Professor Stephen W. Scherer, head of research at the Hospital for Sick Children University Clinic in Toronto and professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, is this year’s laureate of the Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine. He received the award on Tuesday at the University of Debrecen (DE), the institution’s press center announced.
According to their announcement, the Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine, established in 2003, recognizes the work of scientists who have achieved outstanding results in the field of molecular medicine at the international level. Among the laureates chosen annually by the professors of the Faculty of General Medicine of the University of Debrecen are key figures in the field of life sciences, such as Craig Venter, who played an important role in the study of human genetic material, Ralph Steinman, who also received a Nobel Prize for the discovery of “dendritic cells considered the conductor of the immune system”, Sir Stephen O’Rahilly, awarded in 2014 for the discovery of genetic mechanisms responsible for obesity, and in 2023 Katalin Karikó was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Professor Scherer received his undergraduate degree in 1991 and his PhD in 1995 at the University of Toronto.
Together with his former mentor, Professor Lap-Chee Tsui, he established Canada’s first human genomics center, which functions within the framework of the Hospital for Sick Children. Professor Scherer is currently the leader of a number of important genomic researches, the beneficial effects of which are valid worldwide, they wrote. According to the professional review, Stephen W. Scherer explored the role of copy number variability within the genome in connection with various health conditions, and especially in connection with autism spectrum disorders.
unideb.hu
