Dr Moïse Bendayan was trained at the Department of Anatomy at the University of Montreal where he obtained his MSc (Clinical Sciences) in 1974 and his PhD (Anatomy) in 1976. His research program during his graduate studies under the supervision of Professors E. Rasio and E. Sandborn, dealt with the field of diabetic microangiopathy, studies on basement membranes and blood capillary permeability in short and long-term hyperglycemia. He then performed a 3 year post-doctoral training at the University of Geneva, Institut de Morphologie, under the supervision of Prof. L. Orci where he worked on protein secretion.

In 1979 he joined the Department of Anatomy at the University of Montreal as an Assistant Professor. In 1981-1982 he trained at the Institut de Recherche sur le Cancer, VilleJuif France, with Professor E. Puvion. Early in his training and further during his research career, he developed innovative approaches in electron microscopy cytochemistry which are known as the Immunogold techniques.

In 1983 he was promoted Associate Professor and Full Professor in 1988. In 1990 he became Chairman of the Department of Anatomy until 1997 when the Department of Anatomy joined Pathology to become the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology.

Dr Bendayan has trained 40 undergraduate and 25 graduate students, 17 post-doctoral fellows and has hosted 11 sabbatical professors from the world over. He was Invited Professor of several renowned universities and key speaker to numerous national and international conferences.

Dr Bendayan’s contributions have been acknowledged by several national and international societies such as the Canadian Society of Anatomy, the American Histochemical Society, the Gesellschaft fur Histochemie, Diabetes Québec, the Lady Davis Foundation and Premio Venezia. He was President of the American Histochemical Society and Vice President of the Canadian Association of Anatomists.

Along the years, personal and research support was obtained from different agencies such as the MRC, CIHR, FRSQ, JDRF, NIH, CDA, CFI, Diabetes Québec and others. Dr Bendayan is Editor of Progress in Histochemistry and Cytochemistry, Associate Editor of The Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry and member of the Editorial Board of many journals dealing with morphology and diabetes. Administrative activities are concentrated in academic responsibilities in cell biology and histology as well as acting as president and member of various university committees in R&D and academics. Dr Bendayan has also been president and officer of several scientific committees of the MRC, CIHR, FRSQ, Diabetes Québec and FCAR.

Dr Bendayan’s research activities are focused on the cell biology of protein secretion, blood capillary permeability and transendothelial transport of plasma proteins, development of diabetic microangiopathy and glomerulosclerosis, islet-duct-acinar pancreatic axis, entero-pancreatic axis and gastro-enteric axis in normal and diabetic conditions.

Molecular morphology is the main approach used in these research activities, as he developed established and improved innovative techniques in high resolution electron microscopy. He has published over 260 scientific original peer-reviewed articles, as senior author of publications in outstanding journals such as Science, J. Cell Biol., J. Biol. Chem., J. Cell Science, Am. J. Physiol and J. Histochem Cytochem.