A New Direction for Research

Now, Papadopoulos’s nose for promising possibilities has led him to the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), where he has been named the new Scientific Director of the MUHC’s Research Institute (RI MUHC). “I’d reached a point at Georgetown where I felt I’d accomplished all my goals, so I was looking for something new,” he says. “The MUHC had everything I wanted: excellent scientists, an international reputation, a city with two major medical schools and a thriving biotechnology industry. On top of that, with the redevelopment project, it offered an opportunity to be part of the largest medical infrastructure renewal in the country. Really, it wasn’t a difficult choice.”

Papadopoulos is replacing outgoing director Emil Skamene, who was responsible for creating the RI MUHC in 1999 as a single administrative body governing the MUHC’s nearly 500 researchers. Organized around 11 key research axes – Cancer; Cardiovascular Diseases and Critical Care; Endocrinology, Diabetes, Nutrition and Kidney; Health Outcomes; Human Reproduction and Development; Infection and Immunity; Medical Genetics and Genomics; Mental Illness and Addiction; Musculoskeletal Disorders; Neuroscience; and Respiratory Health – the RI MUHC is designed to encourage a seamless continuum between basic science and clinical research, and to generate opportunities for researchers from pediatrics to geriatrics and across departments, disciplines and sites to work together on important scientific problems.

“Dr. Skamene did the hard work long before I got here,” Papadopoulos says with a smile. “He oversaw the merger process and laid the groundwork for everything the RI MUHC will need to remain competitive with the world’s great medical research institutions.” For Papadopoulos, the successful execution of the merger was a promising signal of how scientists at the MUHC work. “I know from my own experience that these kinds of administrative mergers can be tough on everyone. It’s a testament not only to Dr. Skamene’s leadership but to all of the meaningful collaborations that were taking place at the time that the MUHC made the transition function so well,” he says, also pointing out the contribution of Dr. Phil Shuster, who filled the role of Acting Scientific Director in the year between Dr. Skamene’s retirement and Papadopoulos’s appointment. “Good leadership and good people working together is at the heart of excellent science, and I could see right away that that’s what the MUHC had.”

This combination of individual initiative and creative collaboration has been a part of Papadopoulos’s career since his early days as a PhD student at France’s Pierre et Marie Curie University, where he studied after graduating in pharmacy in Greece. There, he began to question the basic biological mechanism of how cholesterol moves across cell membranes, a research direction that, as he recalls, raised some eyebrows among his colleagues and advisors. “At that time, no one saw any potential in this problem, which seemed too elementary to yield anything interesting. But I had an intuition that there was something to it, so I kept going. As it turns out, we now understand that a huge range of biological activities, from the production of steroids that affect brain function to the way cancer cells proliferate, are all regulated in some way by this movement of cholesterol. It’s part of the basic economy of nature that even has implications for plant biology.”

As his research has evolved over more than a quarter of a century, Papadopoulos has collaborated with colleagues in molecular biology, genetics, oncology, neurology, endocrinology and just about every specialty in between. He has also worked across the whole scientific spectrum, from the lab to the bedside. His research has been recognized internationally with a long list of awards and grants, and his list of peer-reviewed publications runs to the hundreds.

The MUHC's Research Institute is one of the only places in the world where researchers can follow a person from pediatrics to adulthood in one place. And wer'e building one of the most exciting and ambitious new centres in North America.

With such a stellar reputation, it was a given that Papadopoulos would continue to pursue his own work while balancing his administrative responsibilities as the RI MUHC’s scientific director. In fact, as he sees it, the two spheres of activity go hand in hand. “All of my experience has taught me that to successfully run a research facility, you need to be a scientist. You need to speak the same language as researchers, know how they think, and understand their priorities within the institution as a whole. The fact that I’ll run my lab and have relationships with fellow scientists around the world will only help me be a better advocate for the Institute’s staff. It will also play an important role in informing my ideas about the direction I think the MUHC needs to go.”

That direction, according to Papadopoulos, involves continuing the process begun by Skamene of creating a strong international research identity for the MUHC within the McGill system. “Health care research at the highest levels involves a synergy between a top-tier university, a dynamic hospital centre and the clinical researchers who practise there,” he explains, likening McGill University, the MUHC and the RI MUHC to the three sides of an equilateral triangle. “Within that triumvirate, the clinical researchers at the Institute play a unique and integral role. At the RI MUHC, we’re on the front lines of defence against disease. We’re not discovering scientific mechanisms and then looking for a medical application, we’re starting with the real problems of patients, with the diseases we treat every day. This is what hospital researchers do best, and we need to work with our partners at McGill to promote this work both within the institution and beyond.”

Papadopoulos acknowledges that, because the RI MUHC is a relatively new entity, forging a strong individual identity for it is a gradual process. He maintains that if the RI MUHC takes a leading role in creating innovative programs, building core research facilities that are well staffed and equipped and fostering team projects that make the most of its diverse expertise, the Institute’s reputation will inevitably blossom. “Researchers don’t spend a lot of time thinking about communicating their work. We’re a modest bunch,” Papadopoulos says. “If we lead by example, and if we discipline ourselves to inform our colleagues of all of the exciting things we’re doing, we’ll get the word out there that the RI MUHC is a major player.”

A second pillar of Papadopoulos’s vision is to make the most of the possibilities arising out of the MUHC’s redevelopment project, which is in the process of creating a physical environment for research that mirrors the forward-thinking administrative structure that is already in place. “At the new Glen and Mountain campuses, researchers at the MUHC will be working in a more integrated environment than ever before. Basic scientific labs and animal testing areas will be adjacent to the clinical environment, allowing PhDs and MDs to work side by side on collaborative projects. One of our most unique strengths is our pediatric-to-geriatric mandate. At the Glen, researchers investigating diseases across all age groups will be steps away from each other and in easy contact with their colleagues at the Mountain.”

Papadopoulos also speaks with enthusiasm about the Centre for Innovative Medicine (CIM), which will be the centrepiece of the Institute’s facilities at the Glen and will give the MUHC a far greater capacity to conduct the kind of large-scale clinical research that allows promising discoveries to become new treatments and cures. “The CIM is like a hospital within a hospital designed just for clinical trials,” he explains. “Instead of trying to squeeze clinical research activities into our existing clinical structures, we’ll be able to work with them inside the CIM, either as in-patients or outpatients. Researchers, nurses, trial administrators and technicians will be able to work comfortably together and with the patients without burdening the space or equipment in the main areas of the hospital.” With more clinical trial capacity, the RI MUHC will advance our understanding of disease, test more of its discoveries in-house and benefit from the scientific recognition that comes with bringing breakthrough discoveries closer to market.

At the same time as he and his colleagues are looking optimistically toward the redevelopment’s completion, Papadopoulos is making sure that the MUHC’s talented researchers have what they need during the transitional period to do their best. “I’m in the process of meeting with people from across the RI and the MUHC to put together a strategic plan for how we’ll move in tandem with the hospital toward the redevelopment. A key element will be recruitment: attracting and retaining the world’s finest researchers in exciting emerging fields like regenerative medicine, and making sure that our hiring priorities fit in with the clinical needs of the hospital.” Papadopoulos takes pains to mention his positive relationships with MUHC Director General Dr. Arthur Porter, McGill University’s Dean of Medicine, Dr. Richard Levin, and Vice-President of Research, Denis Therrien, with whom he works closely in making these key decisions.

As Papadopoulos’s international reputation demonstrates, great researchers know how to take a fantastic initial idea, nurture it patiently and methodically, find the right people to complement their strengths, and deliver that idea to the world at the moment when it will have the greatest benefit. This is what the Research Institute is allowing the MUHC’s researchers to do today, and it is what the redevelopment will enable them to do even better. It is also what Papadopoulos intends to do with the RI MUHC as a whole during his tenure. “Not only do we have incredible people working in nearly every important disease area, the RI MUHC is one of the only places in the world where researchers can follow a person from pediatrics to adulthood in one place. And we’re building one of the most exciting and ambitious new centres in North America.” Papadopoulos smiles, “You don’t need a PhD to see the benefits in that.”