Drs. Timothy Kieffer and Lakshmi Yatham at the 2014 DMRL seminar
Timothy Kieffer, Professor, Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences and Department of Surgery and Lakshmi Yatham, Professor, Department of Psychiatry are recipients of the 2014 Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Medical Research Lecturer (DMRL) Awards.
Every year the Faculty of Medicine recognizes the outstanding lecturers in our medical research fields. Candidates from Basic Sciences or Clinical Sciences are nominated by fellow faculty members on the basis of a distinguished research career, recognition in the medical community and effective contributions to student educational growth over the past year. Nominees are selected by the Faculty of Medicine Research Council.
Dr. Kieffer is the recipient for the 2014 DMRL in the Basic Sciences category. Dr. Kieffer’s research uses a variety of approaches aimed at creating a viable, glucose-responsive source of insulin-producing cells for use in diabetes treatment. His group has also collaborated with industry to generate glucose-responsive insulin producing cells from human embryonic stem cells – work published in Nature Biotechnology and runner-up for Science’s 2014 Breakthrough of the Year.
Dr. Yatham is the recipient for the 2014 DMRL in the Clinical Sciences category. Dr. Yatham’s major areas of research include neurobiology and treatment of bipolar disorder and major depression. Dr. Yatham was recently featured in Thomson Reuter’s The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds: 2014 as the most highly cited researcher in psychiatry/psychology in Canada and as one of the top 100 in the world.
Acceptance of these two awards will take place at the Distinguished Medical Research Lecturers Event held on February 18, 2015 at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health. This event is open to all faculty members and students as a part of the Leaders in Medical Discovery Series. At this event, Dr. Kieffer will be sharing his research, “Cell Based Therapy for Diabetes,” and Dr. Yatham will be providing an overview of his research, “Translational Research in Bipolar Disorder.” The event has now taken place and a recording of the presentation is now available.