Pierre Mattar is an independent scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa. His research is primarily focused on understanding how the cellular diversity of the nervous system is generated and on deciphering how neural progenitors regulate their developmental potential.

During his training, he first focused on the development of the cerebral cortex (neocortex), working on transcription factor genes, such as Neurog2 and Ascl1, that are required for neuronal differentiation. Mattar identified downstream targets of these genes and also explored how developmental changes in the cortical environment modified their activities. During his postdoctoral work, he worked on very similar processes but in the developing retina, which shares many similarities with the neocortex. Mattar started his independent research program in mid-2017.