Dr. Mark Henkelman receives NCIC's Noble Award for lifetime achievement
Dr. Mark Henkelman
(Photo courtesy of The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto)
Dr. Mark Henkelman was honoured recently by the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) for his role as a pioneer in medical imaging and cancer research. Henkelman received the NCIC’s prestigious Robert L. Noble Prize in August.
The Noble Prize is an annual award recognizing outstanding achievements in cancer research. The prize honours the Canadian investigator whose research in the 1950s led to the discovery of vincristine, a widely used anti-cancer drug.
In this year’s citation, the NCIC recognizes Henkelman for his contributions to the “groundbreaking development of MRI technology in Canada, the development of real-time MRI for neurosurgery and the development of innovative mouse imaging techniques.” The citation also noted his reputation as an excellent professor and mentor.
After obtaining a Masters degree in theoretical physics at McMaster University, Henkelman turned to medical research and earned a PhD in electron microscopy from the University of Toronto. As a researcher at the University of British Columbia, he pioneered the use of sub-molecular pi-mesons (pions) for cancer treatment. Pions are well-suited for radiation treatment because of their favourable depth-dose, which refers to a beam’s ability to reach the inside of the body.
After returning to Toronto, Henkelman became the first Canadian to research magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) when the Government of Ontario purchased an MRI machine, which was a revolutionary technology at the time. In 2002 he founded the Mouse Imaging Centre at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, which is home to 20 principal investigators with a wide range of expertise. Recently his research group has developed very high-resolution imaging methods to allow the rapid and precise analysis of mouse models for disease.
Over the course of his career, Henkelman’s numerous innovations in magnetic resonance imaging have led him to publish over 200 papers and established him as the most-cited imaging scientist in Canada. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the first Canadian to win the gold medal of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
“On behalf of everyone at OICR, I’d like to congratulate Dr. Henkelman on this well deserved award,” says Dr. Bob Phillips, Deputy Director of OICR. “I’m very happy to see him recognized not only for his scientific accomplishments, but for his role as a mentor. It is role models like Dr. Henkelman that make sure we keep building on past successes and strengthening our research community.”
