Dr Alain Beaudet named new CIHR president

Dr Alain Beaudet, a Montreal physician and neuroscience researcher, will be the new president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), announced Health Minister Tony Clement today.

There's no doubt the job is a tough one -- a balancing act between money, science and politics -- and medical researchers will now begin asking whether Dr Beaudet is up to the task.

The current president and CEO of the Quebec government's medical research funding agency, called the FRSQ, Dr Beaudet takes over for acting president Dr Pierre Chartrand. Dr Chartrand has been filling in since longtime CIHR head Alan Bernstein resigned last October to take a job as executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise. Dr Bernstein's presidency ended somewhat acrimoniously; he complained of having been made a "scapegoat" by members of the Canadian medical research community who were bitter over declining success rates for their grant proposals and -- what else? -- their desire for more money. Dr Bernstein later refuted that characterization of his departure from CIHR in a letter to the editor of the CMAJ, but didn't address the discrepancy in tone between his initial comments and his later statement about his "great pride" in the organization.

So, is Dr Beaudet tough enough to handle the Canadian government bureaucracy?

Based on his biography, Dr Beaudet looks like a good appointment. Besides today's CIHR appointment, he's had a whole bunch of major endorsements of late. The Université Pierre et Marie Curie, in France, gave him an honourary doctorate (PDF) in December of last year, and last June the French Consul General in Quebec City gave him the Order of Academic Palms's distinguished Officer's award, a tradition begun by none other than Napoleon himself. Why so popular in the old country, you ask? He did his postdoctoral work there, as well as in Switzerland, and he continues to collaborate with neuroscience researchers in Paris and Nice. "Lastly," adds this note from the Quebec government, "he has collaborated with French biotechnology firms, including Biocom, specialized in cell-imaging software development. Dr. Beaudet has also made outstanding contributions to teaching and training; in addition to his Québec students, he has trained many postdoctoral fellows from France."

And get this. Dr Beaudet is one helluva scientist: he's got a whopping 491 publications listed under his name, according to PubMed. And I can't understand a word of it, except for the occasional preposition or conjunction. His most recent, published online first in BMC Genomics in January, is titled, "Genomic analysis of the chromosome 15q11-q13 Prader-Willi syndrome region and characterization of transcripts for GOLGA8E and WHCD1L1 from the proximal breakpoint region."

Even though his work is way beyond my comprehension, naming such an active and world-famous researcher -- and one with a medical degree, unlike the last two people to have held the position -- as president of the nation's medical research funding agency sure seems like a good choice.

What do you think of the selection? And what do you think Dr Beaudet's priorities should be at CIHR?


Photo: Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, British Columbia

Check out our website: www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com