Dr. Barbara Vanderhyden is a Distinguished Professor and holds the endowed Corinne Boyer Chair in Ovarian Cancer Research at the University of Ottawa. She is a highly accomplished scientist who has made significant and paradigm-shifting discoveries in ovarian biology and ovarian cancer. She has shown exceptional leadership and commitment to advancing health science research by chairing several key committees and research advisory boards, including the Ovarian Cancer Canada OvCAN Governing Council. She is a tireless advocate for health research who conceived and developed extensive and ...

Professor, University of Alberta

Lorne Tyrrell is a Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Alberta and served for 10 years as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry until 2004. He currently holds the ClHR/GSK Chair in Virology at the University of Alberta. In 1986, with Dr. Morris Robins, he began working on a system to identify potent antivirals against hepatitis B virus (HBV) which infects about 400 million people worldwide. Through their work they discovered several potent antivirals against HBV and this resulted in a major collaboration with Glaxo Canada (now GlaxoSmithKline). The ...

Professeure titulaire, Faculté des sciences infirmières, University of Montreal

Dr. Bilkis Vissandjée is a Full Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Montreal. She is a researcherat the SHERPA frontline research Centre, the Montreal Centre for International Studies, and the Centre for Public Health Research funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQS). Alongside national and international partners, her research work's focus is to address the challenges associated with providing accessible, equitable, and quality care within a diversified socio-cultural context while taking into account the complex intersection of gender, migration ...

Professor at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary

Dr. Weiss' ground breaking discoveries in neuroscience have led to new approaches for brain cell replacement and repair as well as pharmaceutical research for neurological disease therapies. Dr. Weiss is also the inaugural Director of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary, which has rapidly gained national recognition as a centre of excellence, focused on translating innovative research and education into advances in neurological and mental healthcare. For his leadership, creativity, commitment to education, and the advancement of research and innovation, Dr. Weiss has ...

Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research

Aubrey Tingle was the Founding Director of the BC Research Institute for Children’s & Women’s Health where he oversaw the development of research support services, strategic scientific goals, financial support and research policy development. Earlier in his research career, Dr. Tingle established a research program in viral causation of arthritis and diabetes using rubella virus as a model system. He helped head an international group in rubella virus biology, diagnosis, adverse reactions and public health policy. Dr. Tingle was founding chair of the Coalition for Health Research in BC, an ad ...

Professor Antonio Strafella is an internationally renowned neurologist and Krembil-Rossy Chair whose work has led to significant advances for understanding the neurobiology of symptoms associated with a devastating neurological disease, such as Parkinson's disease. His ground-breaking research has led to great scientific discoveries, helping to define important motor and non-motor features that impact significantly on the health and quality-of-life of these patients. Dr. Strafella's commitment for excellence and knowledge advancement is greatly contributing to promoting ...

Professor Suissa is an internationally-renowned pharmacoepidemiologist and leader in the study of real-life medication effects. His landmark paper on the use of inhaled corticosteroids in preventing asthma mortality profoundly altered the way physicians treat asthma and had a major impact on reducing asthma mortality worldwide. The author of over 350publications, Dr Suissa was the recipient prestigious awards from Universiteit Utrecht and CIHR's Distinguished Scientist. He was awarded a multimillion dollar grant by CIHR to create and head the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect ...

Professor, McGill University

Szyf received his Ph. D from the Hebrew University and did his postdoctoral fellowship in Genetics at Harvard Medical School, joined the department in 1989 and currently holds a James McGill Professorship and GlaxoSmithKline-CIHR Chair in Pharmacology. He is the founding co-director of the Sackler Institute for Epigenetics and Psychobiology at McGill and is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Experience-based Brain and Biological Development program. Szyf has been the founder of the first "Pharma" to develop epigenetic pharmacology "Methylgene Inc." and the first journal ...

Dr. Stelfox is an internationally recognized intensive care physician, scientist, educator and healthcare system leader. He is a leading expert in the use of applied health services research methods to improve the care of critically ill patients. He has extensively contributed to academic health sciences by leading provincial, national and international efforts to build applied research capacity, create new health service delivery knowledge and translate that knowledge into better patient care. He has successfully trained multiple scientists and clinicians and mentored early career academic ...

Professor, Division of Neurology, University of Alberta

Director of the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases and holder of a Tier 1 CRC in Prion Diseases, David is the President of the Alzheimer's Society of Alberta and Northwest Territories. His work has defined the family of cellular prion proteins in mammals, genetic susceptibilities to prion disease and new laboratory models for Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.