Daniel Gaudet

Daniel Gaudet, MD, Ph.D. is professor of medicine at Université de Montréal and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Preventive Genetics and Community Genomics at this university. He founded the Université de Montréal Community Genomic Medicine Center, the Lipid Research Group and the Lipid Clinic at the Chicoutimi University Hospital, where he is also director of research. In 2000, Dr. Gaudet founded the ECOGENE-21 research program and team. This huge enterprise is aimed at the development and evaluation of new knowledge and technologies from research in genetics and ‘‘omic’’ sciences, and their application to clinical practice and public health at the community level. ECOGENE-21 is a team recognized and funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Dr. Gaudet has been one of the two coordinators of the clinical application axis of genetics at the FRSQ’s Applied Genetic Medicine Network since 2000, and participated in the planning and development of the CARTaGENE project as assistant scientific director from 2001 to July 2006. It was actually to meet the needs of this project that he contributed to the development of the Biobank. While remaining co-researcher and member of the CARTaGENE scientific management committee. Also in 2000, he organized the first international conference on community genetics in Saguenay with the co-sponsorship of the World Health Organization (WHO), thus contributing to bringing together the forces and ideas of this emerging discipline. He acted as consultant for the WHO’s human genetic program from 1998 to 2005 and maintains close ties with this organization. Over the past years, Daniel Gaudet was a member of the Board of Directors of the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ), member of the FRSQ finance committee and Vice President of the Société québécoise de lipidologie, nutrition et métabolisme, of which he is one of the founders. From 1998 to 2001, he was Chairman of the Board of the Corporation for Research and Action on Hereditary Diseases (CORAMH). As consulting-physician in genetics with the Direction de la santé publique du Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean since 1997, he coordinated the creation of the community genetics service plan for l’Agence de santé et des services sociaux of this region in 2001. For some fifteen years, Dr. Gaudet has led integrated clinical, research and public health activities in the fields of genetics and genomics, especially with regard to genetic determinants of complex diseases, more specifically lipid metabolism disorders and their associated risks: cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and the metabolic consequences of obesity. Over the years, he has coordinated some hundred clinical studies (phase I to IIIb) and academic projects involving the development of new drugs, technologies and treatments, among which gene and anti-sens therapy. He is the author, or co-author, of several hundred papers, 110 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals, 8 technological patents in the sphere of applied ‘‘omic sciences,’’ as well as published works for clinicians.