As director of the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, which he established, Hudson and his team have made a number of discoveries in human genetics.
Then, he did residencies in internal medicine and Clinical Immunology and Allergy, the latter at McGill University Health Centre.
In 1990, after a year of postdoctoral experience under the supervision of Emil Skamene and Danuta Radzioch, he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a fellowship with David Housman.
He supervised a large team of engineers, biologists, computer scientists to build high throughput PCR systems.
His most important discoveries include the identification of genes involved in the development of Type II diabetes, susceptibility to leprosy, multiple sclerosis, asthma and inflammatory bowel disease.
His team findings also include rare disease mutations such as the genes for spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS)[4] and Leigh syndrome French-Canadian Type (also known as lactic acidosis),[5] that affect many families from the Saguenay region, of which he is a native.
[7] Hudson remained acting scientific director of the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, until his successor Mark Lathrop succeeded him in 2011.