Dr. Daniel Drucker receives 2021 Canada Gairdner International Award

Drucker, a senior investigator at Sinai Health’s Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute (LTRI) and a professor in the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, is part of a three-person team to be recognized for their research on glucagon-like peptides that led to major advances in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, obesity and intestinal disorders. 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, also share the award.

“I am extremely pleased and grateful that the Gairdner Foundation has celebrated our collective studies of the glucagon-like peptides as an important biomedical advance,” said Drucker. “This is wonderful recognition not just for the three of us, but for the hundreds of trainees and colleagues who have worked over decades to build a solid scientific foundation enabling translation into new medical therapies.”

The Gairdner Foundation was established in 1957 by Toronto stockbroker James Gairdner to award annual prizes to scientists whose discoveries have had major impact on scientific progress and on human health. Since 1959 when the first awards were granted, 394 scientists have received a Canada Gairdner Award and 92 to date have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize.

Sinai Health Foundation is pleased to announce that Dr. Drucker is donating the Canada Gairdner International Prize stipend to establish The Drucker Family Sinai Health Discovery Awards.

As a scientist who has always been inspired to innovate and conduct research aimed at identifying new discoveries, Drucker said he hopes this new awards program will motivate colleagues across Sinai Health to think outside of the box.

“Every day, thousands of talented individuals walk through our doors, and many of them have terrific ideas for improving the way we are doing things, in all corners of the hospital and research ecosystem,” said Drucker. “I hope the new Discovery awards will foster and promote a culture of innovation throughout Sinai Health.”

The Drucker Family Sinai Health Discovery Awards will recognize innovative excellence in two categories: in-training awards and hospital-based awards. In the first category, one in-training award will recognize a graduate or post-graduate trainee doing discovery based research at the LTRI. The second will recognize a clinical trainee who has demonstrated innovative excellence in research.

The second category will recognize innovative excellence across Sinai Health and will be open to individuals and teams from both patient facing and non-patient facing areas. All forms of innovation with the potential to meaningfully impact human health, patient care, or the efficiency of health-care delivery and hospital operations will be eligible.

For more on Dr. Drucker’s incredible research in the special diabetes edition of Sinai Health Magazine, click here.