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A number of our Faculty and International Advisory Board Members have received awards lately – congrats to all on these wonderful achievements!

Dame Kay Davies, an International Advisory Board Member since 2011, has been awarded the American Society of Human Genetics’ (ASHG) William Allan Award. The award recognizes substantial and far-reaching scientific contributions to human genetics, and Kay is honoured for her lifetime’s work with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder marked by rapidly progressing muscle weakness. Professor Davies’ lab was the first to identify the genetic markers that allowed for the prenatal diagnosis of the disease.

Carla Shatz, Head of the Neuroscience Faculty, has won the 2015 Gruber Foundation Neuroscience Prize jointly with Michael Greenberg, for their pioneering work on the molecular mechanisms that control brain development and plasticity. The Gruber prize has a $500,000 monetary award shared between both winners.

James Allison, Section Head in Immunology, received the 2015 Science of Oncology Award at the ASCO (Anerican Society of Cancer Oncology) for pioneering research that led to a new way to treat cancer by unleashing an immune system attack. Allison’s research on T-cell response mechanisms and cancer’s evasion of attack by the immune system led to the clinical development of ipilimumab to block CTLA-4 and its approval as a melanoma treatment.