2021
Daniel Drucker
Giving back: Dr. Daniel Drucker donates Gairdner prize to establish innovation award
2021
Giving back: Dr. Daniel Drucker donates Gairdner prize to establish innovation award
Dr. Daniel Drucker continues to be recognized globally for his ground-breaking work on glucagon-like peptides that led to major advances in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, obesity and intestinal disorders. This year, Dr. Drucker – a senior investigator at Sinai Health’s Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute and professor in the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine – is a recipient of the Canada Gairdner International Award, one of the most prestigious international prizes in the biosciences.
Dr. Drucker shares the award with Dr. Joel Francis Habener, professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Jens Juul Holst, professor of biomedical science at the University of Copenhagen. In 2020, the three shared the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize.
He is donating the C$100,000 Gairdner Prize stipend to establish The Drucker Family Sinai Health Discovery Awards. Dr. Drucker sayshe hopes this new awards program will motivate colleagues across Sinai Health to pursue innovation throughout the hospital and research ecosystem.
The Drucker Family Awards will recognize innovative excellence in two categories: in-training awards and hospital-based awards.
The endocrinologist says his research story highlights the importance of basic research. It was “impossible to imagine, 30 years ago” where this work would lead, he says. In addition to new treatments for diabetes, obesity and intestinal disorders – shown to reduce heart attacks, strokes and rates of death – the research has enabled the phase III trials now underway on new treatments for liver disease and Alzheimer’s.
The latest approval, for a new treatment for obesity, came in spring 2021. “And if you take a look at the results of that therapy, you see about 15 per cent body weight loss and about 40 per cent of patients losing 20 per cent of body weight.
“That’s huge,” he says. “We’ve never had anything like that before.”
The Gairdner Award is special, Dr. Drucker says, because it’s an international award based in Canada.
“It’s always good to be recognized at home.”
With 2021 marking the 100th anniversary of insulin, Dr. Drucker says it’s a reminder that Canadians can be proud of the contributions Canadian scientists have made and continue to make to advances in global health. Those discoveries and innovations stem from basic science, he says, which needs to be a priority for government investment.
“Investment in basic science is something that the government needs to do better,” he says. “We punch below our weight in investments in science in the G7…We would do well as a nation to reflect on our priorities, whether it’s climate change or next pandemic or treating obesity and diabetes – the investment in science is a very good investment for Canada.”
