History & Highlights

Involvement in laboratory and clinical research of lipids, lipoproteins and apolipoproteins begins, examining their role in coronary heart disease risk assessment.

The Clinical Research Laboratory (CRLB) is established at McMaster University by Dr. Matthew McQueen and others to support clinical trials, biobanking and biochemistry testing.

Dr. Salim Yusuf is recruited to McMaster University and establishes the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI), transforming the size and scope of the CRLB.

With the launch of PHRI’s HOPE study (Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation), the CRLB expands its collection, transportation and analytical capacity to handle samples from 9,000 participants in 28 countries.

INTERHEART (almost 30,000 participants), INTERSTROKE and the ongoing PURE study bring a new storage challenge. Because studies run five to ten years, all samples move to nitrogen vapour at −160°C to −180°C — almost twice as cold as before — for long-term stability.

The Genetic & Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory (GMEL) is established as a collaboration between McMaster, PHRI and TaARI under Dr. Guillaume Paré. The GMEL conducts genetic testing and researches new methods for those tests.

The laboratory and biobank receives IQMH ISO 15189 Plus accreditation — the gold standard for medical laboratory quality management.

The CRLB and GMEL combine under a unified identity with Dr. Guillaume Paré as Director and Dr. Matthew McQueen as Deputy Director.

CRLB-GMEL becomes one of only four Canadian labs — and one of two offering the full Olink spectrum — to be certified as an Olink service provider, establishing the lab as an international leader in proteomics.

4,000,000+ aliquots of blood and urine in 62 nitrogen-vapour tanks, 100+ PHRI studies supported, and a multi-omics portfolio spanning proteomics (Olink, SomaScan, Alamar NULISA), genomics, metabolomics and bioinformatics.