Scientific partnership to foster clinical and biomedical research innovation

Montreal, QC – The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) have entered into a scientific partnership agreement aimed at promoting mutual synergies.

Beginning on Friday June 1, researchers from the Research Institute of the MUHC (RI MUCH) will be moving into the laboratories of the NRC Biotechnology Research Institute (NRC-BRI) in the Montreal borough of Cote-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace.

In addition to benefiting from the NRC-BRI’s ultramodern facilities and leading-edge expertise in health biotechnologies, RI MUHC will have at its disposal the NRC’s expertise in biotechnology transfer and intellectual property management for better marketing the fruits of its research. The partnership will allow for close interaction with pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies.

“We are proud that the research institute of one of Canada’s largest university hospital centres is establishing a presence at our site and becoming one of our partners,” says Dr Pierre Coulombe, NRC president. “Its researchers will have direct access not only to NRC expertise, but also to all its leading-edge technology platforms. This directly reflects our partnership facilities’ objective of helping researchers invent, develop their innovations and market them successfully.”

The NRC-BRI will benefit from the expertise of the MUHC in health sciences and clinical research, as well from the skills of the RI MUHC in health care and biomedical research. The federal agency will also benefit from its special relationship with the Montreal university hospital centre on the level of medical practices and hospital-specific applications.

“By promoting new synergies among the scientific community, the different levels of government and the business world, we will be allowing innovative ideas to grow,” says Dr Arthur Porter, MUHC director general and CEO. “The advantage of this new partnership is that it enables Montreal and Quebec to position themselves better internationally in biotechnology development.”