User:Microtubules/University of Toronto Department Biochemistry

Department of Biochemistry University of Toronto

University of Toronto Biochemistry Department Logo
Established	1907
Head of Department	Justin Nodwell
Academic staff	68
Undergraduates	350
Postgraduates	130
Location	Toronto , CA 43.660833°N 79.393056°W / 43.660833; -79.393056
Website	biochemistry.utoronto.ca

The Biochemistry Department of the University of Toronto is centered in the Discovery District in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its faculty includes 64 research and 4 teaching stream members. The core faculty members of the Department are located at the MaRS West Discovery Tower, the Medical Sciences Building, and the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research. It also has affiliated faculty located at SickKids, St. Michael's Hospital, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases. It is the second oldest Biochemistry Department in the world. The Biochemistry Department is part of the University of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

History

The Department was founded in 1907, making it the second oldest Biochemistry Department in the world behind the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Liverpool (founded in 1902). The first chair was Archibald Byron Macallum. Before heading the Department Macallum was in the Physiology Department and was instrumental in helping to build the first Medical Building (1902-1904). In 1919 he was succeeded by Andrew Hunter. In 1929, the Department of Zymology merged with the Biochemistry Department and that same year Hardolph Wasteneys became the new Department head.

Wasteneys helped to recruit a number of British professors to the Department including Guy Marrian whose team was the first to isolate and characterize estrogenic hormones which was then marketed as Premarin by Ayerst, McKenna & Harrison and later Wyeth. In the mid 1990s, Premarin was the most proscribed drug in the US, with global sales of $2 billion in 2001.

In 1951, Arthur Wynne became the chair. During this time, Gordon Butler conducted groundbreaking work on DNA, and helped to develop various methodologies including the purification of nucleic acids using the ‘SDS method’, the use of light-scattering to measure the molecular weights of nucleic acid polymers, and the use of gel-electrophoresis to separate nucleic acids by size. His lab help to discover DNA exonucleases, and demonstrate that 2-deoxy-D-ribose as being the sugar that makes up the backbone of DNA polymers.

Charles Hanes, who joined the Department in 1951, chaired it from 1960 to 1965. His first two graduate students were George Connell and Gordon Dixon, both of whom later joined the Department’s faculty. Connell and Dixon, along with Oliver Smithies who was working in David A. Scott's lab, developed starch gel electrophoresis. George Connell then went on to chair the Department from 1965 to 1970. After being president of the University of Western Ontario (1977 to 1983), he then became president of the University of Toronto from 1984 to 1990. In 1968, the Department moved into the newly constructed Medical Sciences Building. He also made cross-appointments to members of other departments such as the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research, and honorary appointments to research institute staff scientists, particularly at the Hospital for Sick Children (now known as SickKids). Upon Connell's retirement, contributions were made to support a seminar series in the Department that was named after him.

In 1970 G. Ronald Williams became the chair. Under his watch a Departmental Constitution was written, a Departmental Council with broad representation was established, and a graduate student organization (the Biochemistry Graduate Students Union or BGSU) was set up. He was followed by Keith Dorrington (1977-1982), and Mariam Packham who was interm chair in 1983. Packham later went on to write the history of the Department for its centennial.

In 1984 Harry Schachter, a former graduate student of Gordon Dixon, became the first chair of the Department to be located at the Hospital for Sick Children. In 1991, Peter Lewis became chair. Under his leadership the department grew to 20 core faculty with an additional 35 that were status only or cross-appointed. In 1993, he oversaw the installation of a one of the largest NMR instruments in existence that was housed in the Medical Sciences Building and the recruitment of Lewis Kay who pioneered new developments in NMR spectroscopy. In 2002 Reinhart Reithmeier became chair and oversaw a further expansion of the department's faculty through the granting of cross-appointments. He also presided over the centennial celebration of the Department's founding. In 2013 he was succeeded by Justin Nodwell, who in 2017 oversaw the move of most core faculty members to the MaRS West Discovery Tower.

Notable Faculty

• Archibald Byron Macallum FRSC FRS - First chair of the department, founder of the National Research Council of Canada, advisor to Maud Menten, Clara Benson while he was in the Physiology Department and James Collip in the Biochemistry Department.
• Guy Frederic Marrian CBE FRS - His lab was the first to isolate and characterize estrogen sulfates from pregnant mares, which led to the production of Premarin.
• Gordon Butler - Contributed to new methods in the isolation and characterization of nucleic acids.
• David A. Scott FRSC FRS - Crystallized insulin, his post-doctoral fellow Oliver Smithies went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2007 . The annual David A. Scott award is given to the "best all-round Biochemistry graduate student using as criteria performance at seminars, readiness and willingness to assist fellow graduate students and staff, abilities as teaching assistant, etc."
• Charles Hanes - Developed starch gel electrophoresis.
• Jeanne Manery Fisher - First female faculty member (1940-1986, although she only rose to the rank of professor in 1948). Upon her death the Canadian Biochemical Society established the the Jeanne Manery Fisher Lecturer Award in her memory.
• George Connell OC FRSC - President of the University of Western Ontario (1977 to 1984), twelfth President of the University of Toronto (1984 to 1990).
• Gordon Dixon OC FRSC FRS - He made pioneering discoveries on protein synthesis, helped to characterize the active centers of trypsin and chymotrypsin, and made contributions to the understanding of the structure of insulin and haptoglobin proteins.
• Theo Hofmann - Enzymologist and protein structural biologist. An annual lecture in the Biochemistry Department is named after him.
• David MacLennan OC FRSC FRS - He made fundamental discoveries on how calcium is transported across the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
• Harry Schachter FRSC - Isolated and characterized the enzymes involved in protein glycosylation.
• Sela Cheifetz - Worked on the role of Bone Morphogenetic Proteins in shaping development. Upon her death a fund was created in her memory to support an annual award (The Sela Cheifetz Centenial Award) given to the most outstanding graduate student in the Biochemistry Department.
• Lewis Kay OC FRSC FRS, international member of the National Academy of Sciences - Made fundamental advancements to NMR spectroscopy.
• Julie-Forman Kay FRSC - Made fundamental advances in the understanding of intrinsically disordered proteins.
• Sergio Grinstein FRSC - Contributed to our understanding of how macrophages and neutrophils engulf bacterial pathogens.

Notable PhD & MSc. Graduate Alumni

• James Collip, CBE FRS FRSC FRCP FRCPC - Worked with Frederick Banting and Charles Best on the isolation and characterization of insulin. Served as hair of the Biochemistry Department at McGill University.
• Thomas H. Jukes - Made major contribution to the field of nutrition and later in his career helped to found the field of Molecular Evolution.
• Benjamin Schachter - PhD work on the isolation and characterization of estrogen sulfates from pregnant mares, led to the production of Premarin. The Benjamin Schachter Seminar was named in honour of him and is given every year by an alumni who has performed exception work outside of academia.
• Shelagh Ferguson-Miller, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science - She made seminal discoveries regarding the structure of membrane-bound proteins.
• Mark Glover - Chair of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Alberta.
• Jeffery L. Wrana FRSC - Made major discoveries in signal transduction in mammalian cells.
• Christopher M. Overall FRSC - Made major discoveries on protein proteolysis and developing proteomic methods.

Notable BSc Graduate Alumni

• Charles Best - Co-discoverer of insulin.
• Zena Werb
• Akiko Iwasaki

External links

• History of the Biochemistry Department at the University of Toronto