STEM CELL NETWORK SUMMER 2006 VOLUME 5, NUMBER 1 FATHERS OF THE FIELD How two quiet Canadians changed the course of history in biological research. CRITICAL MASS AHEAD OF THE CURVE A CANADIAN A pioneering past and a culture of Finding the way inside the ‘black box’ COMES HOME collaboration combine to make Toronto of cancer, Dr. John Dick has changed One of America’s leading researchers a world leader in stem cell science. our understanding of how to fight takes up a new challenge in the city the deadly disease. where he began his brilliant career. WWW.STEMCELLNETWORK.CA The mission of the Stem Cell Network is to be a catalyst for realizing the full potential of stem cell research for Canadians. STEM CELL NETWORK Frank Gleeson, Chair, Board of Directors Dr. Michael Rudnicki, Scientific Director Dr. Janet Rossant, Deputy Scientific Director Drew Lyall, Executive Director Cathy Campbell, SCN Communications Lori Barron, SCN Communications Joe Sornberger, Writer CONTACT US AT: 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5 Tel: (613)562.5696 Fax: (613)562.5631 Website: www.stemcellnetwork.ca Publication Mail Agreement Number 40664504 The contents of this publication may be reprinted or used in radio or television without permission. However, a credit is requested. In print, please send a copy to the Stem Cell Network. STEM CELL NETWORK TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome to Toronto - Dr. Michael Rudnicki .......................................1 Critical Mass .................................................................................2 The Fathers of the Field .................................................................8 A Canadian comes home - Interview with Dr. Gordon Keller ...............14 The world’s best feel right at home ..............................................15 On the Cover: Ahead of the curve - Interview with Dr. John Dick .............................17 ”Fathers of the Field” Why I work in Canada - Interview with Dr. Mike Bhatia ....................19 Dr. James Edgar Till and Dr. Ernest Armstrong Business is good...........................................................................20 McCulloch have forever changed the course of Pull-out Map of Toronto...............................................................23 scientific research in the field of biology Cover photo credit: Critical Mass Lucas Oleniuk/Toronto Star Toronto is fast becoming the hub Pg.8 of stem cell research. What’s making this metropolis so attractive to the scientific communtiy? Pg.2 The world’s best feel right at home Canada’s history of achievement, coupled with attractive programs such as the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Canada Research Chairs initiative have made the country a magnet for the world’s best and brightest young stem cell scientists. Pg.15 Stem Cell Network two pioneers. Canadians have led advances in the understanding of adult stem cells, of neural, mus- cle, retinal and pancreatic stem cells. We have probed the cellular beginnings of leukemia and other cancers. We have done groundbreaking work in the root causes of Parkinson’s and degenerative muscular diseases. And we are looking deeply at cardiovascular disease and stroke and applying our stem cell expertise there. This is remarkable because while Canada is a big country, we do not have a big population. While many of our top stem cell scientists WELCOME TO work closely together in Toronto, many more are spread across the breadth of the country, TORONTO co-operating on outstanding projects in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria. This is possible because the culture of collaboration Dr. Michael Rudnicki, Scientific Director, that was initiated by Drs. Till and McCulloch Stem Cell Network and nurtured by those who followed was formalized with the creation of the Stem Cell n behalf of the Stem Cell Network, I am Network. We have succeeded in defeating Odelighted to welcome the members of the geography by bringing together leading thinkers International Society for Stem Cell Research in different locations and different disciplines to Toronto. to find ways to fight diseases that have baffled science for too long. It only seems fitting that the ISSCR’s first conference outside of the United States should But the science of stem cells transcends all be here in Canada. As the pages of this special borders.The ISSCR and this conference stand edition of our newsmagazine show, this is as proof of that. Stem cell science remains, where it all began – thanks to the pioneering in many ways, an emerging field that brings work of Drs. James Till and Ernest McCulloch. together investigators working in many diverse More than 40 years ago, they proved the exis- areas. Consequently, the sharing of knowledge tence of stem cells and launched a whole new and information is critically important towards field of scientific endeavour. advancing our field. We are delighted to have delegates from around the world visit Toronto, We are very proud, too, of the fine work that has and look forward to what promises to be an been carried on by “the descendants” of those unrivalled ISSCR conference. ❧ Page 1 Stem Cell Network STEM CELL NETWORK By Joe Sornberger y now, the story is legend. It is also true. On a CRITICAL MASS BSunday afternoon in 1960, Dr. Ernest ‘Bun’ McCulloch dropped in at his old Ontario Cancer There’s something unique about Toronto. Institute (OCI) lab to collect some specimens. He noticed that “bumps” on mice spleens correspond- There’s the history, of course. The ed with the bone marrow cell doses given to the ani- mals.The next day, he showed the results to his bio- pioneering work done at the Ontario physicist partner,Dr.James Edgar Till, and they set Cancer Institute by Drs. James Till and to work, calling call the bumps “spleen colonies.” By 1963, they had published a definitive paper in Ernest McCulloch proved the existence Nature that showed the colonies were created by single cells with “multipotent” properties. Stem of stem cells. But it’s more than that. cell science had begun. The spirit of collaboration they instilled Largely unheralded for years, their remarkable has carried forward, so that four decades achievement was recognized last year with the Lasker Award, North America’s highest honour for later it is stronger than ever.It has made medical science research. Drs. Till and McCulloch, however, did much more than just start the science Toronto – and Canada – one of the best of stem cells.They established an ethos.They created places in the world for stem cell science. a culture of collaboration that, more than 45 years later,has kept Toronto and Canada at the forefront of stem cell research. “It’s interesting, how an ethos develops in an insti- tution and how that can permeate in the long term,” says Dr. John Dick, a Canada Research Chair and Director of the Stem Cell Biology Program at Toronto General Research Institute, which is part of Toronto’s University Health Network. “I would argue that it was really the way that science was done, the principles of the scientific process that people like James Till, Ernest McCulloch, Lou Siminovitch and some of the other leaders in Toronto practised at that time.They did science in its purity and with openness. They imbued that in their trainees, so that we’re now living by the principles that they set down 40 years ago in terms of how we operate and how we function.” Stem Cell Network Page 2 It’s exciting to be part of it.There is so much going on, intellectually. People are now centralized instead Phillips, President and CEO Ontario Cancer of being scattered all over. New Research Network, have recruited and men- tored a brilliant collection of stem cell scien- people are coming in and new money tists. More importantly, they’ve nurtured that is being poured in from donors. It’s original culture of collaboration. great. It’s the classic thing of being “People would rather collaborate than com- pete,” says Dr. Dick, who counts Drs. Bernstein in the right place at the right time. and Phillips as his mentors. “That creates a very open atmosphere. It means students can Dr. Freda Miller, Senior Scientist, SickKids Hospital easily move from one lab to another.They can get information – nobody’s holding on to infor- mation tightly because they’re worried that someone’s going to scoop their latest data. When you can talk about your latest idea before you’ve done any experiments, that cre- ates a legacy that is enormous. Of course, the Stem Cell Network is a part of that. But I think it’s also something unique about Toronto.” Certainly Toronto has the critical mass for collaboration.Within a five-minute walk of the University of Toronto are four major teaching hospitals (Princess Margaret, Mount Sinai, SickKids and Toronto General), each with affiliated research institutes that are all very large and very active. Dr. Freda Miller Dr. Janet Rossant, Chief of Research at The people who worked with or trained under SickKids and an internationally recognized Drs. Till and McCulloch and Siminovitch, the expert in developmental biology and stem latter a pioneer in the study of genetics in cells, says that ethos of collaboration in Canada, have gone on to do seminal work in Toronto, and across Canada, “really enhances the field of stem cell science. People like Dr. our ability to have an impact. Alan Bernstein, who was supervised by Dr.Till at OCI and who now is President of the “I like to think about the issues around cancer Ottawa-headquartered Canadian Institutes of stem cells,” says Dr.Rossant, who was recruit- Health Research (CIHR), Dr. Ron Worton, ed to come to Toronto by Dr. Bernstein. “John founder and first scientific director of the Dick, of course was the person to really iden- Canada-wide Stem Cell Network, and Dr. Bob tify that leukemias, blood-borne cancers, have Page 3 Stem Cell Network STEM CELL NETWORK stem cells that really are the ‘bad guys’ in the cancer.