2004 INDUCTEE James Till, PhD Cancer, Cells, Genetics & Genomics, Leadership in Organizational Development

Canada Post issued five stamps honouring six Canadian physicians and researchers whose discoveries have saved lives and revolutionized patient care around the world

CMHF Laureates, Drs. Bruce Chown, Julio Montaner, Balfour Mount, Vera Peters and James Till and Ernest McCulloch were honoured in this stamp series.

Till and McCulloch published “Perspectives on the Properties of Stem Cells”

The article discussed the future possibilities for the use of stem cells.

James Till inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame

Ottawa, Ontario

Till remained committed to stem cell research and took of new leadership roles in health research

In 1989, Till was appointed Chair of the Joint Task Force on the Future Needs for Biomedical Research in Canada. Later, in 2001, He became chair of the Knowledge Management Committee of the Stem Cell Network.

Dr. Till’s sphere of research expanded

His areas of interest included quality of life research, clinical and epidemiological studies, research ethics, decision making behaviours of cancer patients and those at high risk of cancer, and the influence of the Internet as a source for information, support and advocacy.

Till and McCulloch published their findings in "Nature"

In the article, Till and McCulloch demonstrated that spleen colonies arose from a single cell.

For the next 15 years, Till and McCulloch pursued stem-cell research.

In particular, they explored stem cells’ ability to produce multiple kinds of cells. Their research also pointed to the possibility of isolating viable stem cells.

Till and McCulloch published their original paper describing stem cells in Radiation Research

It was the first paper to demonstrate that normal cells had a radiation sensitivity almost identical to that measured for numerous tumour cells in vitro and had an major influence in theories of radiation sensitivity.

Dr. Till joined the University of Toronto

After completing his BSc and MSc in physics at the University of Saskatchewan her undertook some of his early work with Dr. Harold Johns. Later, a postdoctoral fellowship brought him to the University of Toronto in 1957 where he was recruited by Dr. Johns to work with the Ontario Cancer Institute at Princess Margaret Hospital.