Huntington's Disease

The personalized genome: Do I want to know?

C

harles Sabine is an award winning NBC news correspondent. Mr Sabine was recently diagnosed as a carrier of the gene for Huntington's disease. Since the diagnosis Mr. Sabine has travelled extensively speaking at political, scientific and academic gatherings on behalf of families suffering from neurological disorders. He has become a vision of hope and inspiration, and provided many families with the courage to ‘come out’. In this presentation Mr Sabine gives a poignant account of his very personal journey which led to his diagnosis.

Dr. Michael Hayden is a distinguished professor and well known to the scientific community. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious honours and awards in recognition of tis achievements and contributions to such fields as human genetics and molecular medicine. He is the creator of the National Center of Excellence in Genetics, the most successful national centre of excellence in Canada. Dr. Hayden has been involved with genetic, molecular, and clinical studies on Huntington’s disease. He has developed gene therapy approaches and established an ethical comprehensive program to test for Huntington’s disease carrier status. Dr. Hayden discusses this work in his presentation.

Dr. Rouleau is the Chair of the Canada Research Chair in Genetics of the Nervous System and creator and Director of the Centre for Excellence in Neuromics and Réseau de Médecine Génétique Appliquée – FRSQ. As a a tenured professor in the Department of Medicine at Université de Montreal. Dr. Rouleau’s significant contributions and achievements are well known to the scientific community and he lists over 420 published articles in peer-reviewed journals, 35 review articles and book chapters to this list. Dr. Rouleau will introduce Mr. Charles Sabine and Dr. Michal Hayden who will present two very different perspectives to the question: The personalized genome: Do I want to know?

. . .