2009 INDUCTEE Tak Wah Mak, PhD Cells, Genetics & Genomics, Infectious Disease, Allergy & Immunity, Cancer

Tak Wah Mak inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame

Montréal, Québec

To help advanced practical applications of his scientific discoveries, Dr. Mak co-founded Agios Pharmaceuticals

In August 2017, Agios’ IDHIDA was approved for cancer treatment.

Tak Wah Mak became Director of the Campbell Family for Breast Cancer Research Institute at the Princess Margaret Hospital

Dr. Mak has earned international recognition by identifying critical molecular pathways that are expressed in cancer cells which begins to explain how these cells escape normal behaviour in terms of the control of growth and death.

With support from the world’s largest independent biotech company, Amgen, Dr. Mak established the Amgen Research Institute in Toronto

He established one of the finest academic drug research centres, which have identified two novel drug targets.

Began an over 20-year period as editor of multiple leading journals in immunology

These journals included: The International Journal of Immunology; The Scandinavian Journal of Immunology; and The Immunologist.

Known as the “holy grail” of immunology, Dr. Mak discovered the structure of the T-Cell captor for antigens

His discovery remains the basis of research in 5,000 laboratories around the world.

Dr. Mak joined the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics

Ten years later, he became a full professor in both the Departments of Medical Biophysics and Immunology.

After receiving his PhD, Dr. Mak moved to Ontario to become a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto

The following year, he became a member of the senior scientific staff.