Publication overview

Research center

McGill University

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

McGill University

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.

Guy Rouleau

Director

Montreal Neurological Institute. Hospital and Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University.

Guy Rouleau

Director

Dr. Rouleau’s landmark achievements are his contributions to the identification of dozens of disease-causing genes and his discovery of new mutational mechanisms. Over the last 25 years, Dr. Rouleau and his team have focused on understanding the genetic basis for diseases and identifying genes causing neurological and psychiatric diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, stroke, Essential Tremor, familial aneurysms, cavernous angiomas, epilepsy, spinocerebellar ataxia, spastic paraplegia, autism, Tourette syndrome, restless legs syndrome, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Specifically for ALS, he has been investigating the genetic basis of this disease since 1986 and has contributed to the identification of many of the genes currently known to predispose to this disease.  He has published more than 700 articles in top peer-reviewed journals such as The Lancet, Cell, and Nature, as well as 50 review articles and book chapters. His work has been cited over 50,000 times.