Michel Chrétien, MD

mchretien@ohri.ca



(Français)

BIOGRAPHY

Michel Chrétien received his medical degree from the University of Montréal in 1960. This was followed by his post-graduate studies at McGill and Harvard Universities (Peter Bent Brigham Hospital) and at the University of California in Berkeley. In 1989-90, he spent a sabbatical year at the Salk Institute and at Cambridge University (UK).

He returned to Montréal in 1967 to open a new laboratory on polypeptide hormones at the Clinical Research Institute of Montréal (IRCM). From 1984 to 1994, he was Scientific Director and CEO of the Institute, while keeping his laboratory activities. In January 1998, Dr. Chrétien moved to Ottawa as Scientific Director and CEO of the Loeb Health Research Institute, now part of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI). He created the Diseases of Aging Program and founded the Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology. (OISB) He is now senior scientist in the OHRI program on Chronic Diseases and scientific advisor at the OISB.

Michel Chrétien has received national and international recognition, including five Doctorate Honoris Causa: in 1980 from the Université de Liège in Belgium, in 1992 from the Université René Descartes in Paris, in 1996 from the Laurentian University in Sudbury, in 1999 from the University of Guelph and in May 2000 from Memorial University in Newfoundland. In 2004, Président Chirac made him ''Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur de la République Française. He is Officer of the Order of Canada and "Officier de l'Ordre national du Québec". Since 1986, he is Honorary Professor at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

In Canada, he received the Izaak-Walton-Killam Memorial Prize (1999), the Henry Friesen Award (1999) of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, the PMAC Medal of Honour (1999), the Actualité Médicale Medal of scientific merit. The Royal Society of Canada honoured him with its McLaughlin Medal, the Canadian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (CSBMB) with its Boehringer-Mannheim Award, and the Manning Foundation (Calgary) with its award of distinction.

In the United States, he is Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), Fuller Albright lecturer (1992) of the Peripatetic Club and a Metzger lecturer of the American Clinical and Climatological Association (1990). He received a Faculty Scholarship Award from the Josiah Macy Jr Foundation and a Fellowship from the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research. He is a member of many national and international scientific societies, committees and boards.

In 1990, he and his group of researchers from Montreal discovered enzymes called proprotein convertases (PCs) that play active roles in a number of illnesses that keep increasing with time. These conditions include: familial hypercholesterolemia, viral disorders,
cancer, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, obesity and diabetes. The two most prominent convertases are:

a) the tandem PCSK8/ PCSK9 controls cholesterol homeostasis including the level of LDL-receptors. In human, mutated PCSK9 with gain of function is directly implicated in autosomal dominant hypercholesterolemia. Other human PCSK9 mutants causing loss of function protects against cardiovascular accidents
b) PCSKs3-5-7-8-9 constitute key targets for new types of antivirals against HIV/AIDS, influenza, SARS, hepatitis C, Lassa, Ebola, Dengue etc…

The Chrétien group is recognized as the world leader in the field of PCs. In 1992, Michel Chrétien was asked by the Gordon Research Conferences to initiate a new series of meetings on the subject. Due to the recent explosion of discoveries, the Gordon's are going strong and more attended than ever. The last one was held in July 2006 and attracted speakers from around the globe. In the last few months, Science magazine, Nature, JLR and NEJM have published numerous editorial comments on the PCs.

With a group of 200 scientists from 24 countries, Dr. Chrétien co-founded the International Consortium on Anti-Virals (ICAV) with the declared goal to invent new types of enhanced spectrum antiviral agents that will not develop resistance. In parallel to ICAV, he co-founded in 2008 the Foundation of Antivirals (FAV) a new NGO that will support world-wide the activities of ICAV. These initiatives are continually attracting attention of world leaders both in Canada and abroad.

To this date, he has published more than 560 scientific articles and given numerous lectures and conferences both nationally and internationally.