We are pleased to announce the appointment of Keith Murai, PhD, as Associate Dean and Director of the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS), Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, effective July 15, 2024. Prof. Murai replaces Alvin Shrier, PhD, who had been serving as Interim Director and Associate Dean since May 2023. We take this opportunity to thank Prof. Shrier for his leadership over the past year, where his positive energy and dedication strengthened the School. Prof. Shrier also initiated a reflection on the SBMS’s role and mission and launched an internal consultation with young researchers on urgent needs and future directions. This has fostered a strong sense of community among departments and institutes that will serve the School well moving forward.
A Professor in the Department of Neurology & Neurosurgery at McGill, Prof. Murai served as Director of McGill’s Centre for Research in Neuroscience at the Montreal General Hospital and Leader of the Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience Program at the Research Institute of the Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Health Centre (RI-MUHC) since 2015. Prof. Murai’s experiences over the last 21 years at McGill have helped him to understand the McGill academic and research landscape and his leadership experiences at the RI-MUHC have deepened his understanding of how to bridge fundamental and translational research and training.
Prof. Murai completed his Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees in neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego, and a postdoctoral fellowship at The Burnham Institute in La Jolla, California. He is widely recognized for his work on brain development and plasticity. His research focuses on understanding cellular complexity and diversity in the brain and how cells cooperate to regulate brain development, synaptic function/plasticity and homeostasis. His research is also aimed at identifying molecular and cellular pathways that become altered in brain disorders and diseases. His laboratory uses a variety of genetic, imaging (light and electron microscopy) and physiological approaches to probe cell function in the brain. He also co-leads a Canadian Foundation for Innovation 2023 Innovation Fund project related to autism and advanced animal modeling. For the past five years, his research and leadership has been recognized through a Donald S. Wells Distinguished Scientist Award from the Montreal General Hospital Foundation.
Over the past decade, Prof. Murai has participated on several academic and professional committees and has contributed to the recruitment and mentorship of many neuroscience faculty at McGill, including involvement in the recruitment of a recent Canada Excellence Research Chair. Prof. Murai was a member of Research Program and Scientific Leadership Councils of the RI-MUHC and is currently a member of the Strategic Steering Committee for the Canadian Brain Research Strategy, a community-led initiative uniting over 30 neuroscience and mental health institutes across the country, to advance Canada as a world leader in collaborative, transdisciplinary, open and ethical brain research. He was a Co-Chair of the Animal Modeling Subcommittee of McGill’s Healthy Brains for Healthy Lives, supported by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund. From 2021 to 2023 he served first as Vice-President and then President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience.
As Associate Dean and Director of the School of Biomedical Sciences, Prof. Murai will serve as the academic leader of the School. He will provide strategic oversight and coordination of the activities of the Faculty’s biomedical science departments including undergraduate and graduate education, research planning, resource allocation and recruitment. He will work closely with the Chairs and Directors of the School’s constituent units to advance the education and research missions of the School. We anticipate that Prof. Murai’s experience at McGill and the RI-MUHC, along with other leadership experience outside of the McGill ecosystem, combined with a strong desire for innovation and interdisciplinary research, will allow him to strengthen global recognition of the SBMS.
We thank Prof. Murai for taking on these new responsibilities. Please join us in wishing him every success in the role.
Lesley Fellows, MDCM, DPhil
Vice-President (Health Affairs)
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
and Health Sciences
Christian Pineau, MDCM
Vice-Dean, Academic Affairs
