CHU de Québec-Université Laval
About the center
“Why have I been diagnosed with ALS when so many other people have not?” This is an all-too-common question of people living with the devastation of an ALS diagnosis, and the ALS Society of Canada (ALS Canada) wants to help answer it. We are leading Canada’s fundraising efforts for Project MinE to support the sequencing of up to 1,000 Canadian genomes.
As a national organization responsible for the ALS Canada Research Program, we aim to accelerate research impact through a comprehensive national program focused on translating scientific discoveries into treatments for ALS and fostering Canada’s strong and networked ALS research community to build capacity and collaboration. Support for the ALS Canada Research Program is made possible by the generosity of donors, ALS Societies across Canada, Brain Canada and the federal government’s Canada Brain Research Fund.
The Canadian component of Project MinE brings together four of Canada’s leading ALS geneticists in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City for their first ever cross-country collaboration. Each has led or been part of international consortia that have resulted in some of the most important genetic discoveries in the field. They also represent a geographical balance that provides a collaborative set of Canadian samples representative of ALS cases across the country.
Other essential collaborators in Canada’s Project MinE effort are the four Canadian ALS clinics that are collecting and in some cases storing the blood samples being used for the initiative: the GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre’s ALS Centre in Vancouver, the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre ALS Clinic in Toronto, the ALS Program at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, and the ALS Clinic at the CHU de Québec.
