Pierre S. Haddad was trained in pharmacology at Université de Montréal where he obtained a PhD degree in 1986 under the direction of Dr Marielle Gascon-Barré. His first postdoctoral fellowship was carried out at the Institute of General and Experimental Pathology at the University of Vienna, Austria, on the ionic movements involved in cell volume regulation in liver under the supervision of Prof. Jürg Graf in 1986-1988. He continued this work in the laboratory of Prof. James L. Boyer at the Yale University Liver Center, USA from 1988-1990. He then returned to the Department of Pharmacology at Université de Montréal to establish an independent research laboratory.

Since the beginning of his career as an independent investigator, Dr Haddad developed two major areas of research. The first addressed the cellular and molecular effects of cold preservation-warm reperfusion (CI/WR) on liver cells, notably on membrane transport systems regulating cell volume, pH and calcium. The second research focus of his laboratory concerns anti-diabetic medicinal plants. Building from an initial expertise in the cellular and molecular actions of insulin on hepatocytes, he developed an elaborate platform of in vitro bioassays and in vivo animal models to thoroughly assess the antidiabetic potential of selected medicinal plants, notably from the Mediterranean region and the Boreal forest of Canada. Since 2003, he leads the CIHR Team in Aboriginal Antidiabetic Medicines. The project aims at rigorously studying plants used by Elders and healers of Eeyou Istchee (Canadian James Bay Cree) that have promising anti-diabetic potential. This multidisciplinary project involves ethnobotany, phytochemistry, nutrition, pharmacology, toxicology, clinical trials and health services and aims to prepare standardized phytomedicinal preparations to be clinically tested by Cree diabetics and integrate Cree traditional medicine into diabetes health care. His laboratory has thus become a Canadian reference for rigorous scientific evaluation of natural health products.

Actions of drugs, antioxidant vitamins and natural health products on non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. In vitro and in vivo evaluation of the bioactivity and therapeutic potential of natural health products in the metabolic syndrome and diabetes.