CCRA Exceptional Leadership in Cancer Research Award to be Renamed
Effective October 9, 2024, the CCRA Advisory Board voted to modify the Exceptional Leadership in Cancer Research to the “Philip E. Branton Award for Exceptional Leadership in Cancer Research” to acknowledge and recognize Dr. Branton’s pivotal role in the creation of CCRA and his extraordinary contribution to Canada’s cancer research community. Dr. Branton was the inaugural recipient of this award when the program was initiated in 2011.
Dr. Branton obtained his PhD from the Ontario Cancer Institute (University of Toronto) in 1972. Following post-doctoral studies at MIT with Dr. Phillips Robbins, he became an Assistant Professor at the Université de Sherbrooke, then moved in 1975 to the Cancer Research Group at McMaster University where he ultimately became Professor of Pathology and the Group’s Coordinator. He then moved to McGill University as Chair of Biochemistry (1990-2000), and in 1996 was named Gilman Cheney Professor, and eventually Professor Emeritus in 2016.
Dr. Branton was a pioneer in the study of viral oncogenesis and was one of the first scientists to show that viruses can attack tumour suppressor pathways to cause cancer. His groundbreaking work on human adenoviruses advanced our understanding of how viruses manipulate cellular processes, shedding light on critical mechanisms of cancer development with far-reaching implications for cancer therapies. During this research career, he authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications. As a respected mentor, he helped to cultivate the next generation of researchers by supervising more than 45 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
In 2000, Dr. Branton became the inaugural Scientific Director of the Institute of Cancer Research of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and served in this position until 2008. During his tenure, he played a pivotal role in shaping cancer research in Canada, including spearheading the formation of the CCRA. Through the pan-Canadian consultative approach he led with Drs. Judy Bray and Benoît Lussier, the establishment of a pan-Canadian cohort, CanPath, and a translational research stream by the Terry Fox Research Institute became the two major foci for the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer’s (CPAC) research investment once it was established in 2007. He also prioritized funding to support tumour banking and clinical trials and build research capacity in palliative/end-of-life cancer care.
While at CIHR, Dr. Branton served on the boards of the International Agency for Cancer Research (IARC), the Human Frontier Science Agency (HFSA), CPAC, and chaired the Advisory Board of the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI). He continued in an advisory capacity with TFRI after his term with CIHR finished and spent a sabbatical at Cancer Research UK in 2008-09.
In recognition of his many accomplishments, Dr. Branton was honored with numerous prestigious awards including the Canadian Cancer Society R.M. Taylor Medal (2005), the McGill Department of Oncology Lifetime Achievement Award (2014), and the McGill Medal (2015). He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013) and was named a Member of the Royal Society of Canada (2002) and an Officer of the Order of Canada (2014).