Nearly Four Decades of Research Excellence
The CRLB was established in 1987 at McMaster University by Dr. Matthew McQueen and others to support clinical trials, biobanking and biochemistry testing — providing scientific, analytical and biobank support for large multinational clinical trials and epidemiologic studies.
The analytical and storage capacities of the CRLB have expanded significantly in support of numerous large multinational studies. Extensive expertise has been developed in the shipment, reception, storage and analysis of large numbers of samples from more than 85 countries. To date, the CRLB has received more than 20,000 shipments of specimens.
In late 2020, the CRLB combined with the Genetic & Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory (GMEL) — established in 2010 as a collaboration between McMaster, PHRI and TaARI — to become CRLB-GMEL, with Dr. Guillaume Paré as Director and Dr. Matthew McQueen as Deputy Director.
Today CRLB-GMEL offers biobanking, biochemistry and biomarker analysis, proteomics, genomics (including DNA sequencing, gene expression and epigenetics), metabolomics and bioinformatics. It is home to the largest research biobank in Canada and has supported more than 100 PHRI studies.
Our Mission
To be a state-of-the-art facility supporting the pursuit of excellence, innovation and exemplary professional standards in research, with a commitment to the highest level of customer service and quality assurance management.