Participating in our Clinical Programs

How to Participate

To be eligible for Genizon's programs, all four of a patient's grandparents must be French Canadian from Quebec.

There are several ways to take part in Genizon’s gene discovery programs. You can participate as a patient in one of our clinical programs or enroll as a healthy volunteer. In addition, you can also choose to contribute to Genizon’s Biobank. The Biobank is a repository of DNA and clinical data collected from patients and healthy volunteers enrolled in one of our programs. It can be used in Genizon’s many programs to study relationships between different diseases and to enhance the likelihood of finding genes associated with diseases.

Your participation can make the difference

For more information or to participate: Call 1-888-244-0388 extension 711
Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
By email: infoparticipants@genizon.com

Why participate?

Your participation can lead to the discovery of new and improved treatments for many common diseases Participants in Genizon's gene discovery programs are potentially helping to make a tremendous difference in the lives of many people throughout the world by directly contributing to the discovery of genes responsible for the susceptibility to common diseases. These discoveries may lead to the development of new and improved therapies and medicines that have the potential to better diagnose and treat, or even cure and prevent these diseases.

Participating as an healthy volunteer is simple and confidential

• There is no need to travel - a nurse will arrange to visit you in your home
• You simply need to complete a questionnaire and provide a small blood sample
• A physical exam or other clinical tests may also be necessary
• The research doesn't involve any medication being tested

Why Genizon only recruits participants from the Quebec Founder Population

The Quebec Founder Population (QFP) is a large group (about 6 million) of Quebecers that are direct descendants of the original French founders of Quebec. The gene pool of the QFP is relatively undiluted compared with general populations, due to the historical lack of intermarriage with other groups. This has made the QFP genetically more homogeneous (or uniform) than other populations, and therefore ideal for Genizon's gene discovery programs. To learn more about the Quebec Founder Population.

How Genizon Searches for Genes

Genizon carefully selects members of the QFP who are willing to participate and qualify for a specific gene discovery program. DNA is extracted from blood samples collected from the participants. The DNA from patients is then compared to DNA obtained from blood samples of non-afflicted individuals (controls) in a genome-wide association study using hundreds of thousands of DNA markers. Because of the genetic homogeneity within the QFP, most genetic regions will not differ significantly between patients and controls. Regions that are significantly different are likely to contain disease genes. Once identified, information is collected on the disease genes from the literature or in further experiments in the laboratory. This information is used to prepare a GeneMap, which contains the ‘disease’ genes and other genes interacting within the same biological pathways. These pathways are used to find targets for the development of new drugs. To learn more about Genizon discovery platform.