Endocrine Abstracts

After obtaining his MD and PhD (Endocrinology) degrees with Honours at Laval University, Quebec City, Canada, F Labrie pursued his postdoctoral training at the University of Cambridge, UK, first in the Laboratory of Professor Asher Korner and then, in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Professor Frederick Sanger, twice Nobel laureate in medicine. Dr Labrie then isolated the first mammalian messenger RNA before returning to Laval University in 1969 where he founded the Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology, one of the largest research groups in endocrinology worldwide with a total personnel of up to 350 members including 32 senior scientists. Between 1982 and 2008, he has been scientific director of the CHUL Research Center (1200 employees), one of the largest medical research Institutes in Canada. From 1990 to 2002, Dr Labrie has been head of the Department of Anatomy and Physiology of the Faculty of Medicine at Laval University while between 1992 and 1995, he has been president of the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec.

The most important contribution of Dr Labrie to clinical medicine has been the discovery and development of medical castration with GnRH agonists as well as combined androgen blockade, the first treatment shown to prolong life in prostate cancer and at the basis of the recent developments using blockade of androgens made locally in the prostate in castration – resistant prostate cancer. GnRH agonists and combined androgen blockade have become the standard hormonal therapy of prostate cancer worldwide. He also discovered that a large proportion of androgens and estrogens in women (100% after menopause) and men are made in peripheral tissues from dehydroepiandrosterone by the mechanism of intracrinology. Dr Labrie and his group then discovered the most potent antiestrogen, namely Acolbifene, and performed all related toxicology, phases I and II clinical studies.

Dr Labrie’s discoveries are described in more than 1250 scientific publications and have been cited more than 40 000 times. Dr Labrie is the most cited Canadian scientist among all disciplines in the international literature. He recently won the King Faisal International Prize in medicine. He received numerous other awards, including the Friesen Award of the Canadian Society of Clinical Investigation and is Doctor Honoris Causa at the Universities of Caen and Athens.