Trudeau Institute

 .   The Trudeau Institute, located in Saranac Lake, New York, was founded by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau in 1884 as a tuberculosis treatment and research facility.

Additional recommended knowledge

Weighing the right way

Don't let static charges disrupt your weighing accuracy

Daily Sensitivity Test

Trudeau trained as a doctor after the death of his elder brother due to tuberculosis. He himself was diagnosed with the disease in 1873. Following conventional thinking of the times, his physicians and friends urged a change of climate. He went to live in the Adirondack Mountains, initially at Paul Smith's Hotel, spending as much time as possible in the open; he subsequently regained his health. In 1876 he moved to Saranac Lake and established a medical practice among the sportsmen, guides and lumber camps of the region.

In 1882, Trudeau read about Prussian Dr. Hermann Brehmer's success treating tuberculosis with the "rest cure" in cold, clear mountain air. Following this example, Trudeau founded the Adirondack Cottage Sanitorium, with the support of several of the wealthy businessmen he had met at Paul Smiths. In 1894, after a fire destroyed his small laboratory, Trudeau organized the Saranac Laboratory for the Study of Tuberculosis, the first laboratory in the United States for the study of tuberculosis.

As new drugs became available in the 1950's to treat the disease, the Institute was rededicated as an independent nonprofit organization committed to world-class medical research.

Today, the Institute carries out basic biomedical research to identify the processes used by the immune system to combat viruses like influenza and tuberculosis, parasites, and cancer, so that better vaccines and therapies can be developed for fighting the most dangerous diseases.

The institute employs 39 full-time life-science researchers, and another 21 support staff. In 2006, it received $11.7 million in federal funding.