About POLE

Fernand Labrie, Research Director
CHUL Research Centre (CHUQ)
Co-President, POLE

After receiving his doctorate in endocrinology from Laval University, Dr. Labrie pursued post-doctoral studies at England's Cambridge University, where he joined the team led by Prof. Frederick Sanger, a two-time recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

In 1969, Dr. Labrie founded the Molecular Endocrinology Research Lab. In 1982, he was appointed research director of the Laval University Hospital Centre, one of Canada’s largest biomedical research facilities.

The most cited Canadian researcher!

Dr. Labrie is Canada’s most cited researcher, with over 1,000 publications to his credit and more than 30,000 citations by the international scientific community.

Dr. Labrie has also made a number of important discoveries:

• Chemical castration method using LHRH agonists
• Prostate cancer treatment using castration together with an anti-androgen

With memberships in some 50 professional associations, Dr. Labrie has attended and presented papers at more than 480 national and international scientific conferences.

Dr. Labrie served as president of the Quebec Health Research Fund from 1992 to 1995 and chaired the Department of Anatomy and Physiology in Laval University’s Faculty of Medicine from 1990 to 2003. He also headed the organizing committees for a dozen international conferences held in Quebec City, including the following:

• International Endocrinology Conference, July 1984 (6,500 participants).
• Quebec City Olympic Candidacy Committee, 1998.
• Quebec Olympic Development Association, which oversaw the construction in 2002 of an international-calibre alpine ski slope at Petite-Rivière-Saint-François.

Dr. Labrie also serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious scientific journals. Among his long list of awards and honours, Dr. Labrie is an Officer of the Order of Canada and an Officer of the National Order of Quebec.