The Story
Early in his career, Jack Gauldie decided that the study of the body's immune responses was key to understanding many human diseases. Gauldie was the first to isolate and identify interleukin-6, the molecule responsible for the body's immediate immune response to injury. Gauldie then worked to understand further the role of signaling molecules, called cytokines, in disease.
In an innovative combination of immunology and gene therapy, Gauldie has worked to use genes to stimulate the immune system to fight diseases such as cancer, arthritis, asthma and tuberculosis. He calls this approach "gene therapeutics" - the use of a gene as a drug. Gauldie's team is the first in Canada using these techniques.
In 2000, Dr. Gauldie received a $9.6 million grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to build and equip a new centre to study the treatment of cancer and other diseases through genetic manipulation. He and McMaster professor and molecular virologist Dr. Frank Graham are now co-directors of the new Centre for Gene Therapeutics at McMaster. Here researchers will work in partnership with Hamilton hospitals to explore ways of fighting disease using new molecular and genetic discoveries. Among the diseases the team will be targeting is breast cancer.
Sources: Huntsman Cancer Institute; Who's Who in Health Care; McMaster University; McMaster People, Oct 14, 1997. Photo: McMaster Newsletter.
The Person
- Birthplace
- Scotland
- Other Interests
- Past McMaster water polo coach and VP of the Canadian Water Polo Assn.
Soccer, hockey, swimming
- Title
- Professor & Chair, Deparment of Pathology and Molecular Medicine
- Office
- McMaster University
- Status
- Working
- Degrees
-
- BSc (Honours Chemistry), McMaster U, 1964
- PhD, University College, London, England, 1968
- Awards
-
- Fellow, Royal Society of Canada, 1997
- Last Updated
- December 4, 2011
- Popularity
- 30975
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