Imeka: Taking you into the future of white matter research

Jean-René is Imeka’s rock. He drives the company vision. Since starting at Imeka in 2011, Jean-René has driven consistent growth, established strategic partnerships with the largest companies working in neurology, secured significant investments, and built a team with extraordinary synergy that laid the foundations for Imeka’s credibility in the scientific world. He managed a new office in Boston, MA, and launched a strong marketing strategy in the USA.

Jean-René’s work as CEO has provided the team with a transformational vision and continuous income streams so they can focus on doing what they do best: contributing to finding treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.

Valérie is Imeka’s driving force. She makes the company vision come true. Valérie has been working in the pharmaceutical and life sciences fields since 2004, and now she is shaping the future of Imeka.

As Executive Vice-President of Imeka, Valérie is involved in every part of the company, from overseeing and harmoniously integrating major functions of the business to recruiting stellar new talent and ensuring smart, sustainable growth. Valérie’s passion, vision, experience, and human touch add immeasurable value to Imeka’s culture and offerings.

Prior to working at Imeka, Valerie held senior roles in business development, corporate strategy, sales, and operations.

Jean-Christophe has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in computer science with a specialization in image analysis. He is in charge of managing the operations unit at Imeka and ensures Imeka stays at the forefront of the field by keeping up to date on developments in the field of medical imaging analysis. His in-depth knowledge of dMRI and hands-on experience come from his role as a research associate at the Sherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Lab (SCIL), which is headed by Maxime Descoteaux (Imeka’s co-founder and chief science officer).

Maxime received a PhD from Inria Sophia-Antipolis and did a postdoctoral fellowship in computer science and neuroimaging at NeuroSpin, CEA Saclay in Paris. He is a world-renowned expert in advanced white matter imaging and medical imaging. Maxime supervises the science, research, and software developments at Imeka.

In addition to his work with Imeka, Maxime leads the Sherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Lab (SCIL), known for its integrated approach to advanced white matter imaging. Maxime’s credentials include:

• 9695 citations; 125+ journal papers; h-index 48, i10-index 131
• Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists
• Full professor, Computer Science, University of Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
• Leads a lab of 15 members (MSc, PhD, postdocs)
• International leader and conference/workshop organizer in diffusion MRI

Pierre-Marc is a world expert in computer vision and deep learning. He received a PhD in computer vision from the University of Montreal, followed by a postdoc at Boston University. He is currently a full professor at the Université de Sherbrooke, working on the development of deep learning solutions to various digital imaging problems. Pierre-Marc supervises software development at Imeka.

In addition to his work with Imeka, Pierre-Marc runs the Videos & Images Theory and Analytics Laboratory (VITAL), which is 100% focused on deep learning–based techniques. VITAL focuses on researching state-of-the-art algorithms in image processing, computer vision, video analytics, medical imaging, and statistical models.

Rich Macary is the President of Sinaptica Therapeutics, a clinical-stage electromagnetic therapeutics company developing a novel, noninvasive closed loop neuromodulation approach for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.  As one of the company’s co-founders, Rich helped drive product development and partnering efforts as well as securing FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for the company’s proprietary SinaptiStimTM- AD System.  Prior to his current role, Rich was a consultant, strategic advisor and a senior executive at Sarepta Therapeutics, a global biotechnology company and leader in RNA based therapeutics and genetic medicines targeting rare diseases. In his role as Vice President of Business Development, Rich focused on developing new opportunities and therapeutic targets for the company’s RNA technologies as well as complimentary technologies and related IP.  Prior to and post his roles at Sarepta, Rich held several senior executive roles at Delos, a wellness real estate and technology company, where he lead business development, strategic investments and overall strategy as both President of Delos Ventures and Chief Strategy Officer.  In his roles at Delos, Rich achieved a number of key accomplishments including conceiving, developing and launching the Well Living Lab, a Delos and Mayo Clinic collaboration to study the impact of indoor environments on the health and well-being of building occupants.

Rich spent the prior 15  years as a corporate consultant, advisor and analyst to both institutional and high-net-worth investors as well as a consultant, advisor, investor and board member to several public and private early to mid-stage companies operating in a diverse range of industries including biotechnology, medical devices, software, fintech and consumer products among others. Rich currently holds several board positions and remains a managing partner of Macary Advisors, a biotech/medtech consulting and advisory firm currently engaged with several promising companies within the fields of diagnostics, therapeutics, medical devices and digital health.  His research and opinions have appeared in many media outlets including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, CNN, Barron’s, Reuters and Bloomberg.