Dr. Schimmer graduated from medical school at the University of Toronto and completed specialty and subspecialty training in internal medicine in and hematology. He subsequently pursued research training and received his PhD in Molecular Biology in followed by post-doctoral training at the Burnham Institute in San Diego, California,

Dr. Schimmer is the President and Scientific Director of OICR, a Professor in the departments of Medicine, Medical Biophysics, and Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist and a Staff Physician at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network. Dr. Schimmer was previously the Director of Research at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and he is a Past President of the Canadian Hematology Society.

Dr. Schimmer’s clinical practice is focused on treating patients with acute leukemia and related disorders. His laboratory research focuses on developing new therapeutic strategies for leukemia by targeting dysregulated mitochondrial pathways in leukemia stem cells. Dr. Schimmer is the author of over 320 publications with over 27,000 citations and is an inventor on over 20 patent applications. He has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada, Association of American Physicians, American Society of Clinical Investigation, Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and was named Scholar in Clinical Research by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.