About

I study what decides whether a cell grows, ages, or responds to a drug.

I'm Younes Medkour, a molecular biologist in Montréal. As an undergraduate, I studied evolution first and then cancer biology. I studied aging for my PhD, returned to cancer and metabolism as a postdoc, and now work on extracellular vesicles (EVs) as a way to deliver drugs.

I also teach university biology, and I co-founded Nanomère to take some of this work out of the lab.

What I work on

Drug delivery
I develop EV drug carriers (EVX-1 for chemotherapy, and ProbioVesicle, probiotic yeast vesicles for anti-aging actives) and test whether the human immune system tolerates them.
The research
Cancer and aging
I study how cells stop dividing, from a protein complex that halts triple-negative breast cancer cells to plant extracts that slow aging in yeast.
The findings
Immunology
I study how human immune cells respond to drug carriers: whether EVX-1 and ProbioVesicle are tolerated, and why immune memory can make a carrier fail the second time.
Immune memory and carriers

How I work

01	Mechanism first	I want to know why something works before I trust that it works.
02	Test across many models	I test ideas in yeast, mice and many human cell lines. A result that holds in one system is a start, not an answer.
03	Safety is part of the result	A carrier that works but triggers the immune system has not worked.
04	Explain it plainly	If I can't explain it to a first-year student, I don't understand it well enough yet.

Path

From evolution to medicine.

BSc: BSc in Biology, Concordia (2015). I learned how living things evolve, then how cancer grows.
2014–19: PhD in Biology, Concordia. I studied why cells age, using yeast. I found that PE21, an extract of willow bark, slows aging by changing how cells handle fat. Along the way, I was a Concordia Public Scholar, won the Grand Prix Jeune Potentiel and an NSERC Science, Action! award, spoke at the Yeast Genetics Meeting at Stanford, and wrote two op-eds for the Montreal Gazette.
2020–25: Postdoctoral fellow, Goodman Cancer Institute, McGill. I studied three proteins that act together as a brake on an aggressive breast cancer, the gene changes behind a rare type of breast cancer, and a protein that controls fat build-up in the liver. The work was funded by $200K in fellowships from FRQS, the McGill Faculty of Medicine and the Karassik Foundation.
2024–25: Scientist II, GC Lipid Technologies. I measured the fats made by microalgae that had been engineered to produce valuable compounds.
2024–: Lecturer, Concordia. I teach university courses in molecular biology, genetics and genomics.
2025: Head of Computational Biology & AI, SEVO Bioscience. I used AI to design new proteins for downstream applications.
Ventures: I co-founded Nanomère, which turns tiny particles released by probiotic yeast into skincare ingredients.
Now: Research Associate, Brett lab, Concordia. I develop tiny natural particles, called extracellular vesicles, that carry medicine to the right cells: EVX-1 carries chemotherapy, and ProbioVesicle, made by probiotic yeast, carries anti-aging ingredients. I also test how the immune system reacts to them, which decides whether they can be used in people.

Concordia Public Scholar, 2018–19

Concordia profile

I spent a year learning to take research out of the lab through op-eds in the Montreal Gazette, interviews, blog posts, a national film competition and talks for CEGEP students.

Read about the year Lessons I took from it Watch the video on YouTube