Congratulations to Dr. Gordon Keller who was named the co-recipient of the 2021 Scientific Grand Prize from the Lefoulon-Delalande Foundation of the Institut de France.
Each year, the Grand Prize is awarded to a world-leading researcher who has made significant contributions to cardiovascular research and medicine.
The award recognizes Dr. Keller’s revolutionary work on the directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into the different cell types found in the human heart. These advances have enabled the establishment of model systems to study human heart development and disease in a culture dish. Additionally, access to unlimited numbers of human heart cells from hPSCs has provided the basis for developing new cell-based therapies to treat heart disease.
Dr. Keller, who is the Director of the McEwen Stem Cell Institute and a Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, will share this year’s prize with Dr. Christine Mummery, a prominent stem cell researcher at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. The prize is worth 600,000 Euros and will be split between the two winners.
“I am truly honored to be the co-recipient of this year’s Scientific Grand Prize from the Lefoulon-Delalande Foundation of the Institut de France along with my colleague Dr. Mummery,” says Dr. Keller. “I also extend my thanks to the extraordinary trainees in my lab who have contributed to this success and have helped move us closer to developing cell-based therapies for heart disease.”
Link to livestream (June 2, 2021 @ 9am EST): https://youtu.be/JPpn_Ugx-Uw.
Click here for the press release from the Institut de France.