Premier's Summit Awards Recognize Leaders in Genomics and Lung Cancer

Ontario’s leading prize for medical research has been awarded to two Toronto investigators spanning the spectrum of discovery from fundamental research to clinical trials.

The 2008 Premier’s Summit Awards in Medical Research have been granted to renowned geneticist Dr. Stephen Scherer of The Hospital for Sick Children and leading lung cancer physician and researcher Dr. Frances Shepherd of the University Health Network.

The awards – providing $5 million over five years with half from the recipient’s academic institution – are designed to provide substantial research support to help retain and recruit top talent in Ontario.

“Steve Scherer and Frances Shepherd are exemplary international leaders in their fields,” noted award committee chair Dr. John Evans. “Their programs bring together a range of disciplines and are not only shedding light on the fundamental mechanisms of disease, but are opening new avenues for more effective treatment of patients.”

Known for co-discovering the phenomena of global copy number alternations of DNA and genes as the most common type of genetic variation in humans, Dr. Scherer leads one of the world’s busiest laboratories as Senior Scientist at SickKids, Professor at the University of Toronto and also Director of The Centre for Applied Genomics.

His group has discovered numerous disease susceptibility genes and most recently has defined genetic factors underlying autism spectrum disorder. He collaborated with human genome pioneer Craig Venter and his team at Celera Genomics to decode human chromosome 7 and to generate the first genome sequence of an individual.

"Exemplary leaders in their fields"

Dr. Scherer is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Scholar of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Council Member of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO) and Chair of Genome Canada’s Science and Industry Advisory Board.

Dr. Frances Shepherd is one of the world’s best-known oncologists and researchers in the field of lung cancer today. She is currently senior staff physician at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, where she holds the Scott Taylor Chair in Lung Cancer Research and is the site group leader for the lung cancer site. She is also Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Shepherd has been co-investigator or principal investigator in more than 80 clinical trials over 25 years. In 2002, she was part of a team at Princess Margaret Hospital credited with the first identification of gene clusters involved in lung cancer. Other trials she was involved in explored the use of adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery and the use of a new molecularly targeted therapy, which have shown improved survival rates for patients with non-small cell lung cancer. These trials have changed treatment protocols for lung cancer patients worldwide.

Dr. Shepherd has been instrumental in establishing Lung Cancer Tumour Banks and bringing together a team of basic and clinical researchers in lung cancer. She has earned numerous awards and accolades for her contributions, including the O. Harold Warwick Prize from the National Cancer Institute of Canada in 2006 and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Research Award in 2007. She received the Order of Ontario in 2007.

MORE INFORMATION

• Premier's Summit Award in Medical Research
• Science at the Summit: $5 million Premier’s Summit Awards to Toronto leaders in genomics, lung cancer research
• $5 million goes to Toronto leaders in genomics, lung cancer research

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