscopy with 3D reconstruction—to study the physiological roles of immune cells across the lifespan.