MRC/PMAC chair awarded to Dr Serge Gauthier
On June 1, 1997, having spent ten years as director of the McGill Centre for Studies in Aging, Dr Serge Gauthier, Professor in the McGill University Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Psychiatry, and Medicine, will step down to become a Medical Research Council/Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Canada (MRC/MPAC) researcher. This five-year research Chair is awarded to Dr Gauthier in recognition of his work on Alzheimers disease. Thanks to the MRC/MPAC Chair -- which is also supported by Pfizer Canada and Hoescht Marion Roussel -- Dr Gauthier will be able to accelerate the pace of clinical research on Alzheimers Disease by working in the following areas:
- the prevention of Alzheimers disease in people at risk;
- the safest and most efficient use of drugs which are soon to be approved and made available by general prescription for the symptomatic treatment of early to intermediate stages of Alzheimers disease;
- the symptomatic treatment of intermediate and later stages of Alzheimers disease with single or combination drugs therapies; and
- the symptomatic treatment of Lewy body dementia -- a combination of Alzheimers and Parkinsons diseases.
Editor of Clinical Diagnosis and Management of Alzheimers Disease (April 1996, Martin Dunitz Publisher, London) which quickly became after its release a major reference manual, Dr Gauthier is also planning educational programs for physicians and other health professionals interested in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimers disease. Together with Drs A. Burns and W. Petit, Dr. Gauthier is the co-author of Alzheimers Disease in Primary Care, a pocketbook commissioned by Pfizer International and now available for medical teaching.
Dr Gauthier intends to remain an active member of the McGill Centre for Studies in Aging and he is looking forward to a very productive five-year term dedicated to the advancement of physicians education in Alzheimers disease and the optimal use of Alzheimers-specific drug treatments.