It is rare to find two brothers who are both medical specialists, and both have distinguished careers in medical research. But the Rouleau brothers show it's possible. Elder brother Jean-Lucien (pictured left) is a cardiologist who made his mark developing a drug for heart failure. His younger brother Guy (pictured right), a neurologist, served as director of the Neuro (The Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital) from 2013 to 2026 and continues to lead its Tanenbaum Open Science Institute. Between them, they have published over 1,000 scientific articles and received a host of honours, including the Order of Canada, which was awarded to them in 2017 and 2020, respectively.
The brothers agree that there must have been something in the water when they were growing up in the Ottawa suburb of Vanier. That's because their other brother Paul also went on to make a name for himself in the legal field; he took his fight for the right of Francophone minorities to be educated in French all the way to the Supreme Court—and more than once. Their older sister, Suzanne, a theatre critic, was deeply involved in defending Toronto's Francophone community. “It's a moral philosophy that unites us,” explains Guy Rouleau, the youngest of the siblings. “Growing up, we were all taught the importance of serving our community.”
Their mother, their grandmother, and two of their maternal aunts worked as professional nurses. Their father, a family doctor, frequently offered free medical treatment to the most vulnerable members of their community. “It got to the point that our father had to do other jobs to make ends meet. He even worked as the city coroner,” explains Jean-Lucien, the eldest of the three sons.
All the Rouleau children completed their undergraduate studies at the University of Ottawa, where Jean-Lucien and Guy studied medicine. But while Guy was the first in his class, with the highest GPA in the faculty (98%), Jean-Lucien describes himself as more of an “average” student. “He's exaggerating,” says Guy. “He was one of the top students, but he was also very involved in sports.” Jean adds: “Guy was the scholar, the star student. Everyone knew he would go far in research. He did chemistry experiments in our basement, causing his first explosion when he was nine.”
Jean-Lucien's decision to pursue cardiology was made after his father died by drowning a year after he was diagnosed with coronary heart disease, at age 51. “It was heart failure, so I decided to focus my research on the rehabilitation of people with coronary heart disease,” says Jean-Lucien, who is still emotional about the incident years later.
Both brothers completed their specialized clinical training at ɬ. Guy admits that he chose ɬ to follow in Jean-Lucien's footsteps; Jean-Lucien had been admitted six years earlier and had just begun practising at the Montreal General Hospital. “I chose neurology because there were a lot of opportunities for research,” says Guy.
The two brothers have rarely worked together, “because there's very little overlap between our specialties,” Guy explains. But Jean-Lucien did hire his brother when he became Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montréal. “I wanted us to develop neuroscience. Guy and I worked together on recruiting and building a team.”
“As a boss, Jean was not a hardliner. I'd describe him as ‘intense,’” says Guy. “To give you an idea, in his second term, he decided to slow down a bit, which meant scheduling meetings at 6 a.m. instead of 5 a.m. or 5:30 a.m. like he did during his first term! He’d say, ‘At least no one will give me the excuse that they had a scheduling conflict.’”
Some common traits between the brothers emerged over the years. Guy has been an advocate of open science over his career, while Jean-Lucien laid the groundwork for the Patient-Centred Research Strategy when he served as director of the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health. “Patients' experiences contribute a great deal to research,” says Jean-Lucien, a professor emeritus at the Université de Montréal who is still carrying on research at the age of 75.
More recently, explains Guy, Jean-Lucien helped him secure a major federal grant of $39 million for the Accelerating Clinical Trials program. “The Canadian Institutes of Health Research was getting too many applications, so they asked the candidates to team up with other candidates. My brother was working on a project with cardiologist Philip James Devereaux, from McMaster University, at the time. He told me to reach out to him,” explains Guy, who co-chairs the project with Dr. Devereaux, with whom Jean-Lucien also collaborates. In short, the Rouleau family never gives up.
This article was first published in French: Jean-Lucien et Guy Rouleau, au service de la société. Translation by Julie Barlow.