The 15th Symposium of the Societé Legallois pour l’Etude du Contrôle Respiratoire (SLECR) took place on January 18th – 20th 2019, at l’auberge de la Jouvence (Orford,Qc). This event organized by the respiratory control research groups and students from U Laval and U Sherbrooke offers unique opportunities for exchange among students, research staff, and our invited speakers in a relaxed atmosphere where the priority is given to informal and friendly interactions, but maybe its most important feature is that is mostly based on oral presentations made by students.

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A total of thirty people, among Principal Investigators, Research Professionals and B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D. and post-Doc students gathered to present, discuss and share their knowledge on the physiology and pathophysiology of respiratory control. A wide variety of topics were addressed, ranging from adaptation to high altitude in human or rodents, to discussions on the adverse consequences of sleep apnea, and some original insights into respiratory control in fish or tadpoles.

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We had the pleasure to have four excellent conferences given by our invited speakers. Doctor Ken O’Halloran (University of Cork, Ireland) inaugurated the symposium with his talk on “Control of breathing in the mdx mouse model for muscular dystrophy”. Doctor Estelle Gauda (Hospital for SickKids, Canada) presented a summary of her extensive work on “The role of relative adiponectin deficiency to CIH in premature infants”. In spite weather complications prevented doctor David Gozal (University of Missouri, USA) to be in person in Orford, he gave fantastic virtual presentation about “Intermittent hypoxia and end organ dysfunction: lessons in murine models”. The final day had doctor Graham Scott (McMaster University, Canada) presenting his work on “Control of breathing in deer mice native to high altitude”.

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Additionally, doctors John Peever (U of Toronto), Pascal Daleau (U Laval) and Silvia Pagliardini (U Edmonton) presented results of their ongoing work as special guests of the symposium. Last but not least, Dr Gaspard Montandon (U of Toronto) and members of his student team also attended the meeting and made remarkable contributions on the role of opioid receptor on respiratory control.

As every year, the organizing committee recognized the talent and effort of presenting students with a couple of symbolic prizes. In this opportunity, Shenhab Zaig (Gaspard Montandon’s lab) and Morgan Gazzola (Ynuk Bossé’s lab) received the awards for best oral presentation in M.Sc. and Ph.D. categories respectively.

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Despite a record breaking cold and a historical snow storm upon us, our traditional outdoor activities in Orford’s national park took place for the pleasure of our guests, as well as the evening activities, which included lively discussions on the future of research funding, and predatory publishing in research.