Tribute to Dr. Anthony Pawson

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research wish to pay tribute to Dr. Anthony Pawson, who sadly passed away on August 7, 2013.

Born in Maidstone, England, in 1952, Dr. Pawson was educated at Winchester College and the University of Cambridge, where he received an MA in biochemistry.  He received a PhD from King's College London, in 1976.  From 1976 to 1980, he pursued postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley. From 1981 to 1985, he was Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Pawson was a Distinguished Investigator and former Director of Research at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital, as well as Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, both of which he joined in 1985.

Dr. Pawson’s research has revolutionized the understanding of signal transduction – the molecular mechanisms by which cells respond to external cues and communicate with one another.  He identified the phosphotyrosine-binding Src homology 2 (SH2 domain) as the prototypic non-catalytic interaction module.  SH2 domains serve as a model for a large family of protein modules that act together to control many aspects of cellular signaling.  Dr. Pawson’s work is a demonstration of the importance of investigator-initiated research.  His findings on how cells communicate have had a profound impact on biomedical science, particularly in such fields as immunology and cancer research.

The winner of numerous awards for his research, including the Gairdner Award (1994), the CIHR Michael Smith Prize (2003), and the Kyoto Prize (2008), Dr. Pawson was widely viewed as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Medicine. 

On behalf of Canada's health research community, we offer Dr. Pawson's family our deepest condolences.