Jacques Simard
Director
Cancer Genomics Laboratory
CHUQ Research Center
Québec City, Québec
Canada
Dr. Simard (Ph.D.) holds a Canada Research Chair in Oncogenetics, and is a Professor, Department of Molecular
Medicine at l'Université Laval and Director of the Cancer Genomics Laboratory at CHUQ Research Center/CHUL
(Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Québec). His career as an independent investigator began in 1990. A major
emphasis of his research program has been the structure, function and regulation of enzymes involved in the
biosynthesis of steroid hormones, as well as the characterization of the molecular basis of a form of
congenital adrenal hyperplasia and male pseudohermaphroditism. He was also involved in the identification
of susceptibility genes for breast, ovarian and/or prostate cancers. In acknowledgment of his outstanding
contributions, in 1999 he received the most prestigious recognition for a scientist younger than 40,
awarded by the Endocrine Society. More recently, he received the Prix d'excellence 2004 de la Fondation
de la recherche sur les maladies infantiles. He was author on close to 300 original publications and
refereed review articles and book chapters.
He has been Director of the Interdisciplinary Health Research International Team on Breast Cancer susceptibility (INHERIT BRCAs), which has been recently funded as the CIHR team in familial risks of breast cancer, a clinical research network including 24 scientists and clinicians from Québec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, USA, UK and France. During the past few years this team has extended their international networks to boost the capacity to perform robust genetic epidemiological assessment of the role of individual genetic variants in disease risk and how such a risk may be modified by interactions with other genes and environmental and lifestyle factors. This partnership creates unique opportunities to accelerate the integration of several types of risk factors into disease risk prediction models. Furthermore, this interdisciplinary team also performs studies to improve our understanding of how this information can be communicated to patients, their families and health professionals in order to ensure its usefulness in a clinical setting and its impact on the health of populations at risk. Given that risk prediction models represent an important and growing area of predictive and more personalized medicine, this research will contribute to this field by developing, validating, and ensuring the clinical utility of such risk prediction models. He is Director and founder of the Oncogenetics axis of the Applied Medical Genetics Network of the FRSQ. He played a key role in the strategic development of health research as member of the Medical Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance Management Committee and the Institute Advisory Board of the CIHR Gender and Health Institute. He is currently member of the Ministerial Science Advisory Board of Health Canada as well as on the Conseil sectoriel des investissements technologiques du Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, a key labour-sponsored investment fund in life sciences. He is also Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Science.
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