Last night, three UHN researchers were honoured with three of the four Premier's Summit Awards given to Ontario researchers to recognize their significant contributions to medical research.

Over the next five years, five million dollars in funding will go towards each project: Dr. John Dick's investigation into cancer stem cell properties, Dr. Tak Mak's research into the design of new tumour-targeting drugs, and Dr. Peter St George-Hyslop's new program in exploring diagnostic testing and repair methods for neurodegenerative diseases. The fourth award recipient was Dr. Anthony J. Pawson from Mount Sinai Hospital.

Dr. John Dick, a Senior Scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute, is a pioneer in the field of cancer stem cell biology. He has made numerous breakthroughs throughout his career, including in leukemia and hematopoietic stem cell biology. Dr. Dick's work has been published in many highly prestigious scientific journals, including Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology and PNAS. He has also won numerous national and international awards, including the National Cancer Institute of Canada's Robert L. Noble Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research, the Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Biology and the American Society of Hematology's William Dameshek Prize. In his Summit Award-winning project, Dr. Dick will examine the distinctive genes found in cancer stem cells, as well as the integrated processing of pathways that govern cancer stem cell properties.

Widely regarded as an international leader in medical research, Dr. Tak Mak's best-known discovery is the cloning of the human T cell receptor, critical for understanding how the immune system works. Having made large strides in immunology and genetics research, Dr. Mak is now focused on cancer. He is the Director of the Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research, and has received many accolades, including the Gairdner International Award and the Sloan Prize. Dr. Mak's most recent project, which is based on the elimination of alternative energy sources from cancer cells, has won him a Summit Award. This research, which will explore the design and efficacy of tumour-specific drugs, has the potential to produce more effective and less toxic cancer therapies.

Dr. Peter St George-Hyslop, the Director of the Toronto Western Research Institute at UHN, is a leading authority on Alzheimer's disease (AD). Between 1985 and 2000, he discovered five genes associated with AD, and he has also made significant contributions in the fight against other genetic diseases, including Parkinsons disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrigs disease) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. His innovative research has earned him deep respect from his peers around the world, and he has been honoured as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society of London, as well as with three Howard Hughes Foundation International Scholar Awards.

His Summit Award-winning project, which is in partnership with the University of Toronto, focuses on the creation of a Centre for Brain Repair. This Centre will utilize new methods of tracking and monitoring neurodegenerative diseases, including brain imaging probes to measure the accumulation of disease-causing toxic proteins, and novel techniques of brain tissue repair.