Distinguished Speaker:

PROFESSOR TAK WAH MAK

Professor Tak W. Mak is the Director of the Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research in the Princess Margaret Hospital and a University Professor at University of Toronto. He was trained at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, University of Alberta and Ontario Cancer Institute.

Dr Mak’s research interests centre on immune recognition and regulation, cell survival and cell death in normal and malignant cells. He is best known as the leading scientist of the group that first cloned the genes of the human T-cell antigen receptor.

His recent works include the creation of a series of genetically altered mice that have proved critical to unravelling intracellular programmes governing the development and function of the immune system, and the dissection of signal transduction cascades in various cell survival and apoptotic pathways.

Dr Mak who sits on the board of several scientific journals and academic institutions, has extensive industrial and commercialisation experience. He was VP, Research at Amgen, the largest biotech company in the world and more recently, co-founded several biotech companies engaged in discovery and development of oncology drugs.

Dr Mak has also trained numerous researchers and scientists who are now in leadership positions in both academia and industry in Canada as well as around the world.

Holding Honorary Doctoral Degrees from universities in North America, Asia, and Europe, Dr Mak is an Officer of the Order of Canada and has been elected Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), Foreign Associate of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as Fellow of the Royal Society of London (UK). He has won international recognition in the forms of the Emil von Behring Prize, King Faisal Prize for Medicine, Gairdner Foundation International Award, Sloan Prize of the General Motors Cancer Foundation, Novartis Prize in Immunology and Paul Ehrlich Prize of Germany.