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About the Division
Experimental Medicine
at McGill was created just after the last war in
order to provide full staff membership of Ph.D.
non-M.D. investigators in the Department of
Medicine. At the beginning, nearly all of these
investigators were located in the research
laboratories of the Royal Victoria Hospital, off
campus, and with few exceptions, unable to have
access to graduate student programs. An M.Sc. and a
Ph.D. program in Experimental Medicine were
therefore established, and a set of courses (some
didactic, some seminar) at the graduate level
accepted by the Faculty of Graduate Studies. For the
first 30 years, Experimental Medicine was a
department within the Faculty of Medicine, (although
its chairman was also the chairman of the Department
of Medicine and Clinical Medicine, the latter
comprised of professors involved in clinical
practice and the teaching of medical students,
interns and residents). The anomaly of joint
chairmanship was removed in 1975 when Experimental
Medicine became a Division of the Department of
Medicine with a Director and Executive Committee.
The strength of biomedical research at McGill stems,
in no small part, from the creation of Experimental
Medicine, since this opened the way for the academic
appointment of Ph.D. investigators in the various
teaching hospitals of the university, and has led to
a strong collaboration between M.D. and Ph.D.
researchers, regarded as equals in the Department of
Medicine. Today, the majority of the staff of the
Division of Experimental Medicine work in the
research institutes of the Montreal Children’s,
Montreal General, Royal Victoria, Montreal
Neurological and Jewish General Hospitals.
Moreover, through a long-standing association
between the Institut de Recherches Cliniques,
founded by Dr. Jacques Genest, and the Department of
Experimental Medicine, investigators at the IRCM who
are professors at the Université de Montréal, are
appointed Associate Members of the Division of
Experimental Medicine, and permitted to supervise
graduate students at McGill.
Potential thesis projects in the Division of
Experimental Medicine cover a wide area of
biomedical cell, including (but not limited to) cell
biophysics, respiratory physiology, exercise
physiology, neuroscience, molecular endocrinology,
molecular oncology, cellular immunology, molecular
virology and pharmacology. Given the diversity in
thesis projects, and the large number of students
and supervisors scattered over a wide area of the
city centre and beyond, Academic Advisors have been
appointed (in each of the Institutes and Research
Centers) to follow the progress of the students. The
Advisors are instrumental in setting up and chairing
the student’s yearly thesis committee and the
comprehensive oral committee. The Advisors also
consult with the thesis supervisors and with the
Director to solve such problems, academic or
non-academic, as may arise.
The privilege of supervising graduate students in
the Division is granted by the Executive Committee
to Members and Associate Members of the Department
of Medicine holding peer-reviewed grants and judged
to have sufficient research experience. It is
mandatory for supervisors to pay students holding no
external agency, internal McGill or Hospital
Research Institute studentships or fellowships, a
stipend to cover tuition fees and living expenses
from operating or other funds. here are presently
over 200 Members or Associate Members in the
Division of Experimental Medicine. A list of
approved thesis supervisors and their research
projects is updated on a yearly basis and is
available on our web site for consultation by
students requesting admission to our graduate
programs.
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