Pascal Mayer recipient of the 2024 Gairdner Award

Dr. Pascal Mayer, co-founder and CEO of the company Alphanosos and Honorary Chair at USIAS, has been named as one of the five recipients of the 2024 Canada Gairdner International Award.

Along with professors Sir David Klenerman and Sir Shankar Balasubramanian of the University of Cambridge, Dr. Mayer received the award 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. For this seminal contribution Pascal Mayer also received the prestigious Breakthrough Prize in 2022.

The other 2024 Canada Gairdner International Award laureates are Dr. Zelig Eshhar and Dr. Michel Sadelain, who have each been recognised for their research into Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, a type of cancer immunotherapy which uses genetically altered T cells to locate and destroy cancer cells.

The Gairdner Foundation, established in 1957, is dedicated to fulfilling James A. Gairdner’s vision to recognize major research contributions to the treatment of disease and alleviation of human suffering. Through the prestigious annual Canada Gairdner Awards, the Foundation celebrates the world’s most creative and accomplished researchers, whose work is improving the health and well-being of people around the world.

• More information can be found at the Gairdner website.