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Transcript
Distinguished Visitor Programme Prof Tak Wah Mak Professor, Dept of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Ontario Cancer Institute, Princess Margaret Hospital Biography Prof. Mak received his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1972 from the University of Alberta after completing undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin. Since 1974, Prof. Mak has been a senior staff scientist at the Ontario Cancer Institute/Princess Margaret Hospital. He has also been a member of the Departments of Medical Biophysics and Immunology at the University of Toronto since 1984. In 1997, Prof. Mak was appointed as a University Professor. From 1991-1993, he was Head of the Division of Cellular and Molecular Biology at the Ontario Cancer Institute/Princess Margaret Hospital. From 1993-2002, he was the Vice President of Research and Director of the Amgen Institute in Toronto. He has co-authored over 500 scientific papers and is a member of numerous advisory boards of scientific journals and medical centers. Research Contributions: A recipient of significant national and international awards, Prof. Tak Wah Mak is recognized worldwide for his discovery of the T cell receptor (TCR) and for the use of genetically engineered animals to understand the immune system. Prof. Mak's career as an independent investigator began in the mid-1970s with the study of Friend leukemia virus, a murine tumor virus. In the late 1970s, to satisfy a keen interest in T cell differentiation, he created a culture system to study the differentiation of human lymphoblastic cell lines in vitro. In 1984, Prof. Mak's laboratory became the first to clone the genes encoding the human TCR. This work quickly proved integral to new advances in the field of immunology, and problems that had eluded immunologists for twenty years became a chapter in history. Industrial Experience: 1984 - Founder, T cell Science 1984 - Scientific Advisory Board, Avant Autoimmune (T Cell Science) 1987 - Scientific Advisor to Johnson & Johnson Inc., Roche Inc. 1991 - Founder, Ontogen Corporation 1993 - Board of Director, Pharmia Upjohn (Declined) 1993-2002 - Director, Amgen Research 1993-2002 - Vice President of Research, Amgen Inc 1994 - SAB, Immunology Fund, Lombard Odier, Switzerland 1995-1999 - Board of Directors, Rigel Inc 2001 - Board of Directors, Affinium Inc 2001 - SAB, Aravis Venture Fund, Switzerland 2001 - SAB, Coastview Capitals, USA http://www.a-star.edu.sg Selected Honors: 1985 - E.W.R. Steacie Award, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Ottawa 1985 - Ayerst Award, Canadian Biochemical Society 1986 - Stacie Prize, Stacie Trust Foundation 1986 - Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada 1988 - Emil von Behring Prize (1988-1990) Phillips-Universitat Marburg, Germany 1989 - Gairdner International Award, Gairdner Foundation 1990 - McLaughlin Medal, Royal Society 1991 - Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research Award 1994 - Fellow of The Royal Society of London 1995 - King Faisal International Prize for Medicine 1996 - Sloan Prize, General Motors Cancer Research Foundation 1997 - University Professor, University of Toronto 1997 - Robert Noble Prize, National Cancer Institute of Canada 1997 - Alumni of the Year, University of Alberta 1997 - McLaughlin Medal - University of Texas, Galveston, Texas 1998 - Novartis Immunology Prize, Novartis Inc 2000 - Officer of the Order of Canada 2002 - Member (Foreign) of the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, USA) Lecture Abstract 13 Nov 2002 (Wed), 6.15-7.15 pm, Clinical Research Centre (CRC) Auditorium, Faculty of Medicine, MD 11, National University of Singapore, 10 Medical Drive, Singapore 117597 "Order from Disorder Sprung: Recognition and Regulation in the Immune System" "Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost" supplies a colourful metaphor for the immune system and its responses to pathogens. WIth the role of Satan played by pathogens seeking to destroy the paradise of human health, GOD intervenes and imposes order out of chaos. In this context, GOD means "generation of diversity": the capacity of the innate and specific immune responses to recognize and eliminate a university of pathogens. Thus, the immune system can be thought of as entity that self-assembles the elements required to combat bodily invasion and injury. In so doing, it brings to bear the power of specific recognition: the ability to distinguish self from nonself, and the threatening from the benign. This ability to define and protect self is evolutionarily very old. Self-recognition and biochemical and barrier defences can be detected in primitive organisms, and elements of these mechanisms are built upon in an orderly way to establish the mammalian immune system. Innate immune responses depend on the use of a limited number of germline-encoded receptors to recognize conserved molecular patterns that occur on the surfaces of a broad range of pathogens. The B and T lymphocytes of the specific immune response use complex gene rearrangement machinery to generate a wide diversity of antigen receptors capable of recognizing any pathogen in the universe. Binding to receptors on both innate and specific immune system cells triggers intricate intracellular signaling pathways that lead to new gene transcription and effector cell activation. And yet, regulation is imposed on these responses so that paradise is not lost to the turning of the immune system onto self-tissues, the spectre of autoimmunity. Lymphocyte activation requires multiple signals and intercellular interactions. Mechanisms exist to establish tolerance to self by the selection and elimination of cells recognizing self-antigens. Immune system cell populations are reduced by programmed cell death once the pathogen threat is resolved. Once paradise is regained, memory cells remain in the body to sharply reduce the impact of a second exposure to a pathogen. Vaccination programs take advantage of this capacity of the human immune system for immunological memory, sparing millions the suffering associated with disease scourages. Thus does the order of the immune response spring from the disorder of pathogen attacks, and thus is paradise preserved." http://www.a-star.edu.sg