Our Story

In 1992, Dr. Michael Hayden envisioned a world-class venue for advanced genetic research employing the best and brightest minds from around the world. The ideal setting, he believed, would be a new type of 'research centre without walls'—one that is affiliated with a leading research university, teaching hospital and industry partner, and linked globally to other prominent scientific institutions.

return to topFOUNDING PARTNERS

Four founding partners played a critical role in the creation of CMMT: Merck Frosst Canada Inc., the University of British Columbia, British Columbia’s Children’s Hospital, and the Government of British Columbia.

However, it was Merck Frosst’s contribution that turned the dream into a reality. In 1993, Canada’s preeminent pharmaceutical company committed $15 million to represent the largest extramural research commitment in Canada by a pharmaceutical company and also the largest in the history of their company globally. Merck later committed an additional $15 million to support the Centre, as part of the renewal. This partnership, which was successfully completed in October 2006, has helped attract a high caliber of researchers worldwide and over $70 million of external sources of R&D funding into British Columbia.

return to topA DECADE OF DISCOVERY

When the Centre moved from its initial quarters at the UBC Campus to the new CMMT building situated at the Hospital site in the spring of 1998, it was already a thriving UBC-approved research environment. As architects worked to generate the optimal physical environment for cutting-edge research, scientific papers were adorning the covers of leading scientific journals and researchers were contributing to a greater understanding of basic life processes and the impact on human illnesses such as Huntington disease and lipid abnormalities.

With 5 staff in 1995, the Centre began working to identify promising younger scientists that would share the same mission—to pursue excellence in genetic discovery for the improvement of child and family health. Between 1997 and 2002, the CMMT recruited six outstanding investigators from prestigious institutions including the US-based Jackson Laboratory, Whitehead Institute and Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Today, CMMT employs approximately 190 staff and researchers with a nearly seven times increase in funding since 1995. Over the past decade, the CMMT has emerged as a major force for change and innovation in genetics research.

return to topTIMELINE

Since the announcement of Merck Frosst's commitment to fund CMMT in September 1992, there have been a number of significant milestones in the history of the CMMT. Research advances are highlighted in bold text.