PhD project: Morally problematic situations experienced by adults living with rare diseases (since 2018)

The aim of this participatory action research project is to understand the morally problematic situations experienced by adults living with rare diseases in Quebec in their everyday life or healthcare. It also aims to identify strategies that could help resolve some of these situations.

I am conducting this research project under the supervision of Dr. Eric Racine at the Pragmatic Health Ethics Research Unit of the IRCM. We are developing the project with the input of a working group composed of patient partners living with rare diseases, representatives of the Regroupement québécois des maladies orphelines, and clinician researchers specializing in rare diseases.

The project features a literature review, the collection of testimonies through an online qualitative survey, follow-up interviews, and deliberative sessions with the working group. These methods are inspired by pragmatism, which is a theoretical framework calling for the use of deliberative, evidence-informed and emancipatory approaches to address everyday life situations.

Funding: Doctoral scholarships from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé.

Master’s project: Ethical and psychosocial issues raised by the artificial pancreas (2016-2018)

The artificial pancreas is a novel wearable medical technology designed to automate the infusion of insulin for individuals living with type 1 diabetes. This research project sought to identify and characterize the ethical and psychosocial issues raised by the artificial pancreas.

To this end, we conducted a literature review, a survey among individuals living with type 1 diabetes, and follow-up interviews.

I completed this research project at the IRCM under the supervision of Dr. Eric Racine (Pragmatic Health Ethics Research Unit) and the co-supervision of Dr. Rémi Rabasa-Lhoret (Metabolic Diseases Research Unit), which has developed and tested experimental versions of the artificial pancreas.

Funding: Master’s research scholarships from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé.

Publications:

• Taleb N, Quintal A, Rakheja R, Messier V, Legault L, Racine E, Rabasa-Lhoret R. Perceptions and expectations of adults with type 1 diabetes for the use of artificial pancreas systems with and without glucagon addition: Results of an online survey. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases. 2021 Feb 8;31(2):658-65.
• Quintal A, Messier V, Rabasa-Lhoret R, Racine E. A qualitative study of the views of individuals with type 1 diabetes on the ethical considerations raised by the artificial pancreas. Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics. 2020;10(3):237-61.
• Quintal A, Messier V, Rabasa‐Lhoret R, Racine E. A qualitative study exploring the expectations of people living with type 1 diabetes regarding prospective use of a hybrid closed‐loop system. Diabetic Medicine. 2020 Nov;37(11):1832-40.
• Quintal A, Messier V, Rabasa-Lhoret R, Racine E. A critical review and analysis of ethical issues associated with the artificial pancreas. Diabetes & Metabolism. 2019 Jan 1;45(1):1-0.
• Racine E, Quintal A, Sample M. Neuroessentialism in discussions about the impact of closed-loop technologies on agency and identity. AJOB Neuroscience. 2017 Apr 3;8(2):81-3.

The Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health has conducted a more extensive ethical analysis (2021) of the artificial pancreas using the second to last publication as a framework.

Undergraduate internships in basic neurosciences

I have done two internships in laboratory settings during my Bachelor’s degree in neurosciences.

Roles of the receptors GPR91 and GPR99 in the development of the retina (2015)

• Supervision: Dr. Jean-François Bouchard (École d’optométrie de l’Université de Montréal)
• Funding: PREMIER scholarship from the Faculté de médecine de l’Université de Montréal & Bourse de recrutement from the Réseau de recherche en santé de la vision.
• Resulting publication: Cherif H, Duhamel F, Cecyre B, Bouchard A, Quintal A, Chemtob S, Bouchard JF. Receptors of intermediates of carbohydrate metabolism, GPR91 and GPR99, mediate axon growth. PLoS Biology. 2018 May 17;16(5):e2003619.

Roles of the gene Tsc1 in the development of parvalbumin interneurons (2014)

• Supervision: Dr. Graziella Di Cristo (CHU Sainte-Justine)
• Funding: PREMIER scholarship from the Faculté de médecine de l’Université de Montréal.
• Resulting publication: Amegandjin CA, Choudhury M, Jadhav V, Carriço JN, Quintal A, Berryer M, Snapyan M, Chattopadhyaya B, Saghatelyan A, Di Cristo G. Sensitive period for rescuing parvalbumin interneurons connectivity and social behavior deficits caused by TSC1 loss. Nature Communications. 2021 Jun 16;12(1):1-8.