Good morning.
My name is François Gros-Louis. I recently got an assistant professorship position at Université de Laval in Québec City.
First of all, I would like to thank all members of this committee for this opportunity to say a few words on ALS and on my research on this disease.
I will continue in French, but I will be happy to take any questions in either English or French.
My name is François Gros-Louis. I recently got an assistant professorship position at the Université Laval in Quebec City. Most of the research projects I have been involved in so far have been on ALS, which, as the previous speakers have mentioned, is an incurable neuro-degenerative disease. I did my doctoral degree at McGill University and it was mainly on the genetics of ALS. I then pursued my career by doing a post-doctoral internship at Dr. Jean-Pierre Julien's laboratory in Quebec City. At the time, I had received a number of offers from research labs in the United States and Europe, thanks in part to an initiative by ALS Canada, which, together with CIHR, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, had set up a post-doctoral bursary program called the Tim E. Noël Fellowship in ALS Research. Having obtained that bursary, I decided to stay in Canada in order to devote my research to ALS and to the various patho-physiological mechanisms involved in this disease.
In Dr. Julien's lab we recently were the first to develop and demonstrate that a new therapeutic approach based on passive immunization through monoclonal antibodies that we have produced, could extend the survival of the animal models we were examining. It is still too soon to say whether the approach will effectively treat ALS patients. A number of points need to be clarified to properly understand all the biological determinants associated with this discovery and this potential treatment, but I believe that we have shown that it is important to continue to conduct fundamental and clinical research to identify, as we have done, not only new therapeutic approaches, but also the different causes of ALS and other neuro-degenerative diseases.
In most ALS cases, the causes are still unknown. Identifying the genetic and environmental risk factors associated with neuro-degenerative diseases and ALS is one of the first steps in properly understanding the biological aspects of these diseases. Understanding the different biological mechanisms will then allow us to develop, as we have done, new therapeutic approaches and to see if what we find in fundamental research can quickly be transposed to clinical research safely in order to treat patients.
I think this is an ideal time to invest in health research. Over the past few years, there have been a number of great discoveries including the human genome project, among others, and great technological advances that are becoming increasingly accessible to academic research labs. We now have the knowledge, technology and infrastructure because over the past few years, the government has made the necessary investment in research infrastructure through the Leaders Opportunity Fund or the CFI, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, for example. Now we just need research funding to keep these labs running effectively.
For most researchers, especially young investigators, it is really hard to get funding for innovative, crazy ideas we might have to pursue our research. We have good research infrastructure all across Canada. We now have access to new technologies, new molecular tools that were not previously available. So it is the perfect time to invest in health research to continue being world leaders in health research and neurological diseases in particular, as the Canadian population is growing old, and adult-onset diseases are increasing.
We are lacking the funding needed to appropriately carry out our research. Nobody would have thought until recently that immunization therapy in ALS would have led to beneficial effects. It was an innovative, crazy idea we had a few years ago, but it didn't get funding in the beginning. We had to wait a few years to get the necessary funding to continue our research. With more investment in health research we could have demonstrated earlier our immunization hypothesis in ALS.
Investing more funds in research also makes economic sense, not only for ALS research but across all neurological disciplines. Therapeutic targets can apply to a variety of neuro-degenerative diseases, and therapies developed for one disease can be applicable to others.
Investment in health research will not only pave the route for finding new therapeutic approaches, but will also keep high-paying research jobs in the country, which is critical in this economic climate. It will also maintain Canada's leadership role in health research excellence domestically and internationally, and keep pace with significant investment made by other countries, such as the United Kingdom, the U.S.A., Sweden, and Australia.
Thank you very much.