This year's speaker, Dr. Irving Weissman, was honoured with the California Scientist of the Year award in 2002.

His research encompasses the biology and evolution of stem cells and progenitor cells, mainly blood-forming and brain-forming.

Dr. Weissman’s presentation, entitled Stem Cells and Cancer Stem Cells will be held on December 6, 2004, from 4-5 p.m. in the New Lecture Theatre at St. Paul’s Hospital.

“Heart, lung and blood vessel diseases cause suffering or death in millions of Canadians each year,” said Dr. Bruce McManus, Scientific Director of the Canadian Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH) and Co-Director of the iCAPTURE Centre. “We need a much better understanding how various progenitor cells arising in places like the bone marrow or in injured tissues themselves can participate in healing.”

The Lectureship, which is sponsored by the UBC-affiliated iCAPTURE Centre at St. Paul’s, provides the opportunity for the BC scientific community to learn from recognized international research leaders.  

"The academic mission of teaching and research is central to Providence Health Care's current reality and future direction.  The Bernstein Lecture is a fine example of how Providence contributes to the academic discourse and exchange of ideas in BC's health care system," said Carl Roy, President and CEO of Providence Health Care. 

Dr. Weissman’s laboratory was the first to identify and isolate stem cells in any species, and went on to isolate the hematopoietic stem cell (the cell type that forms all other blood cells) from mice, and then later in humans.  This

amazing discovery has created novel areas for research and development for the treatment of many different kinds of cancers.

Note:  Media attending the Bernstein Lecture on December 6 are requested to meet at the St. Paul’s Hospital Information Desk by 3:30 pm.

For more information, please contact:

iCAPTURE Centre Background Information:

The iCAPTURE Centre builds on a 25-year legacy of health research begun by Drs. Jim Hogg and Peter Pare when they moved to Vancouver from McGill University in 1977. The iCAPTURE Centre now has nearly 250 personnel, including 30 nationally funded principal investigators, and numerous trainees and staff members working to solve the unknowns of heart, lung, and blood vessel diseases. The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the BC Knowledge Development Fund and their partners have awarded over $20 million to the iCAPTURE Centre at St. Paul’s Hospital for infrastructure that will help propel the team to a new level of discovery. 

The purpose of the iCAPTURE Centre is to link recent breakthroughs in genetic sciences to abnormal gene expression and to changes in the structure and function (phenotype) of cells, tissues, and organs related to the development of heart, lung, and blood vessel diseases.

Dr. Weissman Background Information:

Irving L. Weissman, M.D., is the Director of the Institute for Cancer and Stem Cell Biology and Medicine, the Karel and Avice Beekhuis Professor of Cancer Biology, as well as   Professor in the   Departments of Pathology and of Developmental Biology, and  (by courtesy) in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. Dr. Weissman was a member of the founding Scientific Advisory Boards of Amgen (1981-1989), DNAX (1981-1992), and T-Cell Sciences (1988-1992). He co-founded SyStemix in 1988, StemCells in 1996, and Celtrans (now Cellerant), the successor to SyStemix, in 2001. He is a Director and Chair of their Scientific Advisory Boards. His research encompasses the biology and evolution of stem cells and progenitor cells, mainly blood-forming and brain-forming. He is also engaged in isolating and characterizing the rare cancer and leukemia stem cells as the only dangerous cells in these malignancies, especially with human cancers. Finally, he has a long-term research interest in the phylogeny and developmental biology of the cells that make up the blood-forming and immune systems.

His laboratory was first to identify and isolate the blood-forming stem cell from mice, and has purified each progenitor in the stages of development between the stem cells and mature progeny (granulocytes, macro-phages, etc.). At SyStemix he co-discovered the human hematopoetic stem cell and at StemCells, he co-discovered a human central nervous system stem cell. In addition, the Weissman laboratory has pioneered the study of the genes and proteins involved in cell adhesion events required for lymphocyte homing to lymphoid organs in vivo, either as a normal function or as events involved in malignant leukemic metastases. Professor Weissman is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy, and the American Association of Arts and Sciences. He has received the Kaiser Award for Excellence in Preclinical Teaching, the Pasarow Award in Cancer Research, and the Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Institutes of Health. In the past four years he won the De Villiers International Achievement Award of the Leukemia Society of America, the E. Donnall Thomas Award of the American Society of Hematology for outstanding hematology research, the California Scientist of the Year Award, the Van Bekkum Stem Cell Award, the Association of American Cancer Institutes Distinguished Scientist Award, the Basic Cell Research Award of the American Society of Cytopathology, the American Diabetes Association Elliott Proctor Joslin Medal and the Society of Neurological Surgeons Bass Award. This year Dr. Weissman has been awarded the Rabbi Shai Shacknai Memorial Prize in Immunology and Cancer Research from the Lautenberg Center for General and Tumor Immunology and the Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal from the National Academy of Sciences Council. He is also the 2004 Alan Cranston Awardee from the Alliance for Aging Research and the recipient of the 2004 New York Academy of Medicine Award for distinguished contributions to biomedical research. 

Alan Bernstein Distinguished Lectureship Background Information:

Dr. Alan Bernstein, President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and an internationally renowned molecular biologist, delivered the inaugural Alan Bernstein Distinguished Lectureship in 2002. The Lectureship, presented by the UBC-affiliated iCAPTURE Centre at St. Paul’s Hospital, provides local researchers and trainees with the opportunity to learn from recognized leading researchers.

Dr. Bernstein received his PhD in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto in 1972.  Following postdoctoral work at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories in London (UK), he joined the Ontario Cancer Institute and the University of Toronto in 1974.  He has been a Professor of Molecular and Medical Genetics since 1984.  In 1985, Dr. Bernstein moved to Mount Sinai Hospital as Head of Molecular and Developmental Biology of the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute.  He became Director in 1994, a position he held until June 2000, when he was appointed the inaugural President of CIHR.  Dr. Alan Bernstein is known internationally both as a researcher and as a scientific leader.  His pioneering research in the area of cancer, hematopoiesis, and gene therapy remain landmarks in their field.  He has also made key contributions to our understanding of embryonic development and formation of the cardiovascular system, and his work has been important in advancing techniques for gene therapy and the genetic analysis of mammalian development.  He is the author of 200 refereed articles.