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Tardif’s lab develops novel MRI techniques to generate high-resolution quantitative MR images of the brain in-vivo, and relates them to microstructural features of the tissue. Methodological developments include novel image acquisition techniques, multi-modal biophysical modelling, and high-resolution cortical modelling. The lab has a translational approach, working on both small animal (7 Tesla) and human (3 and 7 Tesla) MRI systems.

Tardif’s research has focused on MRI-based investigations of myelin, a lipid-rich cellular membrane that forms an insulating sheath around axons to achieve and maintain the rapid conduction and synchronous timing of neural networks. Myelination is a lifelong dynamic process of forming and modulating myelin sheaths. It underlies key mechanisms of brain plasticity and higher-order cognitive functions. In addition to demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis, there is accumulating evidence that dysmyelination contributes to psychiatric disorders as well. Tardif’s lab investigates myelination (in both white and grey matter) using multiple MRI techniques such as relaxometry, magnetization transfer and diffusion-weighted imaging.

Tardif received her undergraduate degree in computer engineering from McGill in 2004, and her masters’ degree in bioengineering from Imperial College London, UK, in 2006. She then returned to McGill to earn a PhD in biomedical engineering in 2011. After postdoctoral studies at the Max-Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences (Leipzig, Germany) and at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute (McGill), she joined The Neuro in 2017 as an Assistant Professor.