Jacques Genest

Jacques Genest, CC, GOQ, FRSC, physician, medical researcher (born 29 May 1919 in Montreal, QC; died 5 January 2018 in Montreal). Dr. Genest founded the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (Montreal Clinical Research Institute) in 1967 and is recognized for advancing clinical research and education in Quebec and Canada. He is equally known for publishing extensively and for contributing to the study of hypertension (also known as high blood pressure). (See also Heart Disease; Medical Research; Medical Education.)

Education and Career

Jacques Genest studied at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf and graduated in medicine from the Université de Montréal (1942). After his internship, he spent six years in the United States, specializing in internal medicine, endocrinology (the study of hormones) and nephrology (the diagnosis and treatment of kidney disease) at Harvard Medical School in Boston, then at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and finally at the Rockefeller Institute in New York.

Upon his return to Quebec in 1951, the provincial government had him carry out a study of European research centres. In 1952, he began to practise medicine at the Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal where he established the hospital’s first department of clinical research (see Hôtel-Dieu). Similar to the European research centres Genest studied, the hospital’s department of clinical research encouraged scientists and clinicians to collaborate in support of research, training and treatment. Genest served as director of the department until 1967.

Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal

With a research team that felt cramped at the hospital, Jacques Genest carried out his dream of establishing his own institute, the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM). Genest received a grant of $3 million from the Government of Quebec to construct the institute, which was inaugurated in 1967. The IRCM was affiliated with the Université de Montréal and the Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, but also became a significant training centre for McGill University (see Hôtel-Dieu). Thanks to Genest’s interdisciplinary approach, the IRCM became an almost unparalleled example of the direct application of molecular biology to the study of clinical medical problems. One of the institute’s teams, the Multidisciplinary Research Group on Hypertension, led by Dr. Marc Cantin, identified the heart hormone, atrial natriuretic factor (ANF), secreted by granules found inside certain cells of the upper chambers of the heart. This hormone plays an essential role in the control of the volume and pressure of the blood.

Legacy

Jacques Genest acted as director of the IRCM until his retirement in 1984. Under his direction, the IRCM would expand to include the first centre for bioethics in Canada, which was inaugurated in 1976.

Genest was also actively involved in several other research and training organizations, including the Conseil de recherches médicales (now the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé), which he founded and where he served as president from 1964 to 1969.

Genest authored and co-authored more than 700 scientific articles, which included research on hypertension (see Heart Disease). His collaborative approach to clinical medicine and research contributed towards contemporary treatments for managing hypertension.