What is MDRC?

Diabetes mellitus is a devastating disease, which is reaching epidemic proportions throughout the world. The Montreal Diabetes Research Center (MDRC) consists of a group of scientists principally located in the Montreal area and who perform basic and clinical research in the fields of diabetes and its complications, as well as the metabolic syndrome.

The MDRC brings together more than 30 scientists and clinicians from 4 different universities (University of Montreal, McGill University, University Laval, and University of Ottawa) working in the fields of genomics, proteomics, biochemistry, cell biology, and immunology. The MDRC was created in 2004 thanks to a major CFI infrastructure grant with Dr Marc Prentki as lead investigator. The objective of the MDRC is to foster diabetes research and innovative clinical strategies to prevent and cure diabetes and its complications. See our brochure for an overview of the MDRC (PDF 380 Kb)

Vision

The vision of the MDRC is to understand the mechanisms of diabetes and its complications to contribute to its prevention, treatment and cure by becoming one of the reference diabetes research centers worldwide in which basic and clinical research will be integrated.

Mission

The ultimate mission of the MDRC is to improve diabetes patients’ care and clinical outcomes by fostering leading-edge, multi-disciplinary research collaborations on diabetes by providing enabling infrastructures, communication and administrative supports as well as strategic and scientific leadership.

The MDRC will accomplish this mission by providing a structure to increase interaction amongst scientists and by creating a critical mass of researchers and infrastructure, thus enabling large-scale projects. As a result the MDRC will be well-positioned to coordinate the evaluation, acquisition and access to new technologies necessary to the discovery and development of better diagnostic tools and treatments for diabetes and will improve the speed at which the discoveries reach the patients by integrating clinical and basic research. In addition, the MDRC will facilitate the long-term funding of diabetes research in Montreal by improving the visibility of that research and by promoting results achieved by diabetes researchers in Montreal through training of highly qualified personnel, improved communications and partnerships with academics labs, industry and diabetes organizations.

The MDRC is supported directly by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the University of Montreal, and McGill University; and indirectly by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the US National Institutes of Health, and the Canadian Diabetes Association.