Profile
Claude Laberge
Claude M Laberge was born and educated in Quebec. He obtained his M.D. from Laval University in 1962, did his residency training in Pediatrics at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto from 1962 to 1964 and trained for a Ph.D. in Human Genetics under Professor Victor A. McKusick at Johns Hopkins University which he obtained in 1968 for his thesis on "Genetics Studies in French-Canadians". He passed the exams in Pediatrics for Fellowship in The Royal Collège of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and Quebec's Collège des Médecins in 1967-1968. He founded the Clinical Service of Genetic Medicine in the Department of Medicine of Laval University Medical Centre (CHUL), which he headed until 1994. He was Chief of Medicine at CHUL from 1975 to 1980.
In 1969, with Professors Charles R. Scriver of McGill University, Didier Dufour of Laval University and Ms. Carol Clow of McGill's Montreal Children's Hospital, he founded the Quebec Network of Genetic Medicine. He was President of this organization until its dissolution by the Ministry of Health and Social Services of Quebec in 1994. This Network was responsible for systematic neonatal screening, on both blood and urine samples for genetic disorders. From 1993 to 2004, he was the President of the Network of Applied Genetic Medicine of the Quebec Health Research Funds (FRSQ). He also founded the Cartagene project in the year 2000. Claude M. Laberge was Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the Faculty of Medicine of Laval University in Quebec City and is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Pediatrics since 2015. His scientific interests and publications are in the fields of genetic screening, genetic epidemiology and policy, founder effects in demographic genetics especially with regards to hereditary tyrosinemia type l and myotonic dystrophy. He is an associate researcher at the Public Law Research Centre (CRDP) of the Université de Montréal where he is a collaborator with Professor Bartha Maria Knoppers's team on research projects involving consent to DNA sampling and various ethics and sociological issues of genetic epidemiology.
