Director, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics
Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM)

Dr Drouin obtained his B.Sc. in Biochemistry (1973) and his D.Sc. in Physiology (1976) from Université Laval where he worked under the supervision of Dr. Fernand Labrie on the mechanism of gonadal steroid feedback in the pituitary.  He then joined the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge, England, where he trained with two times Nobel laureate, Fred Sanger, and cloned human mitochondrial DNA for genome analysis.  Two years later, he moved to the University of California at San Francisco where he completed his training in molecular biology in the laboratory of Dr. Howard Goodman.  In 1982, he came back to Montréal where he joined the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM) as Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, the first molecular biology laboratory at IRCM and one of the first in Québec.  He was also appointed Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Montréal.

As an active researcher, mentor and teacher, Jacques Drouin is Professor of Biochemistry and Faculty Member of the Graduate Program in Molecular Biology at Université de Montréal, and Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and of Anatomy and Cell Biology, as well as Associate Member in the Department of Experimental Medicine at McGill University.

Dr Drouin maintains an active research group that focuses on mechanisms controlling tissue-specificity and hormonal regulation of the pituitary pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) gene, the precursor to several biologically important peptides including ACTH,  -endorphin and  MSH. This work led to the discovery of novel transcription factors that play crucial roles in various aspects of development, including pituitary cell fate determination and differentiation, as well as hormone deficiencies in humans. The roles of Pitx transcription factors are also investigated, including Pitx1 in specification of hindlimb identity, Pitx3 in midbrain dopaminergic neurons and Pitx2/3 in myogenesis. Mechanisms of hormone resistance in Cushing disease are investigated in parallel with studies of pituitary tumorigenesis.

Over the years, this work has been supported by Medical Research Council of Canada, now the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Parkinson Society, the NIH, the Stem Cell Network, among others. Dr Drouin is a member of the Academy of Sciences and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.