Download Distinguished Visitor Programme

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