The INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier research centre, a component of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), plays a vital role in research, training and technology transfers conducted in Quebec in the areas of human, animal and environmental health. INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier, which has approximately fifty faculty members, uses its extensive expertise in immunology and microbiology to determine the impact of infectious pathogens, cancer cells or organ transplants on the immune system, as well as to characterize various immune effector cells. The INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier research centre is renowned both locally and internationally for its biomedical expertise and represents a vital crossroad for health-related research in Quebec. Members of the Centre's team have exceptional, even unique, analytical capabilities in the fields of chemistry, microbiology and immunology, genomics and proteomics as well as molecular and cellular biology. The established credibility of the Centre's doping control laboratory played a key role in the World Anti-Doping Agency's decision to establish its headquarters in Montreal. In addition, on the strength of its expertise in immunity, infectious diseases and cancer as well as its solid experience in using animal models, the National Centre for Experimental Biology - a major project funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Quebec government - was set up on the City of Laval campus. The INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier research centre is also one of the cornerstones in the development of the City of Biotechnology and Human Health of Metropolitan Montreal, an initiative promoted by INRS.