Canadians James Till, Ernest McCulloch and Charles Philippe Leblond
developed new frontier of health research

MONTREAL (November 5, 2004) - The Stem Cell Network and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) are recognizing the enormous contribution to stem cell research of James Till, Ernest McCulloch and Charles Philippe Leblond by naming an international symposium day in their honour.

The Till, McCulloch and Leblond International Symposium, held at the Sheraton Centre in Montreal on Nov. 5, will feature leading stem cell researchers from around the world, discussing the latest developments in the field.

Drs. James Till and Ernest McCulloch were recently inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame for their groundbreaking work. Till and McCulloch were the first to prove the existence of stem cells more than 40 years ago while working at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto.

"Practically nothing existed prior to that information they laid out. Their work was an act of creation. It was brilliant. It was true discovery," says Norman Iscove, one of Canada's leading stem cell researchers and a Stem Cell Network investigator. He says the world of science owes a debt to the two men.

"All of the concepts that they worked on in the 1960s - that you could quantify stem cells, that the definition of a stem cell was a cell that could self-renew, give rise to more of itself and also give rise to differentiated progeny - all of that has stood the test of time," says Dr. Alan Bernstein, President of CIHR.

Dr. Charles Philippe Leblond, also a member of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, developed a technique called autoradiography in the 1940s, which allowed researchers for the first time to track how cells evolve. He also described the phenomenon of continuous cell renewal. Dr. Bernstein calls the work of Dr. Leblond a "huge step" in scientific research. It showed "remarkable insight." "It's easy to look back 50 years later and take for granted autoradiography. There was a time when, even conceptually, it was unheard of to do that kind of research."

Among speakers at the first Till, McCulloch and Leblond Symposium are Dr. Peter Andrews, University of Sheffield, UK, coordinator of the International Stem Cell Initiative, an effort by 14 countries to evaluate all of the embryonic stem cell lines in the world in order to develop a standard for identifying and defining these cells; Dr. Thomas Graf, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, a renowned researcher in leukemia; Dr. Derek van der Kooy, a University of Toronto researcher who discovered stem cells in the eye. Van der Kooy recently made headlines for the discovery of insulin-producing precursor cells in the pancreas; Dr. Eric Meslin, Director of the Indiana University Center for Bioethics.

About CIHR: The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is the Government of Canada's agency for health research. Its objective is to excel, according to internationally accepted standards of scientific excellence, in the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for Canadians, more effective health services and products and a strengthened Canadian health care system. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to more than 8,000 researchers and research teams in every province of Canada.

About the Stem Cell Network: The Stem Cell Network brings together more than 70 leading scientists, clinicians, engineers, and ethicists from universities and hospitals across Canada with a mandate to investigate the immense therapeutic potential of stem cells for the treatment of diseases currently incurable by conventional approaches. Headquartered at the University of Ottawa, the Stem Cell Network is one of Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence funded through Industry Canada and its three granting councils.

-30-

For information, contact:
Cathy Campbell
Stem Cell Network
Tel: (613) 562-5696 (phone), (613) 558-6691 (cell)

Leanne Moussa
Public Affairs, CIHR
Tel: (613) 941-3409 (office), (613) 294-2685 (cell)