Congratulations to the 2024 Canada Gairdner Award Laureates!

The 2024 Canada Gairdner Awards Gala was held on October 24 at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), filled with an incredible atmosphere of excitement and celebration. It was a memorable evening as we honored our 2024 Canada Gairdner Award laureates, recognizing their outstanding contributions to improving human health around the world. More than 400 were in attendance including dignitaries from Canada, France, the United Kingdom, government representatives, members of the scientific and academic communities and students invited by Visions of Science and Canadian Association for Girls in Science (CAGIS).

Scroll down to watch all 2024  Gairdner Award Laureate acceptance speeches!

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2024 Canada Gairdner International Awards

Awarded “For the fundamental and applied research that led to a revolutionary and affordable method to sequence DNA on a massive scale, which has dramatically accelerated discoveries in the life sciences and medicine.”

Shankar Balasubramanian, FRS

Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge

David Klenerman, FRS, FmedSci

Professor of Biophysical Chemistry, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge

Pascal Mayer, PhD

CEO, Alphanosos, Affiliated professor, University of Strasbourg

Awarded “For seminal contributions to the conception, development and application of CD19-CAR T cell therapy for cancer.”

Zelig Eshhar, PhD

Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge

Michel Sadelain, MD, PhD

Director, Center for Cell Engineering, the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Director of the Columbia Initiative in Cell Engineering and Therapy, Columbia School of Medicine

2024 John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award

Awarded “For extensive cohort-based epidemiological, environmental and clinical trial research on enteric diseases in children and their effects on life course, with significant impact on vaccine development and health policy in India and internationally.”

Gagandeep Kang, FRS

Adjunct Professor, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India; Director, Enteric, Diagnostics, Genomics and Epidemiology, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Awarded “For research on understanding how human breast milk contributes to shaping the infant microbiome and lifelong health.”

Meghan Azad, PhD

Professor, Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba; Research Scientist, Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba; Director of Science & Knowledge Mobilization, THRiVE Discovery Lab; Co-Director, Manitoba Interdisciplinary Lactation Centre (MILC); Canada Research Chair, Early Nutrition and the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

Awarded “For the development of novel approaches that combine synthetic biology, experimental evolution, and systems biology to address fundamental questions about gene function relevant to health and human disease.”

Christian Landry, Prof.

Professor of biology and biochemistry, Laval University; Canada Research Chair in Cellular Systems and Synthetic Biology