Dr. Thomas J. Hudson, President and Scientific Director of OICR, was the founder and director of the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, and Assistant Director of the Whitehead/MIT Center for Genome Research. Internationally renowned for his work in genomics, Dr. Hudson led the effort to generate dense physical and gene maps of the human and mouse genomes.

Dr. Hudson is a professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. He taught in the departments of Human Genetics and Medicine at McGill University and practiced medicine at the McGill University Health Centre - Montreal General Hospital (Division of Immunology and Allergy). He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, one of the co-founding members and the scientific director of P3G (Public Population Project in Genomics) and editor-in-chief of the journal Human Genetics.

• Ontario Health Study: A prospective epidemiological study to develop a better understanding of the risk factors that initiate or accelerate cancer
• One Millimetre Cancer Challenge:  A program developing sensitive biomarkers and imaging technologies that will detect very small tumours
• International Cancer Genome Consortium: An international collaboration that will produce the first database of genetic mutations involved in 50 types of cancer. OICR is studying pancreatic cancer and is housing the data coordination centre for the entire Consortium. It is also hosting the secretariat for the Consortium
• Genomics and Interventions: Platforms to support the research on early diagnosis, cancer screening, cancer stem cell research and clinical trials
• Informatics and Biocomputing: A platform to develop new methods to handle the large and complex datasets to be generated. It will disseminate datasets, resources and tools to the cancer research community
• Medicinal Chemistry: A platform to develop compounds that can effectively destroy cancer cells while minimizing adverse reactions in cancer patients
• Commercialization: A program to ensure therapeutic and diagnostic advances move from the laboratory to the clinical setting where they can benefit patients.