Citizens of six cities in Québec will be called in the coming weeks to participate
This is the largest recruitment in the general population for a scientific project on health that Québec has ever known. CARTaGENE, the massive project which is currently building a bank of biological samples and detailed information on the health of Quebecers, is currently seeking 17,000 new candidates – men and women aged between 40 and 69 – in 6 regions of Québec: Gatineau, Montréal, Québec City, Trois-Rivières, Saguenay and Sherbrooke.
Participants will be asked to provide information about their health and their medical history and that of their family, as well as about their lifestyle. They will also be invited to provide a blood sample. All of this data will then be cataloged and stored at the Genome Quebec Chicoutimi Biobank. It will be used by researchers to support the discovery, amongst other things, of better diagnostics, treatments and prevention methods for chronic diseases known to be widespread in Quebec such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.