Dr. Robin Poole is presently Scientific Director Emeritus of the Canadian Arthritis Network, a National Centre of Excellence which he helped found in 1998 to unify and promote discovery and translation of new knowledge to improve the care of patients with arthritis. Dr. Poole received his BSc degree 1961 and his PhD degree in 1969 from Reading University, U.K. Following early research in microbiology (in industry) and on cancer, in 1970 he was invited to join a research group at the Strangeways Research Laboratory in Cambridge, England working on cartilage degradation in arthritis. In 1977 he moved to Montreal to the Shriners Hospital and McGill University to create, and become director of a new research laboratory (The Joint Diseases Laboratory) working on arthritis. At McGill, he established an international research group funded by the Medical Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Shriner’s Hospitals, industry and the National Institutes of Health, USA. The successes of his research on the pathobiology of inflammatory and degenerative joint disease, focusing on cartilage degradation in health and disease, has led to numerous awards. These include the Kappa Delta Award of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons/Orthopedic Research Society; the Howard and Martha Holley Research Prize in Rheumatology and the award of Master, both from the American College of Rheumatology; the Carol Nachman International Research Prize in Rheumatology; Honorary Doctor of Science degree, Reading University, England; Lifetime Achievement Award of the Osteoarthritis Research Society International ; President, 6th World Congress of Inflammation Research Associations; President, Canadian Orthopedic Research Society and Professor Emeritus at McGill University on his retirement from the laboratory at the Shriners Hospital in December, 2005. He has also worked in an advisory capacity with the FDA, USA. Dr. Poole's research has resulted in 232 peer reviewed papers and 93 reviews/book chapters. His work on molecular markers of joint damage in arthritis has led to their commercialization and use in research and drug development in academia and industry.