Center of Excellence in Orphan Disease Research - Courtois Foundation (CERMO-FC)

The Center of Excellence in Orphan Diseases Research – Fondation Courtois (CERMO-FC), founded at UQAM, brings together  58 researchers from UQAM and outside UQAM, with complementary interests in biomedical and biopharmaceutical research. The center has given itself the following missions:

1. To support translational research approach using diverse technology platforms, providing the opportunity to create new collaborations among members working in transdisciplinary areas. These infrastructures include platforms of:

2. Through research, develop knowledge on orphan diseases in order to identify therapeutic targets to improve patient care, monitoring and quality of life, especially in children, and prepare the next generation of researchers in this field through education and training.

Together, the members of CERMO-FC work on :

Blood, immunological and Infectious diseases (16)

Fanconi anemia

Leishmaniasis

Malaria

Polycythemia vera

Congenital toxoplasmosis

Herpes simplex virus encephalitis

Leukocyte adhesion deficiency

Melioidosis

MALT lymphoma

Immunodeficiency due to selective anti-polysaccharide antibody deficiency

AL amyloidosis

Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma

Dengue fever

Secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis

Zika virus disease

Super-gonorrhea

Cardiovascular and Respiratory diseases (6)

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy

Cystic fibrosis

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia

Primary pulmonary hypoplasia

Tetralogy of Fallot

Pleural mesothelioma

Cell organelle-associated (including ribosomes) and inherited metabolic diseases (24)

Amyloidosis

Blackfan-Diamond anemia

Krabbe disease

Berardinelli-Seip congenital lipodystrophy

Mucolipidosis type II

Mucolipidosis type IV

Mucopolysaccharidosis type 1

Mucopolysaccharidosis type 2

Niemann-Pick disease type C

Prader-Willi syndrome

Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome

Shwachman-Diamond syndrome

Treacher-Collins syndrome

TMEM70-related mitochondrial encephalo-cardio-myopathy

Dyskeratosis congenital

Microvillus inclusion disease

Wolfram syndrome

Congenital lactic acidosis, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean type

Glycogen storage disease due to glucose-6-phosphatase deficiency type Ib

Juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses

Myelodysplastic syndrome associated with isolated del(5q) chromosome abnormality

Hereditary North American Indian childhood cirrhosis

MEDNIK syndrome

Rare diabetes mellitus type 2

Muscular diseases (10)

Proximal spinal muscular atrophy

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2b

Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy

Steinert myotonic dystrophy

Congenital muscular dystrophy with integrin alpha-7 deficiency

Congenital muscular dystrophy, Ullrich type

Congenital myopathy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Congenital muscular dystrophy due to dystroglycanopathy

Autosomal recessive myogenic arthrogryposis multiplex congenita

Neural crest and Ocular diseases (8)

CHARGE syndrome

Hirschsprung disease

Norrie disease

Familial exudative vitreoretinopathy

Waardenburg-Shah syndrome

Colobomatous microphthalmia

Retinopathy of prematurity

Vitreoretinopathy

Neuronal diseases (22)

Autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay

Occipital horn syndrome

Menkes disease

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Early-onset autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease

Isolated anencephaly/exencephaly

Bowen-Conradi syndrome

Autosomal recessive primary microcephaly

Atypical Rett syndrome

Serotonin syndrome

Corpus callosum dysgenesis-hypopituitarism syndrome

Myelomeningocele

Early-onset schizophrenia

Rare non-syndromic intellectual disability

Distal hereditary motor neuropathy, Jerash type

Familial congenital mirror movements

Arnold-Chiari malformation type I

L1 syndrome

Familial Alzheimer-like prion disease

Juvenile amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

RNF13-related severe early-onset epileptic encephalopathy

Al-Raqad syndrome

Reproductive system diseases (5)

Gestational trophoblastic neoplasm

Gestational choriocarcinoma

Rare malignant breast cancer

HELLP syndrome

Gestational trophoblastic disease

Skeletal diseases (6)

Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia and spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia

Holt-Oram syndrome

Arthrogryposis multiplex congenital

Yunis-Varon syndrome

DOORS syndrome

Genitopatellar syndrome

Skin diseases (3)

Cowden syndrome

Epidermolysis bullosa simplex

Peutz-Jeghers syndrome

To learn more about research projects done at CERMO-FC, please visit the Research Projects page.

CERMO-FC New’s

History of activities of CERMO-FC 2018-2019

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What is an orphan disease?

An orphan disease is a pathology that does not have effective therapies, mainly due to the lack of knowledge. These diseases are usually rare, each affecting less than one person in 2000. The small number of cases seen in the clinic also complicates the diagnosis. These rare / orphan diseases are more than 7,000 in the world, 80% of which are of genetic origin. Other causes include infections or intoxications. Most of these diseases are life-threatening and about 75% affect children. According to the Regroupement Québécois des Maladies Orphelines (RQMO), close to one in 20 people would be infected or have a rare disease in Quebec, which is about 500,000 Quebecois. While identifying the genes involved in rare diseases greatly benefits from the Human Genome Project, much research is still needed to understand the pathogenic mechanisms and develop therapies.

Do you have an orphan disease or are you a caregiver?
Get more information about your disease by contacting RQMO.