CARTaGENE is a public research platform of the CHU Sainte-Justine aiming to accelerate health research. CARTaGENE is made up of both biological samples and data on the health and lifestyle of 43,000 Quebec men and women between the ages of 40 and 69 at recruitment.

Initially founded by Dr. Claude Laberge and Prof. Bartha Maria Knoppers, CARTaGENE is today under the scientific direction of Dr. Guillaume Lettre, Dr. Simon Gravel and Dr. Vikki Ho.

CARTaGENE's mission: Accelerate research and innovation as well as support evidence-based decision making in clinical practice and public health while lowering the costs of health research.

Our health depends on a large number of factors including our environment, our lifestyle, as well as the genetic predispositions we inherited from our parents. Researchers have long tried to establish the causes of chronic diseases that affect a large percentage of the population.

So far, limited by the inaccessibility of individuals' genetic information or by the impossibility of collecting complete information on their state of health and their environment, researchers have only partially discovered the causes of these diseases.

CARTaGENE will make it possible in the long term to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes as well as cancer, and consequently, to contribute to the improvement of the Quebec health care system.