Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics

The Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics (CMMT) is part of the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Medicine. The Centre is located at the British Columbia Children's Hospital Research Institute (BCCHR) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Research at CMMT is focused on discovering genetic susceptibility to illnesses such as Huntington Disease, Type 2 diabetes and bipolar disorder.
In 2008, the founder of CMMT, Dr. Michael Hayden, was named "Researcher of the Year" by the Canada Institutes of Health Research. In 2011, he was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2011 for his contributions to Huntington's Disease research.
Principal investigators within the Centre are involved in other initiatives. Dr. Daniel Goldowitz is the Scientific Director of the Kids Brain Health network (formerly NeuroDevNet), which is a Canada Networks of Centres of Excellence. The life sciences research laboratory consists of over 200 staff, eight of whom are UBC faculty members. Four of the principal investigators at the Centre are Canada Research Chairs.
Corporate history.
CMMT's development started in the early nineties with an informal discussion between CMMT's current Director, Dr. Michael Hayden, and Merck Frosst. In 1992, a $15 million commitment over five years from Merck Frosst Canada provided the initial funding for CMMT. The following year, in 1993, UBC Board of Governors and Senate approved CMMT as the first Centre in the Faculty of Medicine. That same year, the province of British Columbia pledged $9 million to build a dedicated building for CMMT.
In 1998, the current CMMT building, located at the Child & Family Research Institute on the BC Children's and Women's Hospital site was completed and the Transgenic Core Facility was established. During 1999 and 2000, the Scientific Stores Core Facility and the DNA Sequencing Core Facility were established.
Since 2000, CMMT has further expanded its facilities and services, including the addition of a Bioanalyzer Core Facility in 2003, expansion of the Transgenic Core Facility in 2005 and the establishment of the Genotype and Gene Expression Core Facility in 2006.