Michel L. Tremblay (McGill University)

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Michel L. Tremblay - biochemist, James McGill Professor, Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Centre, Jeanne and J.-Louis Levesque Chair in Cancer Research, President elect of the Canadian Academy of Science - received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa on the 10th May 2022.

Photo : Michel L. Tremblay © McGill University
Michel L. Tremblay © McGill University

Born in 1957, Michel L. Tremblay is a distinguished professor in the Departments of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology and Oncology at McGill University. He is one of the world’s leading experts on the role of protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) in cancer, diabetes and obesity.

Research, collaboration, distinctions

After his Ph.D. at McMaster University, he pursued his postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, in the field of embryonic stem cells. There he established the first animal model of a human disease produced by the use of stem cells (Gaucher disease). In 1992, he became an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry at McGill University and cloned the genes for several new protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) involved in several human diseases. Since his recruitment to McGill University in 1992, Professor Michel L. Tremblay’s research has focused on the mechanisms of action and modulation of PTPs family, notably in cancer. In 2007, he received the “Discovery of the Year” award from the journal Québec Science for his work on breast cancer.

He was the founder and Director of the Goodman Cancer Research Centre at McGill University from 2000 to 2012. During this period, he served on the executive committee of the “Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ)”. Named as a James McGill Chair and the Jeanne and Jean Louis Lévesque Chair in Oncology, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2007.

Following a sabbatical year in 2012 as a visiting scientist at the Institute for Research in Immunology (IFReC) at Osaka University, he returned to his laboratory full time to continue his research on PTPs and to establish the McGill Regenerative Medicine Network.

Named “Chevalier de l’Ordre du Québec” in 2015 for his outstanding contribution to scientific research, he is one of the rare Quebec scientists having been honoured with two “Prix du Quebec”; “the Armand -Frappier Prize in 2013 and the Wilder-Penfield Prize in 2021”. Furthermore, he received the prestigious McLaughlin medal of the Royal Society of Canada.

Holder of more than 15 patents and author of more than 200 publications in the field of PTPs, Michel Tremblay is the founder of two biotechnology companies based on his research expertise. He is an internationally recognised expert in this field of research which he continues investigating at McGill. This coming fall he will have the great honours to become president of the Academy of Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada.

The DHC for Prof. Tremblay was proposed by Andreas Bikfalvi, professor, senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France.