CENUM’s mission is to determine the causes and identify possible treatments for a wide variety of diseases that affect the brain and the nervous system, and this, all while prioritizing a neuromic approach.

To support its mission, the CENUM wants to offer researchers and clinicians from the Université de Montréal an infrastructure and a scientific environment that allow them to perform research on a global scale, based on multidisciplinary and collaborative approaches. The general objectives of the CENUM are to:

• create a critical mass of researchers and research activities that will allow for successful individual projects as well as large-scale collaborative projects;
• train the next generation of researchers and clinicians interested in neurodevelopmental and neurogenetic approaches aimed at studying the brain, the nervous system and the diseases that affect them;
• facilitate access to new technologies;
• integrate fundamental and clinical research in the domain so the work of CENUM researchers can lead to concrete results for patients.

More specifically, the CENUM intends to :

• recruit new researchers through the standard recruitment and career planning mechanisms of the Université de Montréal;
• create an environment of excellence for the training and guidance of graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and laboratory personnel by exposing them to complex projects of a multidisciplinary and often multisectorial character in the domains targeted by the Centre;
• develop international projects in collaboration with academic, governmental and private partners;
• facilitate communication between primary researchers, neurologists and psychiatrists from the various academic institutions in order to improve the transfer of knowledge and discoveries resulting from the research activities;
• develop and make accessible to CENUM members scientific platforms in genomics, microscopy, bioinformatics, animal models, etc. These platforms, essential for conducting cutting edge research in the targeted domains, constitute a major competitive advantage for the CENUM;
• organize and submit team grant applications to granting agencies in order to support the activities of the CENUM.