It is now over a year that I was appointed as Director of Research. This first year has been very exciting and certainly busy. The Research Centre has the wind in its sails as indicated in the high success rates in national and provincial competitions, key recruitments and partnerships with academic and industrial leaders. We have initiated major changes by reorganising the structure of our research axes and focussing our efforts on initiatives that will transform our Institution. I am privileged that with the start of my mandate the new state-of-the-art Research Centre had just opened its doors. With more than 26,700m2 supporting multidisciplinary research communities with cutting-edge infrastructure, this centre marks 2017 as a new start to shape the future of multidisciplinary perinatal and pediatric research in Quebec. In this exciting momentum, we also succeeded to launch a brand new Platform for imaging microscopy through collaboration with Leica Microsystems. Investigators now have access to the newest microscopic technologies to advance their research.
The mission of the CHU Sainte-Justine is to improve the management and care of patients. As such, we are concentrating our efforts to translate discoveries toward the clinic. In this respect significant progress on a number of strategic priorities and initiatives have been made, including a centralized biobank facility for rare pediatric diseases. We have significantly invested in clinical research by improving the infrastructure and procedures for clinical trials through funding from the Ministry of Economy, Science and Innovation (MESI). Finally, we are in the midst of developing a Big Data strategy for our Institution that will enhance our current expertise in machine learning and leverage clinical information that will become available over the coming year.
Finally, I want to say a word of thank to our dedicated partners, in particular the Fondation Charles-Bruneau who has committed $22M to support cutting-edge research in pediatric oncology and the Sanfilippo Children’s Research Foundation for its support to develop new therapeutics for Sanfilippo neurodegenerative disease. Without such support from foundations and donors, research would not be where it is right now. Last, but not least, I have a special word of thanks for the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation, with engaged members and volunteers, who are doing tremendous work to raise interest in our cause with the public. Their enthusiasm for the research is stimulating and I am pleased to have them at our site for our cause that today’s research leads to the care of tomorrow.
Jacques L. Michaud
Director of Research