Fernand Labrie

Short summary of Dr. Labrie's career

After obtaining his M.D. and Ph.D. (endocrinology) degrees at Laval University, Quebec City, Fernand Labrie pursued his postdoctoral training at the University of Cambridge, UK, first in the Laboratory of Professor Asher Korner and then, in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Professor Frederick Sanger, twice Nobel laureate in medicine. Dr Labrie then isolated the first mammalian messenger RNA before returning to Laval University in 1969 where he founded the Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology, one of the largest research groups in endocrinology worldwide with a total personal of 350 members including 32 senior scientists. Since 1982, he has been scientific director of the CHUL Research Center (1200 employees), one of the largest medical research Institute in Canada, with an annual budget of over $65 M. The CHUL Research Center is now completing the building of a Genomic Center, thus adding to the already unique expertise of the CHUL Research Center. From 1990 to 2002, Dr Labrie has been head of the Department of Anatomy and Physiology of the Faculty of Medicine at Laval University.

The most important contribution of Dr Labrie to clinical medicine has been the discovery and development of medical castration with GnRH agonists as well as combined androgen blockade, the first treatment shown to prolong life in prostate cancer. GnRH agonists and combined androgen blockade have become the standard hormonal therapy of prostate cancer worldwide. He also discovered that a large proportion of androgens and estrogens in women and men are made in peripheral tissues from dehydroepiandrosterone by the mechanism of intracrinology. Dr Labrie and his group then discovered the most potent antiestrogen, namely Acolbifene and performed all related toxicology, phase I and phase II clinical studies. Indeed, Dr Labrie's discoveries are described in more than 1205 scientific publications and have been cited more than 40,000 times. Dr Labrie is the most cited Canadian scientist among all disciplines in the international literature. He recently won the King Faisal International Prize in medicine. He also received the Scientific Carreer Award of the "Association des Médecins de Langue Française du Canada" and the Canada Gold Medal and Man of the year from The American biographical Institute.