Montreal, January 19th, 2004 – A new specialized centre in bioinformatics and genomics at the Université de Montreal was inaugurated today by Michel Audet, Quebec’s Minister of Economic and Regional Development, and Robert Lacroix, Rector of the Université de Montréal.

The Robert Cedergren Centre for research in biological complexity brings together a pioneering group of leading bioinformatics and genomics researchers from various disciplines to confront the challenges posed by the colossal quantity of data generated by the complete decoding of an increasing number of genomes, including the human one.

Bioinformatics, a new science integrating biology and computer science, is the indispensable key to understanding the billions of complex genetic structures and interactions and evolutionary processes that produce everything from the complexity of living organisms to human hair colour and susceptibility to diseases. Genomic sciences cannot move forward without substantial developments in bioinformatics. Among many other applications, breakthroughs in this research field are essential to developing gene-based therapies and pharmaceutics.

“The activities of this new Centre, along with the creation of a chimio-genomics platform, are at the leading edge of today’s science and are essential to maintaining the global-scale competitive edge of Quebec’s biomedical industries,” said Michel Audet, Quebec’s Minister of Regional Economic Development. In underlining Quebec’s commitment to this field of research, Mr. Audet added that genomics and bioinformatics are sectors with a very high potential: “Grouping researchers around strategic themes fosters research partnerships, creates synergies between research and innovation communities, and facilitates the training of a highly-qualified workforce.”

“The creation of this Centre will constitute a unique presence and enable us to focus the University’s research resources in an area that is crucial to the development of science and the wellbeing of society, both in Quebec and throughout the world,” said Robert Lacroix, Rector of the Université de Montréal.

Bioinformatics: A Window to the Future

“We have entered an era of unprecedented progress in the biological and biomedical sciences. The recent reports on the human and other genome sequences have engendered widespread public interest and have highlighted the vast new opportunities for identifying and characterizing genes,” said B. Franz Lang, Director of the Robert Cedergren Centre and holder of a prestigious Canada Research Chair. He added, “The two central questions are (i) how to design such genomics experiments in the most rational way, and (ii) how to analyze the ever increasing flood of data from large-scale, genome-wide experiments and interpret them in terms of biological function. The answer lies in the emerging discipline of bioinformatics.

Université de Montréal – a pioneer in bioinformatics

Since the 1980s, researchers at the Université de Montréal have understood the importance of bioinformatics. It was then that Robert J. Cedergren, a biochemist, began to work with David Sankoff, a computer scentist, on developing the techniques and software necessary to modelling the structure of RNA, and to what would later become know as the science of bioinformatics. In naming this new Centre after Robert Cedergren, the UdeM is honouring a bioinformatics pioneer both here in Quebec and throughout the world.

Included the twelve leading experts making up the Centre’s core, are Gertraud Burger, Director of the undergraduate and graduate program in bioniformatics, as well as Director of the BioneQ network; Stephen Michnick, Canada Research Chair in Integrative Genomics; Franz Lang, Canada Research Chair in Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics; and Hervé Philippe, Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Bioinformatics and Genomics. Fifty other researchers from Montreal, Canada and France are also members of the Centre.

Bioinformaticians are sought-after experts, but are few in number in Quebec. According to the Conseil de la science et de la technologie du Québec: “The already high demand [for bioinformaticians] will undergo a phenomenal growth throughout the world…”1 In 2000, the Université de Montréal became the first university in Canada to offer a fully integrated undergraduate bioinformatics program. Since then it has created Master’s and doctoral programs in this field. “The first graduates of this program will enter the job market this coming spring,” says the program Director Gertraud Burger. It goes without saying that they will be welcomed with open arms!

About Université de Montréal
Founded in 1878, the Université de Montréal has 13 faculties and, along with its two affiliated Schools, HEC Montréal and l’École Polytechnique, is Québec’s leading higher education establishment, second in Canada, and among the best in North America. Its faculty includes 2,300 professors and researchers, and it has a student population of more than 50,000. It offers more than 550 undergraduate and graduate programs and awards some 2,500 Master’s and PhD degrees each year. The Université de Montréal is firmly committed to developing and transferring new knowledge.

- 30 -

For further information :
Sophie Langlois
Press Officer
Université de Montréal
(514) 343-7704

Michel Rochette
Press Officer
Ministère du Développement économique et régional
(514) 499-2552

1 «La bio-informatique au Québec : un levier essentiel du développement des bio-industries», Avis, Conseil de la science et de la technologie du Québec,  janvier 2001