Thomas J. Hudson
Encyclopedia
Thomas James Hudson, M.D., (born June 12, 1961) is a Canadian
genome
scientist noted for his leading role in the generation of physical map
s of the human and mouse genomes and also his role in the International HapMap Project
whose goal is to develop a haplotype map of the human genome.
As director of the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, which he established, Hudson and his team have made a number of discoveries in human genetics
. These include genes mutated in rare diseases and genes involved in complex diseases such as asthma
, type II diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease
.
In July 2006, he was appointed president and scientific director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
. He is also editor-in-chief of the journal Human Genetics
.
Thomas Hudson is married and has four children.
, where his father was a chemist for Alcan
. He has six sisters including a twin sister.
He earned his M.D. degree in 1985 from the Université de Montréal
. Then, he did residencies in internal medicine and Clinical Immunology and Allergy, the latter at McGill University Health Centre
. In 1990, after a year of postdoctoral experience under the supervision of Emil Skamene
and Danuta Radzioch, he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
for a fellowship with David Housman.
There he became involved with Eric Lander
's projects and eventually led the effort to build a physical map
of the human genome
, which was an important step towards the generation of the complete sequence of the human genome
. He supervised a large team of engineers, biologists, computer scientists to build high throughput PCR systems. The robot built by his team, called the "Genomatron", performed up to 300,000 PCR reactions per day. He was also part of an international effort to build a transcript map of the human genome
. By 1996, his team had mapped more than 10,000 genes
. In 1995, he became the assistant director of the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research
a position which he held until 2001.
at the McGill University Health Centre
where he created the Montreal Genome Centre. In 2003, Hudson expanded his team and moved into a new building on the McGill University
campus called the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre. The Centre possesses five different technology platforms (genotyping
, sequencing
, expression profiling
, mass spectrometry
and Information Technology
) and also provides services to the Canadian and International community. By 2006, more than four hundred academic laboratories as well as a dozen of biotechnology
companies have used the services of this new facility.
Until 2006, Hudson was also an associate professor in the departments of Human Genetics and Medicine at McGill University
and associate physician at the McGill University Health Centre
(Division of Immunology and Allergy). The main focus of his research is on the genetic dissection of complex diseases. His most important discoveries include the identification of genes involved in the development of Type II diabetes, susceptibility to leprosy
, multiple sclerosis
, asthma
and inflammatory bowel disease
. His team findings also include rare disease mutations such as the genes for spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS) and Leigh syndrome French-Canadian Type (also known as lactic acidosis), that affect many families from the Saguenay
region, of which he is a native.
One of his publications on inflammatory bowel disease
in 2001 was the catalyst that led to the launch of the International HapMap project. More than 200 researchers from six different countries, including Hudson and his team, worked on the project. The HapMap, which was completed in October 2005, is a catalog of genetic variations - called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - and will help in discovering how these variations correlate with risk of developing complex diseases.
in Toronto
, Ontario
which will focus on the genomics of cancer. Until his successor is announced, Hudson will remain acting scientific director of the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
genome
Genome
In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
scientist noted for his leading role in the generation of physical map
Physical map
Physical map may refer to:* Physical map , maps that shows countries of the world.* Physical map , showing how much DNA separates two genes and is measured in base pairs, as opposed to a genetic map...
s of the human and mouse genomes and also his role in the International HapMap Project
International HapMap Project
The International HapMap Project is an organization that aims to develop a haplotype map of the human genome, which will describe the common patterns of human genetic variation. HapMap is a key resource for researchers to find genetic variants affecting health, disease and responses to drugs and...
whose goal is to develop a haplotype map of the human genome.
As director of the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, which he established, Hudson and his team have made a number of discoveries in human genetics
Human genetics
Human genetics describes the study of inheritance as it occurs in human beings. Human genetics encompasses a variety of overlapping fields including: classical genetics, cytogenetics, molecular genetics, biochemical genetics, genomics, population genetics, developmental genetics, clinical genetics,...
. These include genes mutated in rare diseases and genes involved in complex diseases such as asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
, type II diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease
Inflammatory bowel disease
In medicine, inflammatory bowel disease is a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine. The major types of IBD are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.-Classification:...
.
In July 2006, he was appointed president and scientific director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research is a not-for-profit organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that focuses on the prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. OICR intends to make Ontario more effective in knowledge transfer and commercialization while maximizing...
. He is also editor-in-chief of the journal Human Genetics
Human Genetics (journal)
Human Genetics is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of human genetics, including legal and social issues."...
.
Thomas Hudson is married and has four children.
Beginnings and early career
Hudson was born in 1961 in Arvida, QuébecQuebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, where his father was a chemist for Alcan
Alcan
Rio Tinto Alcan Inc. is a Canadian company based in Montreal. It was created on November 15, 2007 as the result of the merger between Rio Tinto PLC's Canadian subsidiary, Rio Tinto Canada Holding Inc., and Canadian company Alcan Inc. On the same date, Alcan Inc. was renamed Rio Tinto Alcan Inc..Rio...
. He has six sisters including a twin sister.
He earned his M.D. degree in 1985 from the Université de Montréal
Université de Montréal
The Université de Montréal is a public francophone research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises thirteen faculties, more than sixty departments and two affiliated schools: the École Polytechnique and HEC Montréal...
. Then, he did residencies in internal medicine and Clinical Immunology and Allergy, the latter at McGill University Health Centre
McGill University Health Centre
The McGill University Health Centre is a network of teaching and community hospitals in Montreal, Quebec, Canada affiliated with McGill University....
. In 1990, after a year of postdoctoral experience under the supervision of Emil Skamene
Emil Skamene
Emil Skamene, is a Canadian Immunologist and medical researcher.He is the Director of Research for the McGill University Health Centre, the Director of the Centre for the Study of Host Resistance, and a Professor in the Department of Medicine, the Department of Human Genetics, and the Institute...
and Danuta Radzioch, he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
for a fellowship with David Housman.
There he became involved with Eric Lander
Eric Lander
Eric Steven Lander is a Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , a member of the Whitehead Institute, and director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard who has devoted his career toward realizing the promise of the human genome for medicine. He is co-chair of U.S...
's projects and eventually led the effort to build a physical map
Physical map
Physical map may refer to:* Physical map , maps that shows countries of the world.* Physical map , showing how much DNA separates two genes and is measured in base pairs, as opposed to a genetic map...
of the human genome
Human genome
The human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs plus the small mitochondrial DNA. 22 of the 23 chromosomes are autosomal chromosome pairs, while the remaining pair is sex-determining...
, which was an important step towards the generation of the complete sequence of the human genome
Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project is an international scientific research project with a primary goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA, and of identifying and mapping the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional...
. He supervised a large team of engineers, biologists, computer scientists to build high throughput PCR systems. The robot built by his team, called the "Genomatron", performed up to 300,000 PCR reactions per day. He was also part of an international effort to build a transcript map of the human genome
Human genome
The human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs plus the small mitochondrial DNA. 22 of the 23 chromosomes are autosomal chromosome pairs, while the remaining pair is sex-determining...
. By 1996, his team had mapped more than 10,000 genes
Gênes
Gênes is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Italy, named after the city of Genoa. It was formed in 1805, when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Republic of Genoa. Its capital was Genoa, and it was divided in the arrondissements of Genoa, Bobbio, Novi Ligure, Tortona and...
. In 1995, he became the assistant director of the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research
Broad Institute
The Broad Institute is a genomic medicine research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Although it is independently governed and supported as a 501 nonprofit research organization, the institute is formally affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard...
a position which he held until 2001.
Montreal Genome Centre
In 1996, Hudson was recruited back to MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
at the McGill University Health Centre
McGill University Health Centre
The McGill University Health Centre is a network of teaching and community hospitals in Montreal, Quebec, Canada affiliated with McGill University....
where he created the Montreal Genome Centre. In 2003, Hudson expanded his team and moved into a new building on the McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
campus called the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre. The Centre possesses five different technology platforms (genotyping
Genotyping
Genotyping is the process of determining differences in the genetic make-up of an individual by examining the individual's DNA sequence using biological assays and comparing it to another individual's sequence or a reference sequence. It reveals the alleles an individual has inherited from their...
, sequencing
Sequencing
In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure of an unbranched biopolymer...
, expression profiling
Expression profiling
In the field of molecular biology, gene expression profiling is the measurement of the activity of thousands of genes at once, to create a global picture of cellular function. These profiles can, for example, distinguish between cells that are actively dividing, or show how the cells react to a...
, mass spectrometry
Mass spectrometry
Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique that measures the mass-to-charge ratio of charged particles.It is used for determining masses of particles, for determining the elemental composition of a sample or molecule, and for elucidating the chemical structures of molecules, such as peptides and...
and Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
) and also provides services to the Canadian and International community. By 2006, more than four hundred academic laboratories as well as a dozen of biotechnology
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...
companies have used the services of this new facility.
Until 2006, Hudson was also an associate professor in the departments of Human Genetics and Medicine at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
and associate physician at the McGill University Health Centre
McGill University Health Centre
The McGill University Health Centre is a network of teaching and community hospitals in Montreal, Quebec, Canada affiliated with McGill University....
(Division of Immunology and Allergy). The main focus of his research is on the genetic dissection of complex diseases. His most important discoveries include the identification of genes involved in the development of Type II diabetes, susceptibility to leprosy
Leprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...
, multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
, asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
and inflammatory bowel disease
Inflammatory bowel disease
In medicine, inflammatory bowel disease is a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine. The major types of IBD are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.-Classification:...
. His team findings also include rare disease mutations such as the genes for spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS) and Leigh syndrome French-Canadian Type (also known as lactic acidosis), that affect many families from the Saguenay
Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean is a region in Quebec, Canada. It contains the Saguenay Fjord, the estuary of the Saguenay River, stretching through much of the region...
region, of which he is a native.
One of his publications on inflammatory bowel disease
Inflammatory bowel disease
In medicine, inflammatory bowel disease is a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine. The major types of IBD are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.-Classification:...
in 2001 was the catalyst that led to the launch of the International HapMap project. More than 200 researchers from six different countries, including Hudson and his team, worked on the project. The HapMap, which was completed in October 2005, is a catalog of genetic variations - called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - and will help in discovering how these variations correlate with risk of developing complex diseases.
Leadership in Canada
Hudson has been a key player in many national organizations. He was Associate Director of the Canadian Genetics Disease Network from 2001 to 2005, and he has helped launch Genome Canada and Genome Quebec, of which he was the first scientific director in 2002. In addition, he has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for many public organizations or private companies.New horizons
In July 2006, Hudson announced that he was leaving Montreal to lead the newly created Ontario Institute for Cancer ResearchOntario Institute for Cancer Research
The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research is a not-for-profit organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that focuses on the prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. OICR intends to make Ontario more effective in knowledge transfer and commercialization while maximizing...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
which will focus on the genomics of cancer. Until his successor is announced, Hudson will remain acting scientific director of the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre.
Awards
Hudson's accomplishments have been recognized by numerous awards and honors:- In 1998, he was a recipient of Canada's Top 40 Under 40
- In 2000, he received the Scientist of the Year award by Radio-Canada
- In 2001, he received the Robert H. Haynes Young Scientist Award by the Genetics Society of Canada
- In 2002, he received a Burroughs-Wellcome Clinician-Scientist Award
- In 2005, was voted as the person who made the most significant contribution to healthcare by the readers of MacLean'sMaclean'sMaclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
- In 2006, he was elected to the Royal Society of CanadaRoyal Society of CanadaThe Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...